Carmen Sandiego and The Mystery of the Missing Horse

Carmen Sandiego is the name of a series of educational computer games developed by Broderbund software back in the 80's.  My sons loved to play "Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego," the first game in that series.

The game followed the exploits of Carmen, a cunning international thief who committed crimes all around the world.  Each game provided a series of clues that would help the gamer find and arrest one of Carmen's accomplices. To find the clues the gamer needed to answer questions about history and geography.  It was a fun, educational game.

I thought about the game this morning after reading the story of Paul's conversion in Acts chapter 9.  I've read the story dozens of times and was sure that Paul fell from a horse after hearing the voice of Jesus and being startled by a blinding light while on his way to Damascus. But when I read the story this morning, there was no mention of a horse.  That's when "The mystery of the Missing Horse" began to take shape.

I was sure I could solve the mystery by turning to my Greek lexicon. Apparently the Bible translation I was reading didn't translate the word "horse" from the original Greek text.  But the mystery went unsolved because the original Greek text doesn't mention a horse.

Then I remembered that the story of Paul's conversion is retold in two other places in the Book of Acts (Acts 22:6-7, Acts 26:12-14). But neither of those texts mention a "horse" either. So where did I get the idea that Paul fell from a horse on his way to Damascus?

It turns out that one of my favorite paintings "The Conversion on the way to Damascus," painted by Caravaggio in 1601 shows Paul on the ground beneath a horse. I have admired the painting from the first time I saw it in an Art History book during college.  Years later I was staggered when I saw the actual painting in a tiny chapel in Rome when my wife Carol and I were there for our 25th wedding anniversary.  

It had started to rain one evening as we walked through the Piazza del Popolo, so we ducked into a tiny, nondescript chapel... and there was Caravaggio's  masterpiece.  Amazing!

So what's the point?

The point is this: how many times and in how many ways have we embellished God's story with personal biases and inaccurate details that were never part of the story?

This may not seem to be much of a problem in the story of Paul's conversion.  The main point of the story is neither harmed nor enhanced by the appearance of a horse.  Paul still heard the word of the Lord and did great things for God.

On the other hand... most of the religious leaders back in the first century rejected Jesus because they had a different version of the messianic story than the story Jesus came to proclaim.  And they didn't just disagree with Jesus' version of the story, they had him killed to keep him from telling his story. 

The story of Jesus and his love is a life changing story... when we get the story right and keep the story straight. It has been 54 years since I first embraced his story, and it continues to convict, challenge and change the way I think and act. I've never felt the need to add anything to his story, and never wanted to delete anything from the story.  

Here's my challenge: Let's take the story in, keep the story straight, live the story out and pass the story on.  Amen!