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James 5:17-18a
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Praying with Power, Part One James 5:7-20
Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. There you have it. If you are sick all you need to do is to call the elders, they will offer a prayer of faith and you will be free from sickness. Why do we fear this passage? Why do we doubt claims of miracles and healing? Are we sp skeptical because we have seen so many abuses? Faith healers have been making outrageous claims of miraculous healings for the past century. Probably the most famous modern faith healer is Benny Hinn. Listen to the prediction he made in 1999, "People are going to be canceling funeral services and bringing their dead in their caskets, placing them before a TV set, waiting for God's power to…touch them." He said they would be raised from the dead by the thousands. http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/deadwilllive.html Benny Hinn raised 30 million dollars to build a Miracle Healing Center in Dallas that was never built. No one knows what happened to the money. Benny Hinn is not the only huckster out there, but I tend to single him out because he has made himself such an easy target! False claims of healing and miracles are to be found everywhere. The average Christian does not want to be associated with these excesses and abuses so we begin to wonder if miracles like healing are even possible today. We don’t want to be guilty of limiting God so we say things like, “Of course God can heal people—he can do whatever he wants”, but how many of us actually pray and expect God to do a miracle? What does the Bible really say about healing? Can this passage in James be understood in light of true miracles of healing? Three weeks ago you elected a new group of elders. Would these elders please stand up for a moment? Here are your chosen elders. Is James claiming that these men are now faith healers? We believe that the Bible is the perfect and complete revelation of God’s will to mankind. But the Bible is also a dangerous weapon when it is misused and abused. This is not an easy passage, but we must wrestle with it so that we can understand it and apply it to our own church. First, let’s read the healing verse in its full context. 13 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. 17 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. 19 My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, 20 remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins. This passage is primarily about prayer. It reads like a Frequently Asked Questions on a website about prayer. Four questions are put forth regarding different life situations and then James answers each question related to prayer. The first of four questions is one that certainly has relevance to many of us. Is anyone of you in trouble? The book of James has a lot to say about suffering and the trials and troubles of life. In chapter one we were told to be joyful when trials come our way. In this concluding section of his book, we are simply told to pray. Are you in trouble? Then pray. Good general advice to be sure, but is there any indication of what we should pray for when we are in trouble? Indeed, there are several obvious clues as to the content of our prayers during trouble. Going back to chapter one we are reminded to pray for wisdom. In chapter one James wrote, If any of you lacks wisdom he should ask God. The implication in that question was that we all lack wisdom and that it is an ongoing deficiency. In other words, no one ever has enough wisdom. And do you recall our definition of wisdom? Wisdom is a combination of right beliefs and right actions. Usually we lack the right beliefs with leads to either wrong actions or inaction. When you are in trouble we need to pray for wisdom to know and to do the right thing. Secondly we should pray patience. In verse seven James instructs us to be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. How many of you like to receive quick answers to your prayers? I mean, who doesn’t. If we are in trouble, then we will probably need a relatively quick answer to our prayer so that God can get us out of trouble. But instead of a quick answer we are told to wait until the Lord’s coming. Now what kind of an answer to prayer is that? For one, it is a Biblical answer. This assumes many things in reference to our prayers for help. First it assumes that we may not get the answer we want. James assumes that some troubles will continue until Jesus returns, or until we die—whichever comes first. We may not get the answer in this lifetime. God wants to see our perseverance grow and mature as we suffer. But even as we grow in the character quality of perseverance, we realize that we may not get the relief from trouble that we have been waiting for—at least until we understand the second assumption. This prayer for perseverance also assumes that we will be rewarded for our patience and perseverance. James used two illustrations to show this. The first is the illustration of the farmer waiting for the needed rains to grow his crops. The farmer waits and perseveres but eventually the rain comes and he gets what he had been praying for. The other illustration used by James is from the life of Job. James reminds us in vv. 11 that the Lord finally brought about a reward for Job by restoring his fortune and family. This is like a neat little story where the main characters face a huge obstacle only to have everything end with a happy ending. But our lives don’t always have happy endings, do they? The rain doesn’t always come just in time. Our lost fortunes and lost family members do not return to us. The chronic illness is still with us. Our wayward son or daughter has not returned to the Lord. Our marriage is not yet healed. If we are honest sometimes we don’t feel as if life is treating us fairly. Why should we be patient and persevere if we don’t eventually get what we need? Because there is still an ultimate justice awaiting us. Look at the concluding remark to the farmer illustration in vv. 7-8. The farmer is patiently waiting for the rains which seem guaranteed to come. Then in v. 8 we are told to be patient and remain firm because the Lord’s coming is near. This is not at all the answer we would have expected to follow from the patient farmer. In the illustration the farmer go the rains he needed so we would expect James to follow this story by saying—you too will be rewarded with what you need if you persevere. But that is not what he said. There is no guarantee of a final payoff, just an encouragement to remain firm until the Lord’s return. Ahh, now do you see the reward? The final payoff is not guaranteed in this life because it doesn’t come until the next life. Jesus himself is the final reward. The Lord’s coming will right all wrongs. Jesus’ return will bring final justice to all. If you persevere the spring rains and relief from your trouble may come in this life—but there is no guarantee. The guarantee of perseverance is a reward in heaven Also, as you wait patiently during your trouble, we are warned not to grumble against other Christians. This type of grumbling is not complaining, but is more of a groaning which is the opposite of persevering. If your troubles wear you down and affect others then you have just made more trouble for yourself. We cannot and should not groan to others, but we can groan to God. An excellent example of how to groan to God would be Psalm 13. 1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? 2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? 3 Look on me and answer, O Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; 4 my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall. 5 But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. 6 I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me.
This is true, Biblical groaning. How long will my trouble last? How much more can I endure? What happened to this man’s trouble at the end of the Psalm? Did God take care of his troubles? We don’t have nay indication that the troubles were solved. There is no earthly conclusion to the problems—the enemies are still on the prowl, sorrow is still lingering in his heart—yet he trusts in God will deliver him—either in this life or the next. Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Pray for patience, perseverance, wisdom and a heart that groans only to God.
James next question is a bit easier. Is anyone happy? If so, let him sing songs of praise. Singing is praying with a melody attached to it. All of the songs we sang this morning are prayers. Now like every other prayer, songs can be meaningless repetition or they can be thoughtful expressions of our inner hearts. But some may object—“how can the words to all of these songs projected on an overhead screen which were chosen by someone else truly reflect my own individual heart. Isn’t that a bit like praying from a book of prayers instead of praying spontaneously from your heart?” Written prayers can be mindless and meaningless or they can be heartfelt and meaningful. Songs can also be mindless and meaningless or they can meaningful. The responsibility lies with each person engaged in worship to find and apply the truth of a prayer of the truth of a prayerful song to their own lives. Are you happy? Then tell God by singing a praise song.
Now for the most difficult question—is any one of you sick? The answer to this question may seem simple and straightforward, but we should carefully break down each part of the answer to make sure we do not draw a faulty conclusion. There are really three steps and a two-part conclusion. Step one is to call for the elders. Why the elders? Why not call in those who have the gift of healing? A thorough study of the gift of healing would tell us that such people cannot control the results of their healing gifts. In other words, God chooses to heal people in a concentrated way through the prayers of a select group of people. According to Scripture, such people are given gifts of healings, not the gift of healing. The gift of healing would imply that they could use their healing gift whenever they please like a teacher might use his or her teaching gift. But “gifts of healings” implies that any Christian could be a vessel of the Holy Spirit to effect healing in another person. Therefore, in this case the elders may receive gifts of healings in order to heal the sick person.
The second step is to anoint the sick person with oil. There are two possible reasons for this—one is medicinal and one is symbolic. Medicinal oils were very common in the first century. In Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan, the wounds of the man who was beaten were treated with oil and wine. It's quite possible that the oil mentioned in James was for medicinal purposes. The other strong possibility is that the oil was meant to be a symbolic anointing representing the power of God to heal. Just as the water in baptism is a symbol of our death and resurrection, oil could be a symbol of healing from the Holy Spirit.
We cannot determine the actual meaning with certainty, but one thing is for certain—it was not intended as a magical healing potion. One website that specializes in Catholic sacraments offers a healing package which includes the following : one prayer cloth of the saint of your choosing; one set of prayer beads; one vial of anointing oil blessed by a priest; and a package of blessed salt. http://www.cukierski.net/healingpackages.htm This is magic—touch the magic prayer cloth and you will be healed. Magic was not at all implied in the anointing oil in James. As a matter of fact every Sunday we have a vial of oil available for anyone who wants to be anointed with oil and prayed for. It’s nothing fancy—just Walmart vegetable oil in a plastic container. The oil does not matter, and while this oil would not have any medicinal value, we use it for those who understand this passage in a symbolic manner and want to follow it literally.
So far we have established that the elders are not gifted healers and the anointing oil is not a magic potion, but look what happens in the third step: the elders pray for the sick person in the name of the Lord and they are healed. There are several things to point out about this healing. First, it is a definite healing—the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. It does not say it might make the sick person well or that sometimes the sick person will be made well—it says the sick person WILL be made well. That is the thing that bothers us, isn’t it. If the prayer worked sometimes and didn’t work other times we would be more comfortable with this passage. Why, because then it would match with what we observe in the real world. We all pray for sick people to get better, but it doesn’t always happen. So when we read a verse like this that is a 100% guarantee of a physical healing, we get confused and perhaps even a little angry.
The second thing to pint out is that the healing is not done by the elders or by a powerful faith, but by the Lord—the Lord will raise him up. Full glory and credit are given to the Lord. Sorry elders, but we don’t get any of the credit here. The third thing to notice is even though the Lord actually does the healing, a necessary part of the healing is what James calls the prayer offered in faith. It is very important to understand what this prayer of faith is all about because this is the center of so much abuse. For so many churches that regularly practice prayers of healing, faith is always the key component. If a sick person is not healed after they are prayed for, who is blames for the lack of healing? The sick person is always blames for not having enough faith. This is the ultimate example of adding insult to injury. Not only is the sick person not healed—potentially of a life threatening illness—but then they are shamed for having such a puny, inadequate faith.
This is horribly injurious to the sick person and incredibly convenient for the pastor or the one who prayed for a healing. If I pray for a person and they are not healed, it’s not my fault. I have the gift of healing but that person did not have enough faith to be healed. They really didn’t want to be healed so it didn’t work. I think we would all agree that this is about as disgusting an example of Christianity as you can get. According to James, whose faith is important here? The prayer of faith is the faith of the elders, not the sick person! When it says, “the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well” the faith is the faith of the elders—the ones doing the praying. In one verse you prove wrong all faith healers who blame sick people for not having enough faith. This verse says they are actually the ones to blame. But that doesn’t really solve the problem, does it? If we pray for a healing that does not come, all we have done is to transfer blame from the sick person to the one doing the praying. There has to be another explanation for this prayer of faith—especially since it seems to work all of the time.
The prayer of faith is much like the gift of faith. If you are given the gift of faith it means that God has laid something on your heart in such a powerful and clear manner that you know—you have full faith that it will come to pass. Now if that person prays according to God’s will—what he has laid on their heart—then their prayer will be answered. There is no uncertainty to the outcome of such a prayer—it will be answered. This is the same thing that happens when you pray a prayer of faith for a sick person to be healed. If one person—or in the case of a group of elders, several people—have prayed and have been given an assurance that they should pray for healing—then when they pray this prayer of faith it will bring about a healing because it was the Lord’s will to heal all along. As James says, this kind of prayer is powerful and effective because it is prayed according to God’s will and accomplished in God’s power.
As an example of just such a prayer, James offered the example of the prophet Elijah. This verse has also caused me much trouble over the years. Listen to the way it starts. Elijah was a man just like us. When we read that we think, “Really—was Elijah really just like me?” But then you can get discouraged if you keep reading. Elijah prayed fervently that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Now we know James must be crazy. How can Elijah be like us in any sense if he was able to effectively pray for such an enormous thing as a 3 ½ year drought? Elijah was a superman of God—he was not like me at all. Oh, bur he was. Let me explain why I can confidently say this.
Here is a short version of the events surrounding the prayer for a drought that James mentions. Elijah declares there will be no rain until he says otherwise (prayer is assumed here bit not directly stated) Elijah hid from King Ahab for 3 ½ years Elijah came out of hiding and defeated 850 false prophets on Mt. Carmel Elijah predicted rain and it began to rain (again, prayer is assumed) Elijah ran for his life Elijah said, “I have had enough Lord—take my life!”
At the moment of Elijah’s great spiritual success he went into a deep depression and wanted to die. You see. Elijah was a man just like us. He got depressed, discouraged and disgusted with life. He was just like us! If Elijah really was like us then how did he pray such an amazing prayer that led to a three year drought? Here is the key question. Do you think Elijah came up with this idea about a drought completely on his own and then asked God to do it? I highly doubt it. I think that God told him that there would be a long drought, then Elijah prayed a prayer of faith that there would be a drought, then Elijah declared to King Ahab that there would be a drought. God gave the assurance—Elijah prayed—then his prayer was answered. This is precisely the kind of prayer for healing that James is talking about.
So does this mean that we should not pray for healing unless we have a complete assurance of healing from God. We’ll have to save that question for next week when we also look at the association with sin and sickness.
Rich Maurer September 12, 2004 |