This was sent to me as a joke, but after reading it a second time, I am not so sure. It sounds more like a parable.

A drunk stumbles upon a baptismal service on a Sunday afternoon, down by the river. He proceeds to stumble down into the water and stands next to the Minister. The minister turns, notices the old drunk, and says, "Mister, are you ready to find Jesus?"

The drunk looks at the minister, and says, "Yes sir, I am."

The minister then dunks the fellow under the water and pulls him right back up.

"Have you found Jesus?" the minister asked.

"No, I didn't!" said the drunk.

The minister then dunks him under for a quite a bit longer, brings him up and says, "Now brother, have you found Jesus?"

"No, I did not!" said the drunk again.

Disgusted, the minister holds the man under for at least 30 seconds this time, brings him up and demands, "For the grace of God, have you found Jesus yet???"

The old drunk wipes his eyes and pleads, "Are you sure this is where he fell in?"

I think most people hear a joke and take it the way they are expected to. Most people take life at face value as well, so the spiritual wouldn't be any different. The drunk could be "Anyman" not knowing Jesus. What is he supposed to look for? He hasn't the eyes to see or the ears to hear. So, how can he find the One he is forced to look for.

The Minister could represent "Religion." Assuming too much, he is ready to take whoever stumbles by as another number for his newsletter. Imagine his story of "the miracle of the stumbling drunk."

Both are blind and looking for something. The drunk is looking, but doesn't know WHO it is that he is looking for. If a scuba diver swam by, or maybe even a catfish, he might call it Jesus, and claim he found what the minister had asked him to find. With a little imagination, or maybe even a little more booze, anything in the river could have been Jesus to him.

The disgusted minister was looking only for an answer that fit what he wanted to hear. In this case, any "yes" would have allowed him to be done with the drunk and go on to whoever was next, while chalking up another number on his stat sheet. Many people would have answered "yes" in order to get the minister to leave them alone. I even wonder what the minister did next, or what would he have done with the drunk if he had answered "No, I did not" yet another time. Religion really has very little patience for what does not fit into its patterns.

Doesn't this sound like a parable of the "blind leading the blind"?