I can't think of any time Jesus said, "...just kidding" or "gotcha!" It seems though that a lot of our knowledge and theology is based on both "just kidding" and yea verily, even "gotcha!" You can also throw in, "what Jesus REALLY meant..." followed by a description that serves as a projection of our own sensibilities.
A couple weeks ago I heard somebody explain the wedding feast at Cana. This was Jesus' first public, recorded miracle. The explanation they gave was notable for the complete absence of apologies given for the fact that Jesus created wine. The guy telling the story said, "Do you realize that these people had been drinking for the better part of a week? And that after that, Jesus created something over 130 GALLONS of wine?? What are we to conclude from this? Well, at least one thing for sure: Jesus likes a party!" (And if you've heard that the wine that people drank back then was really cut with water, please be advised that there is exactly zero serious scholarship to support that premise.)
I'm going to second the "Jesus likes a party" part as being the primary point of that miracle. There are other things going on as well; being around Jesus seemed to be a pretty full experience. However, I think the major point there is that he likes to have fun himself and he REALLY likes to see other people having fun and he LOVES it when everyone, including him, is having fun together.
If time permits, read some of the Leviticus laws on sacrifice. It would seem that God really enjoys a good barbecue as well. Note how many times the burnt offerings are described as a "sweet smelling savor." Pay attention to how many times at the end of this or that cycle of sacrifices everyone sits down and eats the sacrifice. I did not catch this until a very few years ago. God was inviting his kids to a party even back then. And just as an aside, I think when you consider the dogma and ritualistic thing this became, it's easy to understand how things got and continue to get confused.
We get confused sometimes about what was said in the Bible. And too often we don't get confused at all; we just don't like what we read so we ignore it or make up theology about it. Or maybe even the worst case is that we like to project onto Jesus things that make us comfortable. Would Jesus ever let us suffer for our own good or maybe for the good of others? If you have a knee jerk reaction to that, saying "No, never!" consider how the Apostles lived and died. I don't think we were made for comfy chairs.
I think we're prone to hearts and minds that wander from this reality because we don't really believe what the bible says about God's Spirit coming to live in us when we ask him to...and we REALLY like being comfortable and completely unchallenged. We tend to think of that as an experience, maybe as a ritual or maybe as just an intellectual concept wrapped in a nice metaphor, depending on our theology. We sure don't seem to take it seriously for the relationship that it is.
Part of the good news in this though is that God gets how we are...which makes sense since he made us. He's pretty patient when we don't talk to him for a long time and he doesn't get mad when we only call on him when we're in a bad way. I should throw in "usually" a place or two in that sentence, because sometimes he can get a little angry with us...well at least I can think of few times he's been unhappy with me. My experience of his "unhappy" is not particularly pleasant but I will say that I'd rather be spoken to harshly by God than to be complimented or praised by anyone else. I don't think I've ever seen him really mad and he does get that way. Remember, Jesus often got angry with the Pharisees and when the God of the Old Testament got going he could be pretty fierce.
I conclude all of the above from two facts. One is biblical record. The other is my experience of God which is completely consistent with point one. We really don't need more than these two. I think the problem is we often don't embrace both or either of them.
I have every confidence that we will go on projecting on to God our preferences and desires. Whether that's a teetotaling God of prohibitions, a God of grace extending to bacchanalia or a systematic system of systemology, we'll do our level best to shove him into an image that we find comfortable and comforting. However, God is a patient, he is real and he is waiting. And he is in ridiculous love with us. If we stay with it, he will not let us not slip away.
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