Lincoln's pithy sayings

[Juan Marrero]

Not to overdo the "Lincoln as a Secular Christ" figure, but I wonder if there may be a parallel in Jesus and AL's use of humor as a teaching tool. I once heard a preacher suggest that some of Jesus' more enigmatic and toubling sayings were actually "jokes" with a purpose. The camel attempting to go through the eye of a needle, asking the the dead to bury the dead, the cursing of the fig tree, plucking the sinning eye would all make more sesne (and less alarm)if viewed as a type First century Jewish humor that used exageration and absurdity as comic devices. "Physician heal thyself" would be a more obvious example of this. So, bringing it back to Lincoln, I wonder if his thoughtful reading of Scriptures informed his own use of humor to make a broader point.