# Story Time Jesus Story Time Jesus is an image macro series from early 2012 that lays gossipy, modern-slang captions over a Lars Justinen painting of Jesus teaching a group of disciples. Redditor iamhusband posted the first one on February 1, 2012 with a walking-on-water version, and within days it jumped to Tumblr and half a dozen humor blogs, becoming one of that year's breakout LOL Jesus formats. ## Origin The image macro series began on February 1, 2012, when Redditor iamhusband posted an entry titled 'Introducing Story Time Jesus' to r/AdviceAnimals[3]. The first caption retold Matthew 14:22-33, the Gospel account of Jesus walking across the Sea of Galilee and pulling a sinking Peter out of the water[2]. The thread pulled 696 upvotes, a net score of 461 points, and 16 comments before archiving[3]. The underlying painting is The Parable by American illustrator Lars Justinen, whose devotional artwork has been widely reproduced in Christian publishing[1]. Neither Justinen nor his studio was involved in the meme, and iamhusband appears to have selected the painting purely for the composition: Jesus's outstretched hand and the disciples' rapt faces read perfectly as a story being told to a small audience. - **Platform:** Reddit (r/AdviceAnimals) / Tumblr (viral spread) - **Creator:** iamhusband (Reddit) - **Date:** 2012 ## Overview The format pairs a single reverent oil painting, Lars Justinen's The Parable, with two-line captions written in the voice of a gossiping teenager retelling a Bible story to friends[1]. Justinen's image shows Jesus mid-sentence with a semicircle of disciples leaning in, which is exactly the framing the joke needs: the top caption sets up something mundane like a party or a walk, and the bottom caption pivots into the actual miracle, delivered as juicy hearsay[2]. The humor rides on the mismatch between the solemn devotional painting and the flippant modern voice, which treats miracles like weekend anecdotes ('so this dude tries to walk out to me...you'll never guess what happened'). It sits inside the wider LOL Jesus family alongside Jesus is a Jerk and Raptor Jesus, but Story Time Jesus is narrower: the painting never changes, and the punchline is always a real Gospel episode reframed as smug bragging by Jesus himself[3]. ## How It Spread The format moved fast on Reddit. On February 2, 2012, the day after iamhusband's post, user fouzzz submitted 'Story-time Jesus' party miracle,' a version riffing on the wedding at Cana, which drew close to a thousand points overall on a swing of roughly 4,900 upvotes against 3,900 downvotes[4]. Within a week, more than 40 additional Story Time Jesus entries had been posted to r/AdviceAnimals and over 146 versions had been uploaded to Quickmeme[6]. The jump to Tumblr came through Los Angeles illustrator Mike Mitchell, who posted a Story Time Jesus version of Mark 2:1-12, the healing of the paralyzed man lowered through the roof, on his blog Sir Mitchell. That single post picked up more than 5,100 reblogs and likes in its first five days[5]. From there the format landed on humor and internet-culture sites through February 2012, including Uproxx[7] and Blame It On the Voices[8], with International Business Times later folding it into an Easter-week roundup[9]. Coverage continued into the rest of 2012, with additional galleries appearing on The Meta Picture[10] and other aggregator blogs[3]. A dedicated Facebook fan page for the series was set up in July 2012, though it never gathered a large following, indicating the meme's peak was concentrated in that first spring rather than a long tail[3]. ## How to Use A Story Time Jesus macro typically uses two lines of white Impact text over Justinen's painting. The top line opens with something casual like 'So I'm chilling at this wedding' or 'So this dude wants to walk out to me,' and the bottom line delivers the miracle as a punchline in the same voice, often ending on a smug beat[4]. The convention is to pick a specific, well-known Gospel episode (water into wine, feeding the 5,000, healing the paralytic) and keep the payoff recognizable, since the joke depends on readers catching which miracle is being retold[5]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Story Time Jesus? It is a 2012 image macro series that overlays gossipy, modern-slang captions on Lars Justinen's painting The Parable to retell famous Bible stories as if Jesus were bragging to friends[1][3]. ### Where did Story Time Jesus come from? Redditor iamhusband posted the first Story Time Jesus macro to r/AdviceAnimals on February 1, 2012, retelling Matthew 14's walking-on-water miracle[3]. ### What does Story Time Jesus mean? The joke is a tonal mismatch: a reverent devotional painting is paired with a smug, casual first-person voice that reframes canonical miracles as weekend anecdotes[5]. ### How do you use Story Time Jesus? Pick a well-known Gospel episode, write a two-line caption in Impact over Justinen's painting with a casual setup on top and the miracle as a punchline on the bottom, keeping the payoff recognizable enough that readers catch the reference[6]. ### Is Story Time Jesus still popular? Its peak was February 2012 on Reddit and Tumblr, with additional coverage through 2013; it is treated now as a classic entry in the LOL Jesus lineage rather than an active format[3][9]. ## References 1. [https://www.larsjustinen.com/painting4.html]() 2. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+14%3A22-33&version=NIV]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/story-time-jesus]() 4. [http://qkme.me/35vphg]() 5. [http://blog.sirmitchell.com/post/16948909719/story-time-jesus-is-my-new-fave-meme]() 6. [http://www.quickmeme.com/Story-Time-Jesus/]() 7. [https://www.uproxx.com/webculture/2012/02/meme-watch-story-time-jesus/#page/1]() 8. [https://www.blameitonthevoices.com/2012/02/meme-alert-story-time-jesus.html]() 9. [http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/451820/20130330/holy-week-celebration-jesus-reflection-fun-photo.htm]() 10. [http://themetapicture.com/story-time-jesus/]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/story-time-jesus Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library