Bob Bird: Holy Week, Holy Shroud

By BOB BIRD

In an amazing turnaround from the Biden era, the Trump White House issued Holy Week greetings to the entire country. As a flawed human being, and one who has escaped death by a hair’s breadth, as well as the preposterous dirty tricks of the Deep State, it appears that Trump is discovering something that every person must come to grips with: the soon-to-be experienced Divine Judgment.

We live in a culture that sweeps such soul-chilling realities under the rug, but within every soul exists the basic understanding of right and wrong. There is no escaping it. You do not have to study or be schooled in this truth. The Bible says that God has implanted it in everyone’s heart. We will be called to account, and we are all guilty.

Why is Holy Week necessary to be understood and commemorated? Because to have any chance at eternal life, the Son of God had to become Man, preach to us, demonstrate His powers and accept the preposterous suffering that a Roman crucifixion entails. In our time, we have used the medium of books and movies to impart to us how this may have been like, 2,000 years ago. All are different, all recognize that their version may not be entirely accurate, and yet we can be utterly slammed when we see the following list of non-fiction books or motion pictures:

The Day Christ Died by Jim Bishop.

The Last Hours of Jesus by Ralph Gorman.

The Founding of Christendom by Warren H. Carroll.

But it is the motion picture that our culture has come to chiefly rely upon. Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ and Franco Zeferelli’s Jesus of Nazareth take very little artistic license, and must be classified technically as fiction, yet are based upon solid Biblical narrative and researched facts. Currently an animated feature is out, The King of Kings, and appears to be worthy. Many have seen Risen, starring Ralph Fiennes, a fictionalized yet plausible story of a Roman tribune who encounters the risen Christ.

But what if we could get into a time machine and be there? At the foot of the cross, on Friday, April 7, 30 AD? Or at the moment of resurrection on April 9? What would it really have looked like? How did people react? What about the two disciples on the road to Emmaus? Mary Magdalen’s encounter in the cemetery? What is it like to actually see an angel, as the women coming to anoint the body did? Or the 10 apostles on Easter evening, when Jesus walked through a locked door? Or when Thomas placed his hands into Jesus’ wounds a few days later?

Well, we actually can. Sort of. And you can do it today. On the internet are hundreds of documentaries, brief interviews and talk-show discussions about the Holy Shroud of Turin. It may be from the BBC, National Geographic, the History Channel. If you encounter the opinions of the fast-evaporating skeptics, they are probably hopelessly outdated. 

These discussions involve its scientific properties, its history and current theories — which are constantly being revised by honest science. The Holy Shroud is the most scrutinized artifact in human history, exceeding the Rosetta Stone, moon rocks, the Zapruder film or photos from Mars.

What does this artifact tell us? Whenever I lecture on it, with a life-sized replica in the room, you should see what I see: the eyes of the audience, whenever its properties begin to communicate the dynamics of the self-torture of crucifixion. Or the pain of hematidrosis, the sweating of blood. The BB-studded whips of the Roman flagrum. The carrying of a 100-pound cross beam on the shoulders, and the bruising of the knees and head from the face-plants that follow each stumble. Or the fixture of a helmet of thorns.

Only God could leave us His photograph, implanted on linen, and in the medium of a photographic negative. As Lord of Time, only He could reach His loving hand across the centuries to blast our layers of complacency away, in our age that worships anything and everything but Him.

Truly, in every century, mankind is a flock of lost and scattered sheep, ripe for easy picking by wolves. Likely our imagination of the demons and goblins of hell pale before the reality. The voice of the Shepherd calls us, for only He can protect us. The rage of the demons screams at every soul that accepts, with humility, the admission, confession and cost of our sins. 

The Holy Shroud silently awaits the investigation of those who have chosen to regard the Bible as a fairy tale. Our electronic age makes it possible to do so without going to Italy or attending a lecture. Only God could be so loving, and so patient, with his sheep. 

Go to www.shroud.com and begin the search.

Bob Bird is former chair of the Alaskan Independence Party and the host of a talk show on KSRM radio, Kenai.