For its Bible study, my church is going through The Easter Experience: What If What Happened Then Changes Everything Now?  Last night, we did Session 5, “I have the promise of eternal life.”  The lesson focused on the thief on the cross, the one whom Jesus assured would be with him in paradise.  The pastor on the DVD offered two speculative back-stories about the thief.  One presented the thief as a good-hearted person who came from a broken home and committed his crimes to help others.  The other depicted him in a far less flattering light.  The pastor said that the thief reviled Jesus at first, yet something changed the thief’s mind and led him to defend Jesus when Jesus was forsaken even by his Heavenly Father, and to ask Jesus to remember him when Jesus entered into his kingdom.  The pastor speculated about what could have changed the thief’s…