...first, when Thomas expressed his doubts in the resurrection, Christ did not declare him a heretic and drive him from the community; He offered him physical evidence. Christ's corporeal nature and human form is central to our faith.
Second, if for argument's sake, one allows that the shroud is authentic, one has to ask whether or not our Lord and Savior left it here merely to be ignored by the faithful...
Thomas was doubting that the man he saw before him was Jesus. Not the resurrection. And from that we can assume that Jesus did not look the same as he did before the crucifiction. He wasn’t recognized. So, I say again it doesn’t matter what he looked like. It won’t matter what I looked like once I’m gone. It won’t mean I didn’t exist.
He offered him physical evidence.
Good point. I was particularly impressed by the over-laying of another blood stained cloth that they used to show how the blood stains on the face matched up. I first heard of the Shroud in 1964 and believed in its authenticity then. To see how advances in technology over the years have failed to detract from it, but have rather enhanced its legitimacy, is nothing short of miraculous.