The Issue of Prayer and Healing...

This week we are looking at a letter that was written by the half brother of Jesus and recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of James. Yesterday, we saw James reveal for us a timeless and true principle when it comes to the faith that works in that the faith that works embraces and engages in prayer.

We talked about the reality that prayer, simply put, is entering into communion and communication with God. Prayer is creating space to enter into God’s personal presence and spend time with God. Prayer was divinely designed as an opportunity to spend time with God. Prayer is divinely designed to be the vehicle by which we experience life with Jesus and life change by Jesus.

And in James 5:13-18, we see James reveal for us four different ways that the faith that works embraces and engages in prayer. First, in James 5:13, we saw that the faith that works embraces and engages in prayer because prayer provides the opportunity to engage God. When we pray we are creating space to engage God. We are creating space where we can engage God with the difficult circumstances that are causing suffering in our lives. And we are creating space to engage God by praising Him for that happiness and joy that we may be experiencing as a result of our circumstances.

Prayer is about engaging God in a way that results in us experiencing God’s presence in the midst of whatever circumstances that we find ourselves in. Prayer is about experiencing God’s presence, whether God chooses to take us out of our circumstances or whether He chooses to take us through our circumstances. Today, we will see James reveal a second way that the faith that works embraces and engages in prayer in James 5:14-15:

Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.

Now these two verses are two of the most discussed and debated verses in the entire Bible when it comes to the issue of prayer and the issue of healing. And over time, there have been four differing views when it comes to how these verses are to be understood. So what I would like to do is to guide us through a process by which we look at these verses in a way that asks and answers the questions that are necessary so that we can come to understand what James is communicating in these verses.

James begins verse 14 by asking the question: “Is anyone among you sick?” Now that leads us to the first question that we need to ask and answer, which is “what kind of sickness is James referring to?” Now the word sick here, in the language that this letter was originally written in can refer to a debilitating physical illness. Or the word sick can mean to be weak. So which one is it? In verse 13, James is referring to those who were suffering emotionally or spiritually and those who were experiencing joy and happiness as a result of their circumstances.  However, that does not mean that James could not also be referring here to someone who is physically suffering.

Now a natural question that arises here is “Well Dave, how can we know whether James is talking about physical, emotional, or spiritual suffering?” Great question. And the answer would be to keep reading on to see if what James says next helps us answer that question. In the next part of verse 14, James answers his question by commanding the person who is sick “to call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord”. 

Now when James refers to the Elders of the church, he is referring to those in the leadership of the church who have been given the leadership responsibility to protect, care, lead, feed those who are a part of the church. As the leaders of the church, the Elders are to pray over the person who is sick, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The oil that was used was olive oil. Now that leads us to the next question that we need to ask and answer which is “what is the purpose and point of anointing with oil?”

There have been four different views when it comes to the point and purpose of the anointing with oil. The first view is referred to as the medicinal view, which maintains that the olive oil served to have a medicinal purpose in the physical healing of a person. The problem with this view, however, is that there is no evidence that anointing with oil was used for any medical problem. In addition, why would James only mention one remedy when many other physical illnesses could be encountered? Why wouldn’t James say “if you encounter this physical disease use olive oil, but if you encounter that physical disease use this treatment?”

The second view is referred to as the pastoral view. This view maintains that the anointing of oil was designed to stimulate the faith of the sick person. In other words, the oil served to jump-start the faith of the person so that the person would be healed. The problem with this view, however, is that while Jesus sometimes used a physical prop in his healings that stimulated the faith of the one who was healed, the value of the anointing here does not lie in any physical connection between the anointing and the illness, as was the case in Jesus healings.

The third view is referred to as the sacramental view, which maintains that the anointing is mandated by God as a physical element through which He works the grace of healing in the sick believer. This view is maintained by the Catholic Church and is called “the anointing of the sick, or, extreme unction. However, the problem with this view is that, as we will see in a few minutes, James insistence that the sick are healed through the prayer of faith suggests that the anointing itself does not convey the grace of healing power.

The fourth view views the anointing of oil as a physical action with symbolic significance. As the Elders pray, they are to anoint the sick person with oil in order to symbolize that the person is being set apart for God’s special attention and care. As the Elders pray asking God to heal the sick person, the oil serves as a symbol to acknowledge that this person is being set apart, by the Elders, for God’s special intervention and healing.

This view seems to relate best to what James says next, which is that “and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him." You see, the focus is not on the anointing oil; the focus is on the prayer of faith. James point is that the prayer of faith, which as we saw in the previous phrase, was offered in the name of the Lord, will restore the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up.

Now that leads us to the next set of questions that we need to ask and answer, which is “what is the prayer of faith? And how are they restored and raised up? Physically, spiritually, or emotionally? Is James here saying that the prayer of faith guarantees physical healing here on earth?”  Now there is a stream of Christianity, which is referred to as the Prosperity Gospel movement that would say just that. 

Proponents of prosperity theology and the prosperity gospel maintain that God desires that everyone prosper financially and physically as a result of their spirituality. Prosperity theology maintains what is called a “name it and claim it” mentality when it comes to a person’s health and wealth. In other words, if you just have enough faith, you can ask God for large material or physical blessings and He will provide. All you need is faith. “Just name it by faith and you can claim it by faith”. Those who embrace prosperity theology will refer to themselves as being “word of faith communities”. So, for the person who is sick, if they just have enough faith, their prayer of faith would provide healing.

However, there is a huge problem with prosperity theology. And that problem is this: any theological category that is true to the message and teachings of Jesus must be able to have Jesus fit into that category. Because, when you look at the definition of a spiritually mature person in prosperity gospel; that a spiritually mature person was wealthy, with good relationships and without pain or anxiety, that definition excludes Jesus.

Prosperity theology maintains that the spiritually mature will be blessed physically, yet, when we read the accounts of Jesus life that are recorded for us in the Bible, we discover that Jesus was beaten and crucified. So did Jesus not have enough faith? Did Jesus have sin in His life? Was Jesus spiritually immature? You see, Jesus would not be welcomed into the prosperity gospel movement as being spiritually mature. And if Jesus cannot fit into your theology, then your theology is faulty. Those who say that people who are not healed because they did not have enough faith are looking at faith and its results in a way that is profoundly unbiblical.

In addition, did you notice who is doing the praying in this verse. The prayer of faith that heals is not the prayer of the one who is sick; the prayer of faith that heals is the prayer of the Elders. Are the Elders therefore at fault if the prayer for healing does not bring healing in a reasonable amount of time? Would the healing have taken place if the Elders just had more faith?

The key to understanding what James is communicating here is to connect the phrase “in the name of the Lord” with the phrase “the prayer offered in faith”. You see, to ask for something in the name of the Lord, to pray for healing in Jesus name, does not simply mean that we utter Jesus name like it is a magic formula. Instead, to pray in Jesus name is to pray in a way that takes into account Jesus will. We see this reality revealed by James half-brother Jesus in John 14:12-14:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. "Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. "If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

Notice what Jesus says here: "Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” Jesus point is that God will respond to the prayer that is focused on accomplishing the mission of God in a way that advances God’s kingdom and makes much of God. You see, the faith that James is talking about in these verses; the faith exercised in this prayer is the faith in the God who sovereignly exercises His will.

The New Testament clearly demonstrates that God does not always will to heal the believer. For example, in John chapter 5, Jesus walked past multitudes who were praying to be healed to heal a person who did not even demonstrate faith in Jesus. And 2 Corinthians 12:7-9, God rejected Paul’s request to be healed because in Paul’s physical weakness God would be glorified. The prayer of faith is the prayer that confidently trusts in God’s ability to heal and that believes that when its God’s will for that healing to occur, the faith, which in itself is a gift from God, will be present.

But that still brings us back to the question “what kind of healing are we talking about?” On the one hand, I do not believe that James is simply and only talking about physical healing. Because if James was only talking about physical healing, why would he mention the last part of verse 15: “and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him." On the other hand, I do not necessarily believe that James is only talking about emotional or spiritual healing.

Instead, I believe that James is revealing for us the reality that the faith that works embraces and engages in prayer because prayer provides the opportunity for healing. When we pray we are creating space to engage God in a way that provides the opportunity for God to bring healing in our lives as a result of the difficult circumstances that are causing suffering in our lives, whether that suffering is physical, emotional, or spiritual. And we are creating space to engage God in a way that confidently trusts in God’s ability to heal and that trusts in God’s will to either bring us out of or through the suffering that we are experiencing, whether that suffering is physical, emotional, or spiritual in nature.

The letters in the Bible are filled with faithful and prayerful people who made much of Jesus through His healing power over their physical, spiritual and emotional suffering. And the letters of the Bible are filled with faithful and prayerful people who made much of Jesus through their lives of suffering. Remember, prayer is about experiencing God’s presence, whether God chooses to take us out of our circumstances or whether He chooses to take us through our circumstances.

Tomorrow, we will see James reveal a third way that the faith that works embraces and engages in prayer...