Wondering About ‘The Rest of the Story’

Do you remember Paul Harvey’s “The Rest of the Story”? In his long-running radio series, the popular news commentator told stories about a variety of people and subjects. A key element in each story would be withheld until the surprise ending, and then Harvey would always close with the tag line, “And now you know…the rest of the story.”

 

Reading the Bible, sometimes I’d like to know ‘the rest of the story’ about people we meet in its pages, particularly those who appear at significant moments in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. This came to mind recently while reading the account of Jesus and His disciples in a boat on the Sea of Galilee when, “Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat.” 

 

Exhausted from a busy day of teaching and ministering to the crowds, Jesus had fallen sound asleep, so the disciples woke Him up: ““Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!’ He replied, ‘You of little faith, why are you so afraid?’ Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm” (Matthew 8:24-26).

 

Amazing as that was, the same account in the gospel of Mark provides additional information: “Leaving the crowd behind, [the disciples] took Him along, just as He was, in the boat. There were other boats with Him” (Mark 4:36). Apparently, there were “other boats” on the sea at the time. So, we can assume that people in those boats also were terrified by the storm. 

 

Did they experience the same miraculous calming of the sea? And if so, how did they react? In His inspired Word, God chooses not to give us that information. We do learn how the disciples marveled at how Jesus caused the roaring sea to subside with just a few words, and that’s probably all we need to know. But it’s interesting to ponder how folks in those other boats might have responded.

 

The Bible doesn’t tell us everything there is to know about God and Jesus Christ. How could it? But it does tell us everything we need to know about the Father and the Son, which is challenging enough in striving for a stronger, more consistent walk with the Lord.

 

In concluding his gospel, the apostle John declares, “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written” (John 21:25).

 

This is one reason I find “The Chosen,” the groundbreaking film series about Jesus and some of His closest followers, so compelling. Through creative imagination, it presents plausible back-stories for key figures like brothers Peter and Andrew, Mary Magdalene, James and his brother John, Thomas, Nicodemus the Pharisee, and even a Roman centurion. We might describe Dallas Jenkins and his team as reverently reading between the lines.

 

Wouldn’t you like to know ‘the rest of the story’ about the rich young ruler we read about in Matthew 19, Luke 10 and Mark 10? He approached Jesus and inquired, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life” (Matthew 19:16). Can you imagine a modern-day evangelist being asked this question? He or she would quickly pull out the “Four Spiritual Laws” or open the Bible to the “Romans Road,” hoping to lead the individual to Christ. But Jesus had a very different strategy.

 

After talking to the young man about keeping the commandments, to which he stated, “All these I have kept from my youth,” Jesus matter-of-factly told him, “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Matthew 19:20-21).

 

The fellow wasn’t expecting that! “When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth” (Matthew 19:22). Jesus didn’t chase after him and beg him to reconsider. So, what happened to him? Did he ever have a change of heart? The gospels don’t tell us. All we know is that Jesus told His disciples, “…it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God…. With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:24-26).

 

How about the individual commanded to carry Jesus’ cross to Golgotha when the Lord became too weak to bear it? Three of the gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, identify him as Simon of Cyrene, a city in North Africa. All we know about him is that his sons were Alexander and Rufus (Luke 15:21) and he had just arrived in Jerusalem. 

 

Perhaps Simon was among the onlookers when the Romans pressed him into service. How did he feel when assigned such a horrific task? Did he realize whose cross he was carrying? Did he stay to witness the crucifixion? Since Luke identifies Simon’s sons, he likely was known to at least some of Jesus’ followers. Did this unwitting cross-bearer come to saving faith in Him?

 

It would be interesting to learn ‘the rest of the story’ of many others in the gospels as well, including the Samaritan woman Jesus encountered at the well outside the town of Sychar; people with leprosy or possessed by demons; the paralyzed man lowered by friends through the rooftop of a house in Capernaum, or the man who had been blind since birth.

 

Perhaps we’ll meet some of them on the other side of eternity. But again, God didn’t inspire the Scriptures as multi-volume tomes. In the Bible’s 39 Old Testament and 27 New Testament books we don’t discover everything there is to know about God – but they provide us with everything we need to know about the Lord, and how we can have a life-changing, eternal relationship with Him.

What matters most is the rest of our own story. Will we be like the rich young ruler, who went away sad upon learning the cost of following Christ? Will we be like Nicodemus, who hovered on the fringes of Jesus’ followers, trying to figure out what to do with Him? Or will we be like Peter, Paul and others who overcame their sinful pasts to become stalwart ambassadors for the Lord?