In this past Palm Sunday service, I was sent to my iPhone to look up the definition of Hosanna after a call and response liturgy, followed by a worship song.
In the liturgy, the leader called, “As You entered Jerusalem, the crowds shouted, ‘Hosanna: Save us now!’ On Good Friday they shouted, ‘Crucify!'” And the congregation responded, “We sing Hosanna but cry Crucify!” Immediately after that, we sang “Hosanna (Praise Is Rising)” by Paul Baloche.
Despite knowing that the crowds shouted Hosanna on Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, as recorded in Matthew, Mark and John, I’d always associated Hosanna with the Christmas season. Year after year, I enjoyed singing “Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis” in the chorus of “Ding Dong Merrily on High” carol.
Full disclosure: I’m not much for contemporary worship songs, preferring traditional, time-tested hymns. Yet, Baloche’s lyrics touched me deeply and brought tears to my eyes, as often happens with my favorite hymns.
Praise is rising, eyes are turning to You, we turn to You
Hope is stirring, hearts are yearning for You, we long for You
’Cause when we see You, we find strength to face the day
In Your Presence, all our fears are washed away, washed away
Hosanna, Hosanna
You are the God Who saves us, worthy of all our praises
Hosanna, Hosanna
Come have Your way among us
We welcome You here, Lord Jesus
So after the liturgy and song, I accessed my portable reference library, i.e. my smartphone, for the definition of Hosanna, only to find that in Hebrew it is a cry for help and salvation (Psalm 118: 25), but it has been appropriated in Christian tradition to be a word of praise, adoration, and joy, as in both the Baloche worship song and the Christmas carol.
On the surface, the liturgical call and response showed the fickleness of crowds. They initially celebrated His coming, only to turn against Him a few days later. Yet in the mysterious ways of God, their Hosannas could only be answered by His crucifixion. In their cry to crucify, they unknowingly fulfilled His purpose. There was no other way.
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.
In truth, believers must celebrate Jesus’ resurrection every day of the year, not just on what has become known as Easter. Yet, we can’t forget the crucifixion that led up to it and the unimaginable physical pain He suffered on that cross.
It is said that only through our personal suffering do we turn to the redeeming hope found in Jesus alone. So we can never put the suffering of Christ on that rugged cross out of our minds.
Suffering Revealed
That’s why I find the recent scientific studies of the Shroud of Turin fascinating and the image of the crucified man it reveals horrifying. Whether you believe it’s the actual burial cloth of Jesus or not, it clearly shows the excruciating injuries inflicted on a man suffering from death by crucifixion, including the flogging, the nail wounds, bruised shoulders from carrying the cross, injuries from the crown of thorns and the wound on His side, just as recorded in the Bible.
In fact, our English word “excruciating” is derived from the Latin word “excruciare,” stemming from the root word “crux,” the cross. Essentially, the prefix “ex” – out of or from – combined with the verb “cruciare” means to torment, crucify, i.e. “out of the cross.”
Initial Investigation
Back in 1978, a team of 50 esteemed scientists were given hands-on access to study the Shroud. Their objective was to determine how the image on the fabric was made. The STURP group (Shroud of Turin Research Project) was a cross-disciplinary team comprised of experts in various subjects, including space technology, chemistry, photography, thermography, nuclear technology, and medicine.
At the start of their five-day study, the team expected to make short work of the project and easily figure out how some medieval artist put the image on the cloth. But after conducting numerous experiments in the Turin Chapel and compiling the results back in their labs, they were left with more questions than answers.
In their final report, the STURP team wrote:
“We can conclude for now that the Shroud image is that of a real human form of a scourged, crucified man. It is not the product of an artist. The blood stains are composed of hemoglobin and also give a positive test for serum albumin. The image is an ongoing mystery and until further chemical studies are made, perhaps by this group of scientists, or perhaps by some scientists in the future, the problem remains unsolved.”
They could not determine how the photographic-negative image was captured. That image was embedded only in the very top fibers of the linen cloth while the blood stains ran completely through the fabric. Further, the image was imprinted on top of the blood stains, so the blood was there first.
In addition, the image on the cloth captures a pixelated spectral data record in three dimensions, not a two-dimensional image as in a photograph. The 3D image on the Shroud was initially discovered using technology developed for space exploration available at the time.
And from the data points on the Shroud, only now can a full front-and-back image of the approximately six-foot-tall crucified man be rendered through advanced computer imaging.
Further Shroud Studies
Then, in 1988, fabric samples were taken to carbon date the Shroud. This was done independently of the rigorous research standards of the STURP team and turned out to be flawed.
The carbon dating tests conduced by four different labs revealed the fabric sample studied dated back only 700 years, not 2,000. Thus, it was declared a medieval forgery and the news media ran wild with that part of the story.
However, the British Museum that oversaw the carbon dating tests did not release the raw data from that study until 28 years later. Only after that have other scientists had the opportunity to examine the methodology and continue the investigation.
Subsequent analysis has definitively shown that the original carbon dating tests were flawed. The samples taken included fibers from repairs sewn onto the cloth after it had been damaged by fire. Further, the fire and smoke damage it experienced during the Middle Ages contaminated the sample with carbon from that date.
New dating research using wide-angle spectral imaging compared the Shroud to burial cloths found in archeological digs at Masada from the first century. That research found that the Shroud’s linen cloth is decomposing at the same rate as those from Masada, so it indeed dates back 2,000 years.
Other compelling evidence includes pollen taken from the Shroud originated in the Holy Land. Coins placed over the dead man’s eyes and recorded on the Shroud are official Pilate coins from Jerusalem in the first century.
Medical Evidence
The 3D image of the man on the Shroud is captured in a state of rigor mortis. The body is not flat but bent in a position consistent with death on a cross. His head hangs down on his chest and his legs, which were not broken as was standard practice during Roman crucifixion, are flexed as if supporting his weight.
There are over 700 scourge marks on the body and the head wounds from what we call the Crown of Thorns were made by a thorn helmet or cap, so his complete head is wounded by thorn spikes, not just across the forehead.
The nail marks through the wrists and feet are clearly visible – the same word in Greek is used for the palms of the hands and the wrists. Plus, only the fingers of the man are visible because when the nails were driven into his wrists, his thumbs reflectively retracted to his palms.
The largest blood stain on the Shroud is from the wound on his side between the fifth and sixth rib and that stain includes both blood hemoglobin and another clear fluid from the wound, as described in John 19:34.
The blood stains on the Shroud have remained red over the centuries because it contains high levels of bilirubin which is released by the liver during extreme trauma. The bilirubin has kept the blood stains from darkening. Plus, there are other chemical markers in the blood that show the extent of the body’s suffering leading up to his death.
Follow The Science
Based upon the preponderance of evidence, Dr. Jeremiah Johnston declares, “The Shroud of Turin is indeed the burial cloth of Jesus, and the implications are enormous.“
Johnston is the president of the Christian Thinkers Society, who took his Ph.D. at Oxford University studying the bodily resurrection of Jesus. He was a Shroud skeptic until challenged by his pastor to study the primary research. And that turned him around.
“I am conditioned to follow the evidence. I’m a seeker of truth and the most dangerous place we can get is to stop seeking the truth,” he said.
Here are two videos where Dr. Johnston explains the results of his investigation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w32UGkrzviU (~15 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y3zKsxtAEo (~1 hour)
Never Forget
As we look forward to Easter and celebrating the bodily resurrection of Jesus, we can’t forget the price He paid for you and for me before He entered the tomb. It is impossible to imagine His pain and suffering, but we must reflect upon it just as much as we praise how He conquered death.
It is noteworthy that not until 1898, after Italian photographer Secondo Pia discovered the image on the Shroud was a photographic negative, was the true extent of His bodily suffering revealed. The positive image to the eye is faint and barely visible.
And subsequent advanced scientific research continues to confirm the authenticity of the Shroud and the Bible’s record of His death on the cross. Likewise, the Bible’s creation account has been convincingly corroborated by Dr. John Lennox in Seven Days that Divide the World: The Beginning According To Genesis And Science, and on-going archeological discoveries testify to the Bible’s historical truth.
Research investigations into the universe’s fine tuning prove that this planet is designed for life, not the result of an accident. The complex coding in DNA and the inner workings in living cells challenge any notion of Darwinian evolution, let alone how life could have sprung spontaneously from inanimate matter. For those seeking truth in the scientific realm, Stephen Meyer’s Return Of The God Hypothesis is an excellent resource.
Only in the present day has God given us the scientific tools to prove His spiritual truth in this skeptical age dominated by materialism and a secular humanistic worldview. Effectively, God has turned their science against them.
All of which makes me ask, “God, why now?”
“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” [Revelation 22: 12-13]