The face of Christ

When I first saw this picture, some forty-five years ago, I was impressed by the strength of the man behind the image.

One longs to see more clearly the real man in life.
Compare this face with the vast majority of pale, pasty-faced, eyes-up-to-heaven images of Christ that disgrace our churches!

Forty-five years ago I reserved judgment - but even then I said to myself, "This face has the strength and nobility that I would expect to find in the face of Jesus."
I suspended judgment then, for how can one be sure about a thing like this? I was prepared to believe that it could be an impression of his face. Would one not expect the death of God Incarnate to be marked in some way?

Various efforts, through chemical analysis and carbon dating, have been made to analyse the physical make-up of the shroud. I am simple minded enough trust honest scientific analysis - accepting the word, technical ability and integrity of scientists at face value (no pun intended) - so when the carbon-dating report came back a few years ago, placing the manufacture of the Shroud of Turin as probably of the 12th century, I shrugged my shoulders and accepted it as a fact.

Now I am not so sure. One of two leading carbon-dating experts in the world was honest enough recently to admit that in the case of the remains one of the 'bog-people' he had been examining - an ancient body found preserved in an English bog - he would have to allow a dating latitude of between 500 and 800 years, because of assimilation by the corpse of sifting and changing matter from the bog waters.
In the case of the Shroud of Turin chemical analysis of the fibres showed various external contaminations, pollen and dust that could only have come from the Middle East. So, making allowance for possible contamination over the centuries, I have had to undo my primitive faith in the accuracy of carbon-dating and allow, once more, for the possibility that this piece of material could have survived for 800 years longer than the estimated mediaeval date.

I find that I am relieved of an interior conflict, for when I look upon this obscure but powerful face I experience an instinctive reverence and the onset of awe - with, upon one occasion, to my surprise, a great sorrow for my sins, an awareness of my unworthiness, and a profound regret that this man suffered death.

I tend to believe, therefore, that when I gaze upon this image I look upon the face of Christ, captured in death - and my awe increases.

At the moment of my own death, when I am brought into full realisation of the truth, I half expect to recognise this face as the face of the man we know as Jesus Christ - mysteriously and marvelously alive, fully known, in the light of my changed awareness, as the Man who is also God - magnificent and glorious beyond human expectation.
I am prepared to discover that I am mistaken - knowing that in eternity, caught up by the power and glory that is God, and sharing in His knowledge, I will have no difficulty in recognising the man who is in fact true Man and true God.

Is the face that is mysteriously burned into the fabric of this shroud the face of God Incarnate?

I have to say that I believe it is. When I look upon this face my natural inclination is to exclaim, "My Lord and my God...."

However, I do not believe that this image is merely a representation. I am convinced of its authenticity. As an art historian and as portrait artist, I am convinced that no 13th or 14th century painter could have created that image. Leonardo himself did not have the technical skill to create it.

As it happens, there have survived, until the dreadful earthquake at any rate, a large number of faces in two huge crucifixion pictures at Assisi which by accident have taken on the negative appearance of the Shroud. They were subject to fire which altered the nature of the paints. These two paintings, done at around the time the shroud is supposed to have been forged, are by Cimabue, whose renown at the time of their execution was equal to that of Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel. Cimabue was one of the two greatest Italian painters of his day. But when one looks at a Cimabue in negative and at the Shroud, it is so obvious that by no freak accident, by no strange series of events could even the most competent painter of the day reproduce the face on the Shroud.

A scientific friend of mine, who is not Christian and who demands that God strike him down like St Paul in order to save his soul, says this - If a body that was dead was to come alive than there would be some extraordinary transfer of energy. If the textile that wrapped the body was subjected to a blast of radiation, whether from the body itself or from some almighty source of power, then it would throw out all radio carbon readings and make the textile seem much more recent than it in fact is.

Thanks Tam (Lovely name),
I'm glad to know that someone reads what I write!
Should anyone else feels like making a comment please be my guest (email).
I enjoy views other than mine, supportive or otherwise.
    In my heart I feel that this is the face of the man who is also God, but as I have said above I am prepared to find that I am wrong. The reality of Christ as he is now (outside of time) must be utterly amazing. Pity we have to die to see him - but it will be worthwhile!
Yrs,
Mike