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!

Now—From the Other Side

I may have caused some discomfort these last two weeks. I provoked one reader to say, “You have now gone crazy.”

I’ve been talking about extravagant ways God may intervene in our lives.

One woman reported to me that just as her car was about to plow into a truck, both vehicles seemed to dematerialize—and passed through each other. Not even a dent. No one was hurt.

I have eight similar accounts. They say it takes three trees to make a row.

Eight is a small forest!

Now, let me take it from the other side: Scott, age 18, was grieving the death of the friend who helped him get off drugs. Marty died at just 17.

After Marty died, Scott’s grief was so strong he started to think of drugs again. Then, one night as he slept on the couch in his living room, his world changed. Let Scott tell it:

I was awake.

The clock said 2:05.

And suddenly, there was Marty 10 feet away from me. I sat in shock. One part of me was scared—but I was also happy.

He came over to me. It was light all around us. He said, “Don’t be upset, OK? I’m happy. Don’t keep your mind on me. Go on with your life.”

He was smiling like he never did in life. I gave him a hug. I could smell his scent and feel his body heat. I felt his breath when he talked. It was the weirdest thing.

Then he was gone.

Scott was lifted—and stayed off drugs.

But note the physical element of the encounter.

Matter can move from insubstantial to substantial.

Or, scientists would say, from wave to particle and back to wave.

God has made the world so that what God wants to happen, can happen.

The Truth Can Be Hard to Believe

I look at the evidence.

I look at what’s there and try to figure out what it means.

Take the story below—much like the one I told last week. Joel Harper is a well-known personal trainer who has appeared on Oprah, ABC News and PBS specials.

He rides a bicycle in New York everywhere he goes. One day he was late for a meeting and biking as fast as he could.

He saw, some 60 ft. in front of him, a father and a little girl. She looked about three. They were playing beside the bike path.

Let Joel tell his story:

“At the exact moment I reached them, the child darted in front of me. I could not stop or even slow down. I knew I would hit her.

But now—I don’t know how to say this.

I didn’t hit her.

My bike and I went through her body.

Just sailed through her body.

I felt I was floating. She went right through me. No one was hurt.

It was a physical thing, but it seemed spiritual.

I stopped to look back. The dad seemed in shock, as was I.

And I was too confused to go back and talk to him.

I know it sounds crazy. I hate to put it into words.

It is beyond words.”

Joel harper

I have other similar accounts. This is God working, but through the laws of nature.

Science tells us all matter exists as both particle and wave. In the wave state, matter is not solid.

Something like this took place in the resurrection. The dead body of Jesus dematerialized.

The burial cloth fell through the body.

The cloth lay flat on the burial slab. That’s the way the disciples found it.

The truth can be hard to believe.

It is still the truth.

As Real as Gravity

A friend said a woman who worked with her had a strange story to tell.

I called the woman.

She and a friend were traveling around England in a hired car. At some point, a lorry (as the English call a truck) pulled out from a side street.

It was just, suddenly, there, right in front of them.

No chance to stop.

No chance, even, to hit the brakes.

But there was no impact.

Their car went right through the truck.

It went through.

One vehicle passed silently through the other.

In a flash, the women saw the inside of the truck.

They saw the red plaid shirt the driver wore.

They couldn’t take it in. Something that could not happen had just happened.

Shaken, confused, they continued their journey.

And it took some courage to even share this story with friends.

It’s—uh—unbelievable.

So, why am I sharing it with you?

Because I have six other accounts like it from all over the world.

And I am looking for more.

I want to talk to a few physicists. (Are there any reading this?)

Whether they believe the accounts or not, I want them to suggest what is happening.

Is this an example of quantum tunnelling?

(Look it up.)

Why am I interested?

First of all, if real, God did it.

Second, something like this, I believe, happened at the resurrection. The body of Jesus dematerialized.

The cloth covering the body fell through the body, leaving the image we now see on the Shroud of Turin.

The resurrection was a quantum event.

Also unbelievable.

But as real as gravity.

Nothing Before Jesus Was Like Jesus

I came across a book called, “What if the Church Were Christian?”

I haven’t read it, but the title speaks to me.

Much of the church is not Christian.

This makes me sad, but I guess it is not surprising. Real Christianity does not come naturally.

In fact, it makes no sense to most people: Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you.

Give to those who ask something of you and expect nothing in return.

Turn the other cheek. Go the extra mile.

Forgive—always.

Be merciful—always.

What does God want?

Perfection?

Yes, actually. Jesus said, “Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

He knows we can’t be perfect. But he sets perfect love for God and for the neighbor as our standard.

Unconditional love is the Christian moral code.

And this moral code was new. There is nothing like it in any other of the ancient religions.

There is nothing like it in any ancient literature.

It came from Jesus.

And Jesus alone.

And it did not sit well with most of those who first heard it. Jesus was too loving. Too forgiving.

Furthermore, he lived what he preached. He ate and worked with people who were outside the salvation system.

Tax collectors (for example) were not even candidates for heaven.

Jesus was a danger to the whole social and religious system of his day.

That’s why the religious leaders of his day made sure he died an ugly death.

And many Christian leaders would make sure he met the same fate today.

I’ll talk more about this Sunday—11:00 a.m.