Thin Worn Images
Last week I was listening to Here and Now on NPR. The host, Terry Gross, was interviewing Bart Ehrman, who has just written a book called Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible. Ehrman is the chair of religious studies department at the University of North Carolina; below I’ve included a link to his bio page, and one to the NPR story. During the interview he cited many “inconsistencies” that he had found in the Gospels. Most were petty and even if proven true, do nothing to change the ideas behind the gospel. However one of his examples troubled me and challenged me to do some research.
He claimed that the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Luke portray two different pictures of Jesus during His crucifixion. Mark, says Ehrman, shows a humble, quiet and suffering Jesus who just before death says “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” (Mark 15: 34)
Luke, however, shows Jesus, less humble, even triumphant. He speaks many times while on His way to Golgotha and on the cross. First, Jesus speaks on to women who mourned for Him. (Luke 23:28-31) And then to the second robber who was also crucified that day. (Luke 23:43) Finally Jesus shouts “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:40) upon his death.
Ehrman’s point was to show that the Gospels are inconsistent with one another. I think this is to further the overall point of his book which is that scribes throughout the ages have manipulated and changed the scriptures so that what we now call the Bible and what so many people trust in, is inaccurate and unreliable.
Not able to answer his challenge off the top of my head, I read both accounts. While I didn’t see the glaring contradiction that he portrayed, I did see that there were obvious differences, and that the character of the man approaching the cross is slightly different in the two books.
After considerable thought I began to realize that in this case contradiction is allowable. Mark, in writing about a man beaten and suffering is writing about Jesus the man, His flesh and blood. Luke is writing about Jesus, the Son of God. Mark’s point was to show us that Jesus suffered, as any man would on a cross. However Luke shows us that while Jesus suffered, as a man, he was victorious as God. Thus this contradiction is consistent with the contradiction of the whole gospel. Jesus was man and God. As a man, He was perfect, something He could only be, if He was God. And as God, he suffered, so that my sins, and those of the world would be forgiven.

I'm having a hard time making my links work, if anyone can help me with this please do. For now you'll have to copy and paste.
NPR interview
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5052156

Bart Ehrman
http://www.unc.edu/depts/rel_stud/faculty/Ehrman1.html

Here is my favorite poem by C.S. Lewis, enjoy.

“The Apologist’s Evening Prayer”

From all my lame defeats, and oh much more
From all the victories that I seem to score;
From cleverness shot forth on Thy behalf
At which, while angels weep, the audience laugh;
From all my proofs of thy divinity,
Thou, who wouldst give no sign, deliver me.

Thoughts are but coins. Let me not trust, instead
Of Thee, their thin worn image of Thy head.
From all my thoughts, even from my thoughts of Thee,
O thou fair Silence, fall, and set me free.
Lord of the narrow gate and the needle’s eye,
Take from me all my trumpery, lest I die.