Chapter 59: Water Wind Spirit Light

[John 3:1-21; 7:45-51; and 19:39-42]

If we believe what the Scriptures testify – that God reveals His plans and works through His people to accomplish His purposes – then it stands to reason that, wherever Scripture meets Shroud might contain clues about the image.

We know that Joseph of Arimethea provided the linen cloth. But Nicodemus is also mentioned as being involved in the burial. Why him?

Nicodemus first came to Jesus in the dark, likely to avoid being seen with Him. He affirms to Jesus that he believes:
“...thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.”

The mention of miracles.

Jesus responds:
“...Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus asks how a man can be born again and Jesus explains:
“Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God... that which is born of the flesh is flesh;
and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit...”

Born of water... as in an image born from some dehydration process? Is the clear, watery substance on the Shroud that flowed from the spear wound symbolic evidence of this water? Are the water stains more than just a result of extinguishing fire?

Nicodemus, still marveling, requests further explanation – as to how being born again is possible. Jesus uses an analogy:
“The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”

Wind...air...as in the result of some oxidation process?

Born of the spirit... as in an incorporeal consciousness that communicates to us through an image, the origin of which no one can define?

Explanation of the invisible miracle.

But Nicodemus still has trouble understanding the “how” of it.
Jesus defers to Scripture to give him the clarification he seeks:
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have eternal life.”

Moses' bronze serpent, lifted on a pole, becomes the foreshadowing of the cross as the remedy for the curse of human sin. All that any Israelite who had been bitten by the serpent of death had to do was look up at the bronze serpent of life on the pole in order to be saved. We have only to look to the cross for our salvation.

It all comes down to believing...in the rising of Christ...and in His image on the Shroud.

What Jesus said next – to Nicodemus of all people – is the essence of Christianity:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believith in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

God, working through Jesus, accomplishes His purpose – our salvation.

Jesus then warns Nicodemus of the consequences for those who do not believe that the world can be saved through the son of God.
“And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world,
and men loved darkness rather than light,
because their deeds were evil.
For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”

Light...as in a short, intense burst of VUV radiation? As in an image that cannot be seen in transmitted light because the transmission of the light waves does not occur (is not absorbed) because the frequencies of the light waves match the natural frequencies of vibration of the image? Light that, like the wind, cannot be tied to any particular plane rotation or source of direction?

Living by truth brings us into the light. Living by truth is what enables the light of God to be seen through us.

Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, out of human darkness, believing somewhat in, yet also questioning Jesus. Nicodemus is gradually and methodically drawn to the light of Christ and undergoes a transformation. But that transformation happens incrementally, not all at once (just as it tends to happen to us).

Nicodemus is only mentioned two other times (again by John). Once, at the Feast of Tabernacles, when he comes to Jesus' defense by stating the law concerning Jesus' arrest:
“Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him
to find out what he has been doing?”

Nicodemus, the Pharisee, ruler of the Jews, member of the Sanhedrin bends his authority to defer to Jesus' truth.

Nicodemus is mentioned one last time (& most significantly regarding the Shroud), as having assisted Joseph of Arimethea at Christ's burial.
“And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
Then they took the body of Jesus and wound it in linen clothes with spices,
as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never a man yet laid.
There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.”

Certainly it is no accident that, of all people who could be present at the burial, Nicodemus (whose name means "Victory of the People") was the person there assisting Joseph of Arimethea.

This man, who tentatively approached Jesus in the darkness of doubt and disbelief, was perhaps predestined to be transfigured into a believer in the light of Christ. This man anointed the dead body of flesh of the Son of God, the first one to be reborn of water and spirit and to rise to sanctify all humankind by His light.

Is Nicodemus' presence at the burial Christ's way of reassuring us that the image on the Shroud is indeed proof of the water and spirit womb where Jesus is born again?

Should we not take Jesus' word for it? Word that is revealed to us in the Scriptures during his encounter with Nicodemus. Word that explains the resurrection process. Word that establishes God as working through Jesus for our salvation. Word where God can work through us so we can reflect His truth just by believing...


darkness and light
Nicodemus by night
water wind
spirit flight