3 minute read
Higher Than Feelings
By Rev. Ken Wieting
Feelings—nothing is given higher honor in our day than feelings. They’ve been a major player in all ages, but our post-modern culture has enshrined feelings with nearly divine authority. Feelings—these days, they determine truth. What is true for me is what feels right for me. What is true for you is what feels right for you. If feelings change, then truth must have changed as well. Right? Hardly.
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Dr. Martin Luther commented on feelings, both positively and negatively. The Reformer was no stoic. While some saw an emotionless life as a virtue, Luther called it an artificial virtue. He said that God does not want us to be blocks and stones without feeling. Yet Luther acknowledged that it was natural for our feelings to be on the wrong track unless the Holy Spirit changes our hearts. Therefore, he taught that we were not to judge by feeling but by the Word of God, following it through life and death. *
In this regard, Dr. Luther expressed a truly remarkable combination of thoughts regarding our feelings and the reception of the Lord’s Supper. Concerning our feelings about worthiness to commune Luther wrote:
In other words, if you feel that you are unworthy, you’re right! You feel correctly. Go joyfully to the Sacrament, and let yourself be helped. Luther also discussed the case of those who cannot feel this need and do not hunger and thirst for the sacrament. He directed them to see if they are still made of flesh and blood and to review what the Epistle to the Galatians says about the fruits of our sinful flesh. He continued:
For this reason, if you cannot feel the need, at least believe the Scriptures. They will not lie to you, since they know your flesh better than you yourself do…(T)he fact that we do not feel it is all the worse, for it is a sign that ours is a leprous flesh, which feels nothing although it rages with disease and gnaws away at itself. As we have said, even if you are so utterly dead in sin, at least believe the Scriptures, which pronounce this judgment upon you. In short, the less you feel your sins and infirmities, the more reason you have to go to the sacrament and seek its help and remedy. (LC V, 76–78, Kolb/Wengert, 474–475).
In other words, if you don’t feel unworthy, if you don’t feel the leprosy of your sin, you have even more reason to go to the Sacrament and seek its help.
This is an amazing connection of feelings related to receiving Holy Communion in faith. The beating heart of Luther’s marvelous encouragement in both instances is the Word of God. He places the witness of God’s Word over the sentiment of our minds and the emotions of our hearts. Faith and feeling are not identical. Faith receives the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation that the risen Christ is present to bestow in the Lord’s Supper. Feelings do not always follow. Sometimes, we may not feel very deeply our great need and the peace Christ here bestows. At other times, we may not feel it at all. But our feelings do not trump the faithfulness of God. In fact, the peace that Jesus bestows passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7).
It is clear that the Lord’s Supper is a Higher Thing—higher than our feelings! It is a holy mystery, a miracle of love, a means of grace, a meal of forgiveness, heavenly food from the King of kings. He bids us to eat His body and drink His blood not primarily so that we feel a certain way but because He is the way and the truth and the life. He bids us to receive here that which we cannot give ourselves: forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. God grant that this heavenly food may bring healing also to our feelings so that they more and more follow faith in our risen Lord.
Kenneth Wieting is a pastor at Luther Memorial Lutheran Chapel. He is also the author of The Blessing of Weekly Communion (CPH 2006). He can be reached at kwieting@sbcglobal.net.
* See Ewald Plass, What Luther Says, 510-514 (entry nos. 1529, 1530, 1532, 1535, 1536, 1537).
