The Shroud of Turin - Documenting Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection

 After Jesus had risen and overcame death, and appeared to his disciples, he says to Thomas, after their famous interaction where Thomas sees and feels the holes where the nails had pierced Jesus’ forearms, in John 20:29, Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

We have the testimony of the apostles after Jesus’s resurrection, and the documentation of the rest of the New Testament to proclaim his triumph over death. Here 2000 years later, in a broken world built to distract and mislead us, that testimony and our faith are constantly tested to sow doubt by the enemy and mislead us to sin and death.

However, Jesus in his infinite mercy and grace, has blessed us with so many accounts of his glory in the gospels, in Acts, in the letters of Paul, Peter, and Timothy…and if that weren’t enough, physical documentation of his suffering, crucifixion, and resurrection via the Shroud of Turin.

The Shroud of Turin is the burial cloth that Jesus was wrapped in after he was removed from the cross and cared for by Joseph of Arimathea. It is named for the town of Turin located amongst the Alps of northern Italy, where it is held for safe keeping at the St. Giovanni Cathedral. If you'd like to learn more about this incredible cloth, please consider listening to the world's foremost expert on the Shroud of Turin, Dr. Jeremiah Johnson, on any (or all) of these four podcasts. If you're going to listen to just one, I recommend Tucker Carlson's episode, as Tucker's expertise and skills in conducting interviews shines through to give Jeremiah the space to provide most comprehensive recap of the amazing Shroud:

Jeremiah Johnston: Shroud of T… - The Tucker Carlson Show - Apple Podcasts

SHROUD OF TURIN: Physical EVID… - Live Free with Josh Howerton - Apple Podcasts

#293 Jeremiah Johnston - Codex… - The Shawn Ryan Show - Apple Podcasts

"It’s The Face of Jesus" Micha… - The Michael Knowles Show - Apple Podcasts

John 19:1-3

19 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. ² The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe ³ and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face.

Matthew 27:26-30

²⁶ Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.²⁷ Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. ²⁸ They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, ²⁹ and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. ³⁰ They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again.

Mark 15: 15-19

¹⁵ Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and ¹⁶ The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. ¹⁷ They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. ¹⁸ And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” ¹⁹ Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him.

Jesus was brutally flogged by multiple Roman soldiers, using a particularly insidious device called a flagrum, with lead or stone balls on them, possibly struck as many as 700 times during his trial and mocking by the Roman guards. The “crown of thorns” was no mere wreath as it is often depicted in art but was a heavy helmet of sharp spikes that would’ve been slammed and thrust on his head to fit, ripping flesh as it did.

The shroud is marked with blood and cuts that covered his body and face from the flogging and helmet and also captures the piercing of his side with a spear. That is visible on the shroud, just as recounted in John’s gospel:

John 19:31-37 ³¹ Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. ³² The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. ³³ But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. ³⁴ Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. ³⁵ The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. ³⁶ These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,”^[a] 37 and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”^[b]

The blood on the shroud at the ribs is post-mortem blood, meaning it came out after Jesus was dead, just as the gospel passage above recounts. This post-mortem blood is verified with scientific testing, and is identifiable due to the red blood cells, platelets and white cells, and plasma separating, which begins to occur just minutes after death, so you’d have a clear, water-like liquid and the red blood cells separating and coming out, just as recounted in the gospel, and then captured and documented on the burial cloth. Jesus died on the cross from his massive blood loss suffered from flogging and organ failure, dying before the two criminals he was crucified with, so that his legs were not broken to expedite death, he had already died. This was recounted in scripture and captured in the testimony of the shroud as well.

So how did this blood-soaked testimony of how much Jesus suffered for us out of his love for us, get preserved on this fine linen burial cloth?

This superficial image gets engrained into the linen, at just 0.02 microns thick, with 34 thousand-billion watts of energy, travelling at 1/40^th of a billionth of a second, marking the resurrection of Jesus with the divine power of the creator of the universe. BAM a nuclear explosion inside the tomb as Jesus overcomes death and is resurrected for our sakes.

No paint, no pigment, no dye, no brush strokes. This is impossible for man to reproduce with earthly technology. Just blood and the explosive divine power of God overcoming death imprinted on linen.

The Shroud of Turin isn’t just a burial cloth that documents the incredible torture and suffering that Jesus Christ suffered on our behalf, to pay the debt for your sins and mine, it is scientific proof of the physical resurrection of the body of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. But don’t take my word for it, listen to Dr. Jeremiah Johnson’s much more comprehensive recap of the Shroud of Turin and the evidence it reveals in any of the four podcasts I’ve linked above.

John 20: 6-8

⁶ Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, ⁷ as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. ⁸ Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.

Just picture it, John and Simon Peter go into the tomb, and see the empty burial linen burial cloth, face cloth, and other linen strips that Jesus had been wrapped with, lying there, empty, and still glowing from the divine burst of God’s almighty power that overcame death, and in that instant they knew and believed. 

He is Risen! Jesus Christ, the Son of God was crucified and buried, and on the third day rose again from the dead, to absolve us from our sins, and sit upon the right hand of God the Father Almighty. He endured the worse torture imaginable for you and me to give us salvation. All we have to do is open our hearts, submit ourselves to his love, and accept him. Have a great Easter.