Something is Suspicious Here

The ridiculous quality of paragraphs--of completed, encapsulated assertions--is nowhere more evident than in precisely those gospel passages that are most significant.  A perfect example is the Good Thief (or whatever he is called)--Luke 23:39-43, KJV:

And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.  But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?  And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.  And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.  And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

To present the verses as above, grouped and framed as a coherent whole, is to impose on those verses an apparent singleness of thrust that utterly misrepresents the dynamic of the narrative.  In John, the "two other with him" are mentioned as a dry fact; in Mark the "two thieves" are mentioned in order to contend a fulfillment of the prophecy "he was numbered with the transgressors."  Only Matthew--of the gospels other than Luke--describes any unsavory utterances of the other two crucified (27:38-44):

Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left.  And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself.  If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.  Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said; He saved others; himself he cannot save.  If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him  He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.  The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.

To leave it at this point for now, I will simply say, "If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross" seems an utterly presumptuous and impious thing to say.  I will also say that the thrust of the "scripture-based" notions of people being "saved" or "converted" by the "evidence" of the Resurrection really amounts to the same thing: Jesus' testimony is validated by his power shown in overcoming death.