Yeah, so??
I’ve argued at length that the reason the Gospel mentions them is that they were known to be in Christian custody when the Gospel of John was written.
I take the Incarnation seriously. So, he is crucified and buried. The burial cloth is part of burial. When he rose, do you expect he would deliberated, “do I take that stuff there with me”? To where?
I never said it’s trivial. I just said the idea that Jesus is deliberating within himself about what to do with the cloths is beside the point. The are witnesses to his burial and the Church understood that and took them and kept them as relics.
So where does the idea that Jesus hesitated and thought that he might wave his wand and poof!! they’re gone?
Unless people think that there’s something illicit about tangible evidence, heirlooms etc.? The concern over “why would Jesus leave these behind” arises out of some kind of antipathy to tangibility, out of the idea that faith should have nothing to do with the physical and tangible and visible—that also lies behind the attempt to make Jesus’ loving encouragement of Thomas into a rebuke. It comes from an almost Gnostic idea of faith as somehow superior to and independent of tangibility.
But this is an Incarnate God we are talking about. We should be rejoicing in the tangibility, not fearing it as a crutch.
So where does the idea that Jesus hesitated and thought that he might wave his wand and poof!! they’re gone?
I didn't say that ... I said that if He had wanted them to be gone, then they would be gone. I suggested that He did what He did deliberately, on purpose, and in accord with His eternal plan.
But this is an Incarnate God we are talking about. We should be rejoicing in the tangibility, not fearing it as a crutch.
I completely agree. Some folks seem very uncomfortable with the Incarnation. I don't know why.