I’ve liked the comedy of Bob Newhart since the early 1960s, when he became well-known with his bestselling comedy album “The Button Down Mind of Bob Newhart.” While I also liked his TV shows over the years, I think my favorite thing of all is his tobacco skit. In it Newhart plays the role of a British government official who is receiving a long distance telephone call from Sir Walter Raleigh, who is in the colonies. Raleigh is telling him about this marvelous thing called tobacco, but we only hear Newhart’s side of the conversation. “You say this tobacco is a leaf and you’re sending us a ship full of it. You know we have leaves here in England.” (pause) “So finely chopped tobacco is called snuff, you put it up your nose, and then you sneeze? Of course.” (pause) “So you can also roll it up in paper. What do you do then?” (pause) “You put one end in your mouth and then set it on fire?” Well, Newhart does it better, and you can see the skit on YouTube. The humor comes from the fact that to someone with no knowledge of tobacco, Raleigh’s description is incredulous.

Let’s write a new skit for Newhart. The year is 32 AD and he is on the phone with a friend who is an enthusiastic, new follower of Jesus. Again we only hear Newhart’s side of the conversation. “You say the Messiah, the King of the Jews, is a carpenter from Nazareth? Has anything good ever come from Nazareth?” (pause) “And he was born in a stable?” (pause) “He got his start by being dunked in the Jordan by his cousin who wears camel hair clothes and subsists on locust and wild honey?” (pause) “Did you say he wants us to love our enemies and even give money to Caesar?” (pause) “So, many of his followers are fishermen, but he wants them to fish for people?” (pause) “We’re supposed to feed sheep?” If you suspend your knowledge and belief in the whole story of Jesus and consider these statements in isolation, they all sound incredulous. Of course, it wasn’t these facts that brought followers to Jesus; it was his message such as told in the Sermon on the Mount and in his parables. As an aside, maybe it’s good now and then to think about how the Gospel story we tell sounds to someone who’s never before heard it.

The above imaginary conversation takes place before the most incredulous part, the end of the story, and without the end of the story Jesus would have been just the provider of good words to live by. We have a God who sent His son to earth to live a human life, experiencing all that we experience, to suffer intense pain from the worst torture, to die an agonizing death on a cross, and to rise from the dead – all to remove our sins and guilt. This wonderful culmination of the story would also be hard to believe if all we had was one side of a telephone conversation, but fortunately, we have the words of millions who over many centuries have felt their sins relieved. This is how God showed His unconditional love for YOU and me.

Jim