Prayer, anointing with oil, and healing (2)

Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. James 5:13-15

Last time I described these words from James 5 as “a tricky passage” because (according to my understanding, anyway) they seem to “promise more than they deliver”: the healing of the sick seems to be seen as an automatic result of faith-filled prayer by church leaders, when accompanied by anointing with oil. This goes contrary to the experience not only of most of us very ordinary Christians, but also to that of many great “heroes” of faith.

I suggested that the passage can serve as a test-case for the way we read our Bibles: do we try and wriggle out of what seems the plain meaning of the text – the most natural sense - or do we feel bound by honesty to accept that some passages just don’t yield an obvious sense that we can identify with?

This is where another vital principle of Bible interpretation helps us: we must learn to “compare scripture with scripture”.

The Bible is a big book, and no single verse or passage tells us everything we need (or want) to know, so we need to read the Bible in its entirety if we are to grasp the full spectrum of its truth – and even then there will be parts that leave us scratching our heads. When it comes to the matter of healing, the Bible gives us a wide variety of emphases.

Let’s ask a few questions…

Can God heal?

Yes! This is most obvious in the earthly ministry of Jesus. He opened the eyes of the blind; he cleansed people with leprosy; he set the paralysed back on their feet; he even raised the dead.

Does God always heal?

No. Even Jesus’ powers were sometimes limited, as a passage like Mark 6:5 makes clear, where “a few people” getting healed sounds like a real anti-climax! “He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few people who were ill and heal them…” And Paul, who could hardly be accused of lacking faith, was himself denied physical well-being after three times of focussed prayer (2 Corinthians 12:8-9). Paul also reported in 2 Timothy 4:20 that he “left Trophimus ill in Miletus” as if it were the most natural thing in the world - which leaves us wondering Why, Paul?, given that we know from other places that he was used by God in healings.

Are accompanying actions like anointing with oil or “laying on of hands” the key?

No! Jesus had no set method. Sometimes he laid hands on; sometimes he even used his own spit to make mud for anointing; sometimes, as with the woman with the flow of blood, he healed unawares (“Who touched me?”); sometimes he healed at a distance, with no contact at all with the sick person. God can’t be pinned down to formulas! - and we shouldn’t understand James to be saying that, as if anointing with oil is some kind of magic charm.

There’s more to the James 5 passage, of course – it goes on to speak of a connection between the healing of sickness and the forgiveness of sins, suggesting that sometimes, at least, the two things run parallel. It encourages Christians to confess our sins to one another, and it goes on to hold up the prophet Elijah as an example of the power of faith-filled prayer: “He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years…” (verses 17-18).

But that’s for another day: where we find ourselves puzzled is with those two uncompromising “wills” in verse 15: “the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up…” Really?

So… How can these puzzling verses help us?

I suggest two responses we might make to them…

First, to learn to be realistic in our Bible-reading.

People who talk about accepting “the plain, simple meaning of the Bible” are not being realistic. Many parts of the Bible are anything but plain and simple! - and we might as well get used to the idea. (An example: Does anybody really understand the Song of Songs in the Old Testament, and how we as Christians should approach it? A few generations ago it was assumed in many Christian circles that it was a love song, only not about a man and a woman, but about Christ and his church. Today most Christians see that as fanciful and forced, and (if they read it at all) prefer to treat it as a celebration of romantic human love.

I could suggest many other examples. But a practical outcome for us today is clear: Christian, it is not a sin to say “Sorry, but I just don’t understand such-and-such a passage!” As you persevere in reading over the years, God by his Spirit will give more and more light. Just rest in that.

(The writer GK Chesterton was once challenged about his Christian faith: “Doesn’t it bother you – all those parts of the Bible you can’t understand?” To which he replied “No! – the parts that bother me are the ones I can understand…” A wise man, I think.)

Second, let’s allow James’s robust faith, however unrealistic it may seem to our limited understanding, to stir up our sluggish faith. Is it time, perhaps, to call on those wiser and stronger than us to share with us in a time of focussed prayer for healing (with or without laying on of hands or anointing with oil)? Certainly, God may say “No”, as he did to Paul in 2 Corinthians 12, or possibly “Not yet”. But who knows? We may be in for a wonderful surprise.

Lord, grant us a spirit of keen expectation!

Father, I thank you for your written word in scripture. Help me to persevere in the task of learning from it day by day, to enjoy it, and to let myself be guided by it. And when I come to parts I find hard to understand, help me to believe that you will give light when the time is right. As I grapple with the mystery of pain and healing, may I always bear in mind the coming day when “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for all these things have passed away”. Amen.

Prayer, anointing with oil, and healing

Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. James 5:13-15

A tricky passage, this. Why? Because it seems to “promise more than it delivers”.

There’s no problem about praying for those “in trouble”, of course; that’s fundamental to our faith, something we do very day. Nor, of course, with “singing songs of praise” when we’re “happy”; why wouldn’t we?

But it’s in the next part that we might start to feel a little uncomfortable. When we’re sick, James tells us, we should “call the elders of the church” to pray over us, and get them to “anoint us with oil in the name of the Lord”. Certainly, we don’t have a problem with praying for the sick; we do it routinely. But James clearly has something more in mind: he envisages a gathering of the church “elders” for this purpose, and he explicitly recommends that such a prayer time should be accompanied with “anointing with oil in the name of the Lord”. Many of us may feel at this point that we’re getting a little “out of our comfort zone”!

Still worse (so to speak) is to come: “And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well”. Not, notice, “may make the sick person well”, but will make the sick person well”; no ifs, no buts. You see what I mean by “promising more than it delivers”.

We may feel like replying to James, “No, James, our experience just isn’t like that! We take the point about faith, just as Jesus said, and we are only too conscious of the weakness of our faith. But we know Christians of deep and even radiant faith who didn’t, or don’t, experience healing. Sorry, James, but you’re surely overstating your case. Life just isn’t like what you say”.

This is a difficulty there’s no wriggling out of - not, at least, if we are determined to be honest. Whether we like it or not, experience seems to contradict scripture. So what are we to do?

One possibility is simply to ignore it – it becomes one of those passages we file away in our minds as “not for now”, perhaps deep down recognising that “now” will probably never come. So it becomes an irritating niggle at the back of our minds.

If we are of a more determined spirit we might, second, collect whatever Bible commentaries and other books are relevant and hope for enlightenment. Good! But I’m afraid it’s very likely we will end up disappointed and even confused, for we will find that even the “experts” (perhaps I should say “especially the experts, including those who have good reputations for their biblical soundness) cannot agree, so we are no further forward.

Some well-respected scholars will tell us that miraculous events happened, certainly, in New Testament days, but that after that they ceased, so we shouldn’t expect them today. (I have heard it claimed, for example, that Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 13:10, “when completeness [or “perfection”] comes, what is in part disappears” refers to the “completeness” of the whole Bible, something we now have, and that it renders “signs and wonders” obsolete. But that is decidedly forced and artificial! – raising the question why, if that is the case, James’ words were ever included in the Bible in the first place.)

I fully accept that there are parts of the Bible which were never intended to be taken strictly literally for all time – the six days of creation, for example, or the instruction that women in worship should always have their heads covered. But James 5:13-16 doesn’t read like that; James writes in such a matter-of-fact way that it’s hard to avoid the feeling that he intends his words to be taken at face value: follow this procedure, and healing will result.

So, the question again: what should we do? I wish I had an easy answer, but I don’t. Let me just offer a couple of thoughts.

First, such passages as this can serve as a test-case for the way we read our Bibles.

It’s a basic rule of Bible interpretation that we should interpret it in the most natural way – whether “literal” or not - not twisting ourselves into contortions in order to get round difficult passages. Putting that another way, we should read the Bible as we find it, as it is, not as we would like to find it, or as we think we ought to find it, or even as some learned scholar tells us we should find it. James, writing this chapter, obviously had high expectations of direct and even miraculous answers to prayer, and that is a fact which, as I suggested earlier, it’s not really honest to try and wriggle out of, so let’s look it fair and square in the face. Better to honestly hold up our hands and say, “I just don’t see how to understand this!” than to multiply various unlikely alternative possibilities.

A question for every Bible-reader: am I honest in my reading, tackling tricky passages head-on and being open to possibilities that make me a little uncomfortable, or do I just limit myself to the nice, easy passages, the ones I feel comfortable with?

Second, a few thoughts about the whole question of prayer for the sick (with or without anointing with oil). But I’m afraid we will have to leave that till next time…

Father, I confess that there are places in your word that leave me puzzled and even confused. But thank you for those parts where the meaning is glowingly and wonderfully clear. Help me to grow in my faith both by luxuriating in the clear passages and by wrestling honestly with the hard ones. Amen.

More than ten years ago a book was published called How to read the Bible for all its worth, by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, respectively an Old and New Testament specialist. Not always an easy read (but then the Bible isn’t always an easy book, as we have seen!), but it has stood the test of time. Worth looking out for if you are serious about your Bible reading.

Gossip - don't tell it, don't listen to it!

Without wood a fire goes out;

    without gossip a quarrel dies down.
As charcoal to embers and as wood to fire,
    so is a quarrelsome person for kindling strife.
The words of a gossip are like choice morsels;
    they go down to the inmost parts. Proverbs 26:20-22

The tongue is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell… it is a restless evil, full of deadly poison… James 3:6-8

Have you ever had anybody sidle up to you and say behind their hand, “I know I really shouldn’t tell you this, but…” You have? So, I imagine, have most of us, even if it wasn’t done in quite such an obviously crude and  furtive manner.

And how did you respond? “Well, if you know you shouldn’t tell me, then don’t! Kindly keep your mouth shut! I really don’t want to know!”? Or did you smile inwardly and ready yourself for a nice juicy bit of gossip?

I wish I could say that’s a test I have always passed. But, to my shame, that’s not so. It’s so tempting to be in the know, isn’t it? to be part of the in-crowd?  All right, we might perhaps try to be kind and reject the approach a little more gently: “Er, if you don’t mind I’d rather you didn’t…” But, whether bluntly or gently, such an approach needs to be firmly rejected.

The Book of Proverbs has a lot to say about the power of words, both for good and for ill. This little paragraph is about gossip - a curse, I suspect, of any and every church, and it uses a couple of vivid illustrations.

First, fire.

Few things are more frightening than fire when it threatens to get out of control. It’s not something most of us have ever experienced, for which we can thank God. But the mere thought of it – the appalling damage it can do and the ferocious speed with which it can spread - should sober us up if ever we are tempted to gossip.

Second, particularly tasty food, a “choice morsel” that “goes down to the inmost parts”. In a word, greed.

I think it was Oscar Wilde who is supposed to have said, “I can resist anything but temptation”. Well, ha-very-ha. But many of us know that feeling of failure when we allow ourselves “just a little bit more”, even though we’re full and have had all we need. The pleasure soon turns to a sense of guilt and self-reproach. And it’s the same when we have given in to gossip… “Why did I do that!” we say to ourselves – “How could I be so stupid?”

Well, at least we have recognised our failure: but will we handle the situation any better next time? Mmm, not so sure about that...

In the New Testament James the brother of Jesus adds another quite alarming illustration to go along with fire and greed: poison. “The tongue is a restless evil, full of deadly poison”. That’s pretty strong language!

Whatever else, these illustrations leave no room for doubt that our words – whether deliberately malicious or just plain careless - can have an effect beyond our wildest nightmares.

Of course, gossip can come cleverly disguised as sensitive pastoral care. Someone in a prayer group says in a very concerned voice, “We really ought to be praying for Jack and Kelly during this difficult time”. But, instead of praying, everyone is thinking, “So what’s happening with Jack and Kelly? Health problems? A spiritual crisis? Their marriage is breaking up? Their dog has died?”

I was once told off by someone on the fringe of the church: “Will you please tell your people to stop praying for me! I haven’t asked them and I’d be grateful if they would mind their own business”. I felt ashamed, and rightly so.

Why is gossip so tempting? Well, as I said earlier, it makes you feel important, part of the in-crowd. Perhaps gossips tend to be insecure, in need of a purpose in the life of the church. In which case, the right advice is something like, “You have all the security you need in Christ. So relax! He, in his love, is quietly turning you into the person God intends you to be. Be content with that. Just be like him, and be yourself”. (Not a bad motto for the Christian life as a whole, that, in fact).

The extent of the problem of gossip is illustrated by the number of entries it has in my Treasury of Christian Wisdom…

I like the quote by Billy Graham: “A real Christian is a person who can give his pet parrot to the town gossip”.

What about: “Gossip is vice enjoyed vicariously” (by someone called Elbert Hubbard)? Yes, we masquerade as lovingly concerned, but really we’re loving every minute of it. Hypocrites!

And here’s a wonderful Spanish proverb: “Remember that the person who gossips to you will one day be gossiping about you”.

I don’t know if the writer Rudyard Kipling had a strong Christian faith, but he certainly hit the right note for all of us: “I always prefer to believe the best of everybody; it saves so much trouble”. Amen!

And a final word: “Just as the person who receives stolen goods is as guilty as the one who stole them in the first place, so the one who listens to gossip is as guilty as the one who speaks it.” Ouch!

Father, I remember how Jesus said that “by our words we will be acquitted, and by our words we will be condemned”. Please help me to take that saying seriously, and to do all I can to help keep my church, and indeed my whole life, gossip-free. Amen.

Superstition - a stepping-stone to true faith?

¹⁰ In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah, Jehoash son of Jehoahaz became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned sixteen years. ¹¹ He did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit; he continued in them…

¹⁴ Now Elisha had been suffering from the illness from which he died. Jehoash king of Israel went down to see him and wept over him. “My father! My father!” he cried. “The chariots and horsemen of Israel!”

¹⁵ Elisha said, “Get a bow and some arrows,” and he did so. ¹⁶ “Take the bow in your hands,” he said to the king of Israel. When he had taken it, Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands. ¹⁷ “Open the east window,” he said, and he opened it. “Shoot!” Elisha said, and he shot. “The Lord’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!” Elisha declared. “You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek.” ¹⁸ Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped. ¹⁹ The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.”

²⁰ Elisha died and was buried.

2 Kings 13:10-20

What a very strange story!

King Jehoash of Israel, not a king noted for his devotion to God (verse 11), hears that the old man of God, the prophet Elisha, is at the point of death. You might think he would rejoice at this news, or at least feel smugly satisfied.

But no: he “went down to see him and wept over hm. ‘My father! My father!’ he cried…” Doesn’t that sound like truly filial devotion?

Then he utters a strange cry: “The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” What’s that supposed to mean!

Elisha tells him to get a bow and arrows. He puts his feeble hands over Jehoash’s and tells him to shoot. Elisha declares this arrow to be “The Lord’s arrow of victory… over Aram!”

As if that’s not enough mystification, Elisha now tells Jehoash to take the remaining arrows and “strike the ground” with them. This Jehoash does; whereupon Elisha gets angry with him for limiting the strikes to just three - “You should have struck the ground five or six times!” Apparently this failure means that Jehoash’s victory over the Arameans will be less than total.

We might, I think, be forgiven for throwing up our hands in despair and exclaiming, “What on earth is going on here!”

Can we clear up some of the mystification? Well, we can but try…

First, when King Jehoash exclaimed, “The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” (verse 14) he was echoing the exact words of Elisha himself as a young man when he was adopted by Elijah as his successor (2 Kings 2:11-12). (Presumably Elisha at that moment had seen some kind of vision preparing for Elijah’s “assumption” into heaven.) By quoting those words now Jehoash was showing that he was familiar with what must have become a legend in Israel over perhaps fifty years. Was he expecting Elisha to go to God in the same way Elijah had done (if so verse 20 makes it clear that he was mistaken)? Whatever, he is showing great respect, even veneration, for the dying prophet.

Second, what sense can we make of the business with the bow and arrows?

This seems to have been a prophecy, though one acted out rather than spoken. Elisha is demonstrating to Jehoash what is going to happen regarding the enemy Arameans. His hands may be feeble, but by “putting them on the king’s hands” and by calling the first arrow “the arrow of victory over Aram!” he is saying, in effect, “God will use you to subdue the Arameans”.

Third, what about the puzzling business of “striking the ground” with the remaining arrows?

Jehoash does exactly as he is told – only for Elisha to tell him off angrily for failing to do it hard enough. I think we may assume that Jehoash and Elisha had built up a relationship over the preceding years (“My father! My father!” certainly implies that) and had had many conversations together. Perhaps Elisha had, over the years, sensed in Jehoash a half-heartedness which he detected here. Hence his anger.

Does that help? I hope so. But we are looking back to a place, a time and a whole religious culture which are very alien to where we are today. So to some extent we need to just let the puzzles be; they are not for us to fathom fully.

But I think there is something we can reasonably speculate on: the fact that there was a close relationship between the godless king on the one hand and the godly prophet on the other. It seems that Jehoash certainly wasn’t by any means anti-Elisha. He couldn’t help but be impressed by him and the prospect of his approaching death alarmed and even frightened him (“… he wept over him”). He had come to depend on him for his wisdom, even if he didn’t always follow it.

To me this has something to say to us about what we might call religious superstition - which is as much a reality today as it was nearly a thousand years before Christ.

Jehoash wasn’t a “godly” king; his “faith”, such as it was, seems to have emotional and superstitious rather than true; but the bond between the two men seems to have been genuine, and Elisha didn’t dismiss it.

Surveys tell us that most people pray, even if they are not involved in any kind of religious organisation or activity, and even if they say they don’t believe in God. The most recent surveys tell us that growth in outlandish views is accelerating, not least among younger people.

It’s as if we human beings are hard-wired to have a “religious” streak which surfaces especially at times of crisis or difficulty.

If this is right, what does it mean for us? I think at least this: that we needn’t be overly pessimistic when people dismiss our faith and convictions out of hand. We don’t know what is going on inside them -  God may be very much at work in ways we would never guess. Our business, especially if overt evangelism isn’t appropriate, is simply to live as Christlike a life as we can, and to pray that he will be seen even in us.

Even a shallow and superstitious faith may deepen and mature into the real, Christ-centred thing! The question is: are we offering the right kind of example and guidance?

Father God, let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. I don’t know what may be going on deep down in the heart of my unbelieving neighbour, but I pray that even my poor, imperfect witness may have the effect of drawing them to Christ. Amen.

A man who spoke truth to power (2)

²² It was the ninth month and the king was sitting in the winter apartment, with a fire burning in the brazier in front of him. ²³ Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king cut them off with a scribe’s knife and threw them into the brazier, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire. ²⁴ The king and all his attendants who heard all these words showed no fear, nor did they tear their clothes. ²⁵ Even though Elnathan, Delaiah and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them…

²⁷ After the king burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah’s dictation, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ²⁸ “Take another scroll and write on it all the words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah burned up…” And many similar words were added to them.

Jeremiah 36:22-32

Last time we looked at the rather bizarre process by which the godless King of Judah, Jehoiakim, attempted to silence the prophet Jeremiah - he brazenly burned the written account of his utterances. Jeremiah’s prediction, remember, was that Judah would fall to King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, so the wise thing to do was to surrender.

Once Jehoiakim had done his burning act, Jeremiah’s response to his cynical disobedience was not to shrug his shoulders and say “Oh well, we did what we could”, but to write the words out a second time and send his friend Baruch out to read them to the people. Not one to give up, Jeremiah!

We saw in these events an insight into how some of the books of the Bible, especially of the prophets, may have first come to be written – disciples copied and preserved an early stage in the various writings, to await the time when the whole “Bible” would be formed.

The story – portraying God’s people at crisis point - prompts a number of thoughts for us today – warnings, challenges and encouragements.

First, we need to take serious notice of Jehoiakim’s sinful attitude.

To disregard God’s word – even though in this situation it wasn’t yet generally recognised as such – is folly indeed. This applies to all of us who, through hearing the preaching or the teaching of his word, or through personal reading – arrogantly fail to take it to heart.

How many of us are attempting to silence God’s voice through inattention, stubborn disobedience or just plain indifference? Assuming that the gruesome prophecy of verses 30-31came true, it’s clear that Jehoiakim came to what is sometimes called “a bad end”. Our circumstances are of course very different, but we are wise to take it as a warning that we trifle with God’s word at our peril. Are any of us knowingly living in disobedience to God’s will? Is it time for a serious rethink?

(What makes Jehoiakim’s story doubly sad is that he was the son of King Josiah, the boy-king who had reigned for thirty-one years. When he was twenty-six Josiah had set about repairing the temple, during which task “the Book of the Law of the Lord” (presumably part of Exodus) was discovered. Alarmed by what he read, he embarked on a cleansing of the spiritual life of the nation, and is remembered as a king who “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord” (2 Kings 22:2).

One king honours and humbles himself before God’s word; the other, even though his son, cynically tosses it into the flames. How this would have broken Josiah’s heart if he could have foreseen it! - a reminder to us, if we need a reminder, that true godliness is not passed on in our family tree...)

Second, Jeremiah 36 reminds us that faithfulness to God’s word can be a painful and costly business.

Like many men and women of God throughout history, those who have “taken up their cross to follow Jesus” in a pretty literal sense have known suffering such as many of us can only imagine. This certainly applies to Jeremiah. It’s no exaggeration to say he was a tormented soul. In chapter 15 verse 10, for example, he expresses the wish that he had never been born; in 20:14 he literally curses that day: “Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed!” (Strong shades there of poor Job in his agony).

The life spent following Jesus is wonderful indeed: he promises us “life to the full” (John 10:10). But let’s make no mistake: that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s easy. The call to take up our cross to follow him may not be a literal call for us: but it has been for many down through history, and still is today for some. This is a lesson Jeremiah can vividly teach us.

How did Jeremiah die? There is, it seems, no authentic written record, but there are legends that he was carried off to Egypt at the time of the fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar, where he continued to preach to other Jewish refugees – and ended up being stoned to death. If these stories are true there would be a certain fitness to them – he endured a tortured end to a tortured life, and was a fitting precursor to Jesus.

As Christians, have we ever seriously “counted the cost” of following Jesus?

But, third, we must finish on a positive note: Jeremiah 36 teaches us that ultimately the word of God cannot be silenced or destroyed.

All right, King Jehoiakim systematically sliced up those scrolls of Jeremiah’s writings and put them in the fire. Whereupon Jeremiah and Baruch shrugged their shoulders and heaved a sigh?… No! they simply repeated the process.

Truth ultimately prevails. How can it not, if our world is indeed governed by the God of truth? Jehoiakim is lost in ignominy. And Jeremiah may have died a wretched death far from home. But we can be sure he has gone to his heavenly rest – and we can, in the year 2025 AD, still open our Bibles and read “the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah”.

Father, we think of your servant Jeremiah as a spiritual giant, truly a precursor of Jesus. but  we read of his doubts and agonisings and realise he was made of the same stuff as us today. Please help us to stand bravely for your truth in all our daily circumstances. Amen.