Fat Jesus

Imagine if we encountered the risen Jesus, and found him to be fat. He was picked on, after all, by being labeled a glutton and a drunkard. I'm not claiming he was fat - just wondering what issues it would raise for us.

I just read a review of a book called "The Fat Jesus" by Lisa Isherwood. It explores body issues from a feminist theological perspective. I found this so intriguing that I have ordered a book by Isherwood - but not the "fat Jesus" one... I've ordered her book "Introducing body theology" - because I think that "the body" is a topic surprisingly under-explored in Christian theology, and especially in my own area of Pauline studies. This is becoming more and more surprising to me, given that the body has such a prominent place in Romans, 1 Corinthians, Philippians, etc - the body of Jesus, the bodies of believers, the ecclesial body of Christ.

Have a look through the book of Romans, and you'll notice that sin, judgement, atonement, sanctification and future glory are all described using bodily terms...

- God gave them up... to the degrading of their bodies (ch 1)
- Their throats... tongues... lips... mouths... feet... eyes (ch3)
- Do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies (ch6)
- You have died to the law through the body of Christ (ch7)
- If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you. (ch8)
- We groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies (ch8)
- I appeal to you... to present your bodies as a living sacrifice (ch12)
- We who are many are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another (ch12)
etc...

...and don't get me started on 1 Corinthians!!