You could hear a whisper. Anywhere in the 17,000 seat theater the actor’s voice was clearly audible. The outdoor amphitheater at Epidaurus was built 400 years before the time of Christ but somehow the ancient audio engineers mastered perfect acoustics so that all could hear every word of the drama unfolding on stage. Dave and I recently returned from Greece, a trip we had planned for 2020 that was postponed many times due to covid. Finally, we went. My mind was repeatedly boggled by the advanced technology, creativity, and philosophy of the ancient Greeks. At this theater, we stood in the very back row and our tour guide stood center stage. Then she whispered and we could both hear every word with perfect clarity. How did they do that!?!

But even more astonishing to me was the purpose of the theater at Epidaurus. When you watch a stage play you laugh and you cry. Your emotions are released. And so this theater was more than entertainment. The purpose of the show was healing, or at least one step in the healing process. After attending the theater, ancient Greeks would journey forward to the other facilities in the healing center: the baths, the music hall, the gymnasium, the temple, the snakes (ick)  the surgical rooms (imagine cataract surgery in 400 BC – yikes). Folks would travel here as pilgrims in search of healing and would stay for a length of time where the god of healing and medicine was revered. Obviously, we have advanced tremendously in the healing arts but maybe we still have something to learn from the idea that the mind/body/soul is healed in a holistic way that includes laughing and crying.

Our scriptures confirm this link between laughing/crying and wholeness/spiritual vitality. “There is a time to weep and a time to laugh” (Ecclesiastes 3:4). Jesus, who interspersed preaching with healing, calls those who would follow him to love God and one another with all our strength, mind and soul. For Jesus, faithfulness to God was more than intellectual belief. It was a way of life. Jesus wept. And Jesus told some parables that surely made them laugh. The Psalmist writes “weeping may linger in the night but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5).

The next time I sit down at a theater, I will remember that the laughter and the tears that are evoked are holy, and part of how we are made new.

With prayers for laughter and tears to flow freely for you all,

Carla