The Face of Christ?

Wow.

Could it be that the face of the crucified Christ has finally been revealed to the world? If you were watching the History Channel tonight, you might think so. I certainly wonder if it has. And I'm stunned.

Tonight's 2-hour special focused on the Shroud of Turin, an ancient linen cloth that many faithful believe is the burial cloth of Jesus. The Catholic Church guards it like we guard Fort Knox, though the church has cautiously allowed scientists to study it in recent years. The linen bears the faint image of a man, though how that image got on the cloth has baffled scientists to this day. Still, after the two hour program, scientists don't know. There is no paint or other artistic element on the linen. Nothing to explain how the image got there. It's just there!

The man in the image appears to have gone through a traumatic ordeal before he died. Blood stains are splattered upon the image. The biggest stains are on the head, the hands, the side and the feet. These were the biggest wounds suffered by this poor man. The face is somber, as you would expect a dead man to be! But it is also haunting, mysterious, and intriguing. Who was this man? How did he die? Isaiah 52 and 53 says that Jesus would be marred by His ordeal, almost unrecognizable. His wounds would cause ordinary folks to turn their faces away in disgust. This shroud man met that description.

Whether or not you believe the shroud to be authentic or something otherworldly, the scientists could not explain it. They were speechless. The linen has collected pollen, some of which come from Israel. One type of pollen comes from a plant that grows within 30 miles of Jerusalem. But the shroud first appears in Church history in Italy somewhere in the 1200s. It's next appearance was in France 150 year later. Yet it was in the Jerusalem area at one point in its history. A piece of the cloth was carbon dated to the mid 1200s but a lot of evidence seems to show the shroud is much older. For example, the blood stains on the face match a 7th-Century piece of linen exactly, as if the two linens covered the same face. The coincidence is not coincidence.

Intrigued you yet?

How's this: The TV documentary producers hired a 3D model maker to take the image on the shroud and using its 3D characteristics, create a model that included all the characteristics recorded in the shroud image, including the blood, hair, nose shape and figure. Apparently the shroud image is like a recording of 3D data, they said and can be scanned like a topographical map using the shadows, or something like that. The result of the scan is a 180-degree profile of the face of the man in the shroud. The model maker added a middle eastern skin tone and brown hair, then revealed the image at the end of the program.

It was amazing. Spooky. Totally cool. History.com didn't post an image of the final reconstruction. I guess they want you to watch the special to see for yourself!

Was it the face of Christ? I don't know. If the shroud is authentic, then, yes, in a way, it is. If the shroud is not the burial cloth of Jesus, then, of course not. But it was a reminder of the passion of our Savior that trumps all other 3D models.

What strikes me about every Shroud of Turin special I've watched is how even scientists have left open the possibility of the resurrection of this battered man. They cannot explain the source of the image and how it is so clear. Some think it was caused by a massive release of light or radiation. No human body has done this. Yet this man's body seems to have done it. Or something else remarkable.

By the way, the 3D image of of the shroud looked just like: Jim Caveziel's depiction of Jesus in The Passion of the Christ. It was an amazing likeness. I had already thought his Jesus was the most realistic and now I am even more convinced.

Check out the History Channel special, if you dare. I'm sure it will be repeated sometime this week (maybe Saturday). But be prepared to be blown away.

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