Is It Real?

When I was growing up, there was this great little store called the Main Street Grocery. As the name suggests, it was on Main Street, they did sell a few grocery items but mainly it was a convenience store, conveniently located by a school bus stop, that sold a lot of great candy, ice cream treats and different newspapers. You know the type: the local paper but also the National Enquirer, Globe, World News and the like. The store was only two blocks from our house so I was allowed to walk there.

But that isn't what this post is about.

One summer day I was heading to a friend's house who lived one street over from the store. As I walked past I looked at the 'porch' that had the newspaper racks, and a picture caught my eye: even from that distance. I walked up the steps and stood in front of the rack with the World News tabloid. Riveted, I stared at that picture and then read the headline: "Is This the Face of Jesus?" Yep: it was my first time seeing a photo of the negative of the Shroud of Turin.

For those of you who may not know: the shroud is purportedly the burial cloth of Jesus. The shroud's documented history dates back to 1354 where it began to be exhibited in a church in north-central France. However, there is no record of how famed knight Geoffroi de Charney came to possess the shroud. It has had a few other religious homes since then; and of course people believe that at one point the Templar Knights had possession of it. 

It has been claimed a forgery, yet it can't be disproved. It has been dated back to the time of Christ. The bloodstains line up with a person who has been crucified, right down to the bloodstains on the forehead from the crown of thorns. The nail wounds line up. The hole in his side lines up with where the soldier pierced his side. There are lacerations like the person had been flogged. And since the cloth is like 14 feet long and was folded over the body, you have the front side and the back side. Scientists have not been able to replicate this kind of image regardless of the methods they have tried. Some believed it was a clever case of someone painting the cloth: but it has been proved that it isn't paint. It is blood. 

Sometimes it just boils down to faith. In 1898 an amateur photographer (who was also a lawyer) was given permission to photograph the shroud. He developed the negative and to his surprise: found that the negative image showed a positive image of a man, which he hadn't expected. He thought the picture would be like the faint one on the fabric. So the image on the cloth was like a photographic negative, which showed all the details, including the wounds which were like the ones inflicted on Jesus. 

Scientists have even tried to replicate how, or what kind of "flash", could have produced that image on the cloth. They haven't been able to yet. It would have taken one heck of a source to do that. So...could that source have been Jesus being resurrected? Now that would be a power source of the greatest magnitude! 

Every year during Easter week I watch every show I can find on this topic because I find it so fascinating. I never get tired of it. In my human-ness: yes, I believe it is real. I believe that God sends us signs that what is in the Bible is true. Since Jesus walked among us, I believe that He left an imprint so those of us that weren't there, could see what he looked like and what he suffered for us. And as that young girl looking at that picture on the porch of the Main Street Grocery: I could feel it. And I still do.

Please feel free to do your own research and draw your own conclusions. I just wanted to share a brief overview as we head towards Easter. And just in case, somehow, you've never seen the images, here they are so you can maybe judge for yourself.

Face: 

Shroud: