The Jesus Cloth

Connie Kendall brings in the mail at Whit's End and finds a registered package all the way from Jerusalem. It has been sent by an old friend of John Whittaker's, a scavenger of ancient artifacts who once worked for him and who now needs five hundred dollars. Inside are some pieces of pottery, a tin cup, and a smelly old leather pouch holding a scrap of cloth. According to the letter, the locals at the dig site claim the cloth is a piece of the robe of Jesus Christ. Whit is doubtful - his friend has never found anything really valuable - but Connie is thrilled. When she touches the cloth, she feels warm and wonderful, and she cannot wait to tell somebody about it.

Whit takes the cloth to Ian Crenshaw, a professor of archaeology and ancient languages at Campbell County College. Ian recognizes a marking on the pouch as the symbol of the Children of the Light, a group of believers who hid themselves after the Romans destroyed the temple and who were known for preserving artifacts of the Christian faith. It could be an important find, so he begins running tests.

Meanwhile, Connie has shared her wonderful news with Lucy Cunningham-Schultz, and the word races through town. Dale Jacobs tracks Whit down, eager for a scoop on what Lucy has named "the Jesus cloth," and Whit persuades him not to print anything until there is proof. That evening, George Barclay and Richard Quinn show up at Whit's door, each claiming he was "just passing by," and then Connie and Lucy arrive with a whole crowd of neighbors who want to touch the cloth. Whit tells them all firmly that there is no evidence the cloth ever belonged to Jesus, and he sends everyone home with a plea to stop spreading rumors.

But the story leaks into the college newspaper anyway, under a headline accusing a local businessman of hiding a stunning discovery. The next morning a crowd is camped outside Whit's End, the phone will not stop ringing, and a sick woman begs to touch the cloth so she can be healed. Ian has confirmed that the pouch's metal fasteners are from the first century, but the cloth itself can only be dated one way - radiocarbon dating, which would burn up every bit of it. When Whit explains this to the crowd, they hear only that he wants to burn the Jesus cloth. They shout him down and tear through the shop to find it themselves, until Connie has to call the police.

Afterward, Whit announces on the news that keeping the cloth in Odyssey has become dangerous, so he is returning it to the Israeli government to be displayed in a museum in Jerusalem for all to see. As he and Connie survey the damage to Whit's End, they wonder at how people behaved over a simple piece of cloth that may or may not have touched Jesus. Whit admits it is good that people care so much about their faith, but faith belongs in Jesus himself, not in artifacts. As he puts it, "I'll take faith in Christ over faith in His robe any day."