I can’t sleep tonight – so, I found myself imagining what it was
like for Jesus on Holy Saturday.
I was reminded of my experience of being wrapped in David
Rolfe’s replica of the Turin Shroud, lying on my back with my arms and legs
folded. This was a comfortable position
and quite restful. Then the cloth was
folded over my head and the other end taken over me down to my feet, and then
the sides folded over to cocoon me in. Incidentally, we discovered that I may be an inch taller than Jesus.
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| By Unknown - Own work, photographed at Saint-Sulpice, Paris, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8476113 |
And then the questions start – how did the 3D image of a corpse
get singed as such a thin surface layer on the cloth?
It is in 3D because the intensity of the image seems to be in proportion
to the distance from the cloth, so darkest where it was touching (usually the
images we see today are reversed so that the image is white on black to enhance
it). Whether we believe the shroud dates
to Jesus time or not, the question remains because intense bursts of radiated
energy were unknown in medieval times.
Whilst my belief in the resurrection is founded on plenty of
evidence already without the need for the existence of a genuine burial cloth,
it is a fascinating question. So, what
if it is genuine? Maybe we learn
something about the nature of resurrection (i.e. it is “nature” because God creates/does
it)…
Although not to be read as a scientific explanation of
creation, ‘Day 1’ only gets going in the Bible when God says, “Let there be
light”. Similarly, in the New Testament,
John's Gospel begins by referring to Jesus as the Light in the World (“In him was life,
and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:4-5). John also writes “God is light; in him there
is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).
As I was ill earlier in the week, I also happened to switch
on the TV at 3.30am and was fascinated by Jim Al-Khalili’s programme mentioning
Georges Lemaître, the Belgian priest who first applied Einstein’s laws to come
up with the suggestion that all the universe originated from a single point and
has been expanding ever since. Even
Einstein dismissed him at first, but science has caught up with Lemaître’s
ideas and the Big Bang theory is now regarded as true as it gets from the evidence of the red shift of
distant galaxies moving fastest away at around a tenth of the speed of light
and also microwave radiation signature which is everywhere in the background
(you may need to watch the programme!).
So, bear with me here, this is how my mind works and I have
to live it… what if the same background
radiation signature at the beginning of creation is the same energy that we
will experience as we share in our new life in Christ, the light? To a Christian who believes absolutely in the
scientific method to discover the wonder of creation, I can’t wait to find out…
In the meantime, have a look at David Rolfe’s website and
documentary on the subject of the ShroudEnigma
– fascinating!
