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.