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     Authors strive to “paint a picture” expressing every significant emotion and detail so the reader feels the story.  For example: “Sweat flooding from his brow, the fireman shovels coal, whirls around and shoots it into a searing and blinding-red firebox.  Loose chunks clatter over our feet.  The smell of iron and fire, the dry gritty taste of flying coal dust, the sweltering hissing steam, a startling shriek comes from the whistle:  an anguished humanlike cry, so long and excruciatingly beautiful, that I nearly burst into tears.”  The writer attempts to drag us into the cab, experiencing the fireman’s unbearably hot, dirty and sweaty daily life.  This is a human method, but not God’s.  If there is one word describing emotional expression in the Bible (except Psalms), it is “monotone calmness.”
     The Biblical account is marked by brevity, often accompanied with an unusual calmness about exhilarating, astonishing and even tragic events.  The most astounding miracles are treated with the routineness of sweeping the floor.  For example, Jesus touched the leper and the leprosy was gone – no mention of the man’s reaction (Matthew 8:1-4).  After Jesus cast the demons out of the man, he was “sitting, clothed and in his right mind” (Mark 5:15) – no reaction.
     Even such heart rending events as Lazarus’ death and resurrection (John 11:1-44) warrants little more than his sister Mary, “wept” (verses 32-33).  And when Jesus resurrected him from the grave, neither Mary nor Martha’s reactions are given.  This calmness, sterilized of expressions of excitement and emotions, is typical in the four gospels.
     We live in an age of feelings, visuals of blood, violence and emotions.  Mel Gibson’s film, “The Passion,” showing the last 12 hours of Jesus life before dying on the cross, perhaps reveals modern man’s displeasure that the gospel writers did not give us a video portrait of every gut-wrenching moment of Jesus’ death.  Although no ancient record tells more about crucifixion than that of Jesus’ recorded by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, there are little to no details of the violence, suffering or emotions revealed.  Jesus, His disciples and His family are almost emotionally void.  Peter “wept bitterly” when he denied knowing Jesus (Matthew 26:75).  Jesus’ closest friends “mourned and wept” (Mark 16:10).  Mary Magdalene stood near Jesus’ tomb “weeping” (John 20:11).  And Jesus’ mother, Mary?  She stood at a distance looking at Jesus on the cross (Matthew 27:55-56).  Later she was near the cross when Jesus consigned her into the care of John (John 19:25-27).  Nowhere is Mary’s anguish revealed.  What of Jesus’ six hours of writhing in excruciating pain and suffocating on the cross?  The gospel chroniclers give us seven sayings by Jesus while on the cross.  All but one are stated in a matter of fact fashion – no sign of suffering.  Only one shows any mental anguish, but no physical suffering – “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).  How do we account for such calmness in the scriptures?  It’s not characteristic of human authors.  It must be by design – inspiration of God.

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