By Steve Stricker
Columnist

Lent, March 2022, ongoing restoration by a team of 50 scientists of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Jerusalem, believed to be the site of Jesus’ crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection, uncovered an astonishing relic. 

The Vatican, after careful scrutiny, revealed on Ash Wednesday, February 14, 2024, that a 12” x 12” black box was found buried under the marble slab where the crucified body of our Lord was placed.  

As a scientist lifted the box from beneath the tomb, a sharp object scratched her.  Analyzing the protrusion, it was discovered to be from the plant, Euphorbia milii, native to Madagascar, brought to the Middle East before the time of Christ – the plant from which the Romans fashioned the crown of thorns and placed on Jesus’ head.

This scientist, suffering from a rare genetic disease (retinitis pigmentosa) causing slow and permanent vision loss, immediately regained her vision after suffering this cut which instantly healed!  The amazed scientists had no explanation as how this thorn of “wood” could have penetrated this box of remarkably strong metal, or how this miraculous cure occurred.

The box was sealed, no seams or way to open it. Laser scanning indicated the box was made of an unknown metal they named “Magnaloy,” composed of a substance like magnesium, laced with gold, silver, and other unknown minerals.  An X-Ray astoundingly confirmed that it contained a crown of thorns and four 6” nails…!

More baffling was the presence of a USB port…33 AD?!  Convinced this box was a hoax, scientists in the Vatican’s laboratory connected a computer to the port and data immediately began flowing!  After hours of downloading, mouths agape, Pope Francis was summoned and he too was shaken by the revelations.

Miraculously, the life of our Lord, from the Blessed Virgin Mary’s “Fiat,” (Yes), to Arch Angel Gabriel’s announcement that she had been chosen to be the mother of Jesus incarnated, wife of Joseph, conceived by the Holy Spirit, Jesus youth to his passion, crucifixion on the cross at Calvary (Golgotha) and especially the last moments of his life were recovered.

The download suggested reviewing the site where our Lord sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane prior to Judas’ betrayal and “arrest” by the Romans, known as “hematohidrosis” where the capillary blood vessels that feed the sweat glands break down and blood mixes with the sweat, and to a particular large rock, where Jesus underwent his agony; subsequent analysis of the rock found DNA revealed to be AB+, Jesus’ blood type….

When Pontius Pilate ordered Jesus to be scourged with a whip consisting of strips of leather, sheep bones, and heavy lead balls, it caused deep bruising, breaking of his ribs, great blood loss, failing blood pressure and shock. 

When the Romans placed a robe on Jesus and crown of thorns to mock him, paraded before the angry crowd, they shouted, “Crucify him!”  While Pilot washed his hands, the robe was jerked off, bleeding began again, weak and dying, Jesus fell three times – unable to carry his cross, Simon of Cyrene was forced to help; “Thank you, Simon.”  “How do you know my name?”

Nailed to the cross through his wrists and each foot with 6” nails, Christ’s actual crucifixion was caused by suffocation, internal bleeding from the cracked ribs, burst sac around the heart from beatings by the Romans and falls while carrying his cross, leading to heart failure.  

A lance thrust by Roman soldier, Longinus through Jesus’ heart to assure that he was dead, released blood and water surrounding it, and pouring into Longinus’ eyes, he was healed from failing eyesight, became a Christian, and then he too was martyred.

At the end of the download was Jesus gloriously resurrected on Easter Sunday, and the announcement – “I came, I suffered, I died, because I love you….”

Have an enlightened Lent.

Steve is an Oxford resident and received his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology (Counseling) from Ole Miss.