Get Our Story Straight

"We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty." 2 Peter 1:16

Recently, I served on the jury of a murder trial. The trial took eleven days, and the better part of three weeks, to wrap up. When the judge sent the jury into deliberation to decide on a verdict, something interesting occurred. Despite there being twelve of us, each individual had different things that stood out the most to us from the trial that the others either had forgotten or didn't notice. Even though we all witnessed what happened in the trial from the same angle, at the same time, there were different takeaways for each of us. One of the criticisms of the validity of the Bible is that there are differences found within each of the four Gospel writers' testimony of Jesus Christ. In an article titled, "Differences in the Gospels, A Closer Look," the author writes, "One difference involves geographical arrangement. In the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), Jesus visits Jerusalem only once during His entire ministry." He continues by saying, "John records Jesus visiting Jerusalem several times throughout His ministry (2:13-4:45; 5:1-47; 7:1-10:40; and 12:12-20:31), including an early temple cleansing (John 2:13-22)." Regarding the teachings of Jesus, the article states, "Matthew is organized around alternating blocks of Stories of Jesus and Teachings of Jesus." While Luke "places the teachings of Jesus in two large sections." There are other examples given, but you get the point. This reminds me of how when people are planning on lying about an event they usually come together in an effort to "get their story straight." When you are lying you need to "get your story straight" so people will believe it. Or, if you are forgetful, you need to "get your story straight" before explaining events. Given the fact that the Gospels were written years after Jesus Christ had ascended to heaven after the resurrection, the authors had plenty of time to collaborate on the events if they felt the need to lie or remember what happened. Yet, they didn't feel it necessary to do this. Besides, given the fact that the early church experienced tremendous persecution to the point where nearly all the original apostles experienced excruciating deaths, why would they have even bothered writing down the events of the life of Jesus if it was all a lie? As jurors, none of us felt the need to "get our story straight" because we were not lying or concerned about forgetting minor details. We just recapped what stood out to us and presented it in order to reach a verdict. But, there is one other thing that stands out in the Gospels that often never gets mentioned by so-called critics and skeptics.

There are events mentioned in the Gospels that play little to no significance to the meat of the story, but yet were mentioned by the writers. After the death of Jesus Christ, Matthew records the following event: "Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many (Matthew 27:51:53)." This is the only time in any of the Gospels that this event of the dead rising and going into town is recorded. It serves no real purpose that we know of other than to give further credence to the incredible event that was the death of God when Jesus died on the cross. Then in Mark 14, Jesus had just been arrested and His followers scattered when Mark throws in this little detail. He writes, "Now a certain young man followed Him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And the young men laid hold of him, and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked (Mark 14:51-52)." Who is this man who was following Jesus wearing nothing more than what amounts to an oversized t-shirt? Then he runs off naked after avoiding being detained? Again, this event has no significant relevance to the story of Jesus being arrested, but yet Mark thought it worthy of including in his letter. Then in John 21, we have it recorded that Jesus cooked the disciples breakfast. John 21:9-10 reads, "Then, as soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish which you have just caught."" According to John, this was the third time that Jesus appeared to His disciples after the resurrection. This is just your average story of a man cooking breakfast for his friends. It just so happens that, in this case, that man is God. You could almost see John recalling this moment by saying, "Do you remember that time Jesus cooked us breakfast?" It is just a fond memory that again has little meaning from a biblical standpoint other than to show Jesus loving on His friends. In conclusion, it doesn't make much sense if these three events are "cleverly invented stories" made up by lying Christians trying to "get their story straight" about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Like my experience with the jurors, these are nothing more and nothing less than how these men decided to tell their story about how they were eyewitnesses of the majesty of their God and Savior Jesus Christ.