Touching Jesus
We address Jesus, Jenson argues, personally, as “human beings to a human being” ( Systematic Theology: Volume 1: The Triune God (Systematic Theology (Oxford Hardcover)) (Vol 1) , 137 ). But this man that we address has died and risen, and therefore “we see and hear and touch him in the special way called sacrament.”
He elaborates: “What we see or touch or hear does not look or feel or sound like a member of the species homo sapiens, but like a loaf and cup or book or whatever sacramental ‘element’ is instituted for an occasion. Nevertheless, if the relevant institution is true , it is the human person Jesus of Nazareth whom we meet in any act of the church’s sacramental life. He talks to us by the word of the church, and we see and touch him and so are able to respond.”
A refreshing Lutheran rejoinder to all efforts to find some way to bypass the “way called sacrament” to touch the real Jesus.
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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