A Good Lunch Wouldn’t Do It

Scientists have tried a new peer-reviewed test on the Shroud of Turin. It’s called a Wide-angle X-ray Scattering test.

It dated the cloth to the time of Christ—as have 210 other tests, including one other dating test.

Only the Carbon 14 tests of 1988 came up with a date in the Middle Ages.

It is scientists who keep the Shroud conversation going. Many of them who have studied the Shroud are convinced by it.

I’m not a scientist.

But I’m smarter than I look. And I am convinced.

And have been for 40 years.

I did a mean thing once, back in theology school. Just for fun, I asked one of my professors what he thought of the Shroud.

Apoplectic. I think that’s the word for his response.

“That old rag!” he said.

He didn’t want it to be real. His idea of the resurrection is something like this: Jesus died.

The disciples were sad.

They had a good lunch.

Felt better.

“Hey!” they said. “It almost feels like Jesus is still with us.”

Let’s go tell the world!

Was there something in the meatloaf that set them on fire?

Or was the grave empty?

And did Jesus appear to them?

I would guess the latter.

A filmmaker in England has offered one million dollars to anyone who can reproduce the Shroud.

No takers yet.

But here’s how you do it.

To reproduce the image on the Shroud, you would have to crucify somebody.

That’s the easy part.

(Except for the poor guy who gets crucified.)

Next step: You wrap the poor chap in linen and persuade God to raise him from the dead.

That’s it!

You’re a millionaire!