If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;
Race, please note the condition here: “saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them”
These people here did not say to check out other gods.
would have been reeking with stench from the blood and covered with maggots from the blood on the cloth, and the flies that would be around the dried blood. The flies and maggots would have been feeding off the cloth from Jesus blood, eating the cloth itself, chewing the fibers. And if they washed the cloth, all those blood stains would have disappeared from the washing!
Why would it reek from blood, and how would blood wash out? Haven’t you ever had blood on anything? Blood doesn’t smell much (to us), and it is hellacious to get out of ANYTHING, esp. once you've let it set in a few hours. Why would maggots be there necessarily? Much less able to obviously damage a cloth only so abused 2 days before?
These people are not WORSHIPPING a cloth; they merely cherish it as something directly in touch w/their Lord. Besides, idolatry involves actually making a false god to worship. See the Moses/Exodus story. Having a picture of what you think is Jesus doesn’t mean that it is an idol.
So, why are there blood stains on the cloth then?
Blood is from the scourging, which did indeed happen due to men. He’s referring, rightfully so, to your assumption that maggots would be allowed to even eat away at the Lord. Which I would question too, but still – how much difference are maggots going to make on a cloth in a couple days, anyway? Assuming they’d even get there rite away in a presumably well-cared-for, high-end tomb w/raised resting place of stone, at least?