In preparation for the Return of Christ, James 5: 7-18 gives
encouragement to anyone who is in trouble, anyone who is happy and anyone who
is sick. It speaks of patience, relationships, and the power of prayer. The
passage exhorts those who are ill to seek healing prayer from the elders of the
church (5:13-14). With regard to chaplaincy, this paper is not necessarily
about what happens in the process of a visit[i], but
rather about the underlying expectations, reflections and beliefs that the
chaplain may have.
Healing Ministry depends on two strong and connected promises: The
prayer of faith will heal the sick; and The Lord will raise him up. They focus on what God will do, and what faith
can accomplish. Christ and James used a Greek word which is translatable both
as “heal” and “save”, e.g. “Your faith has saved you”. “Your faith has healed
you”.[ii]
Prayer
for Healing and for Forgiveness should go together.
Pastoral
sensitivity is needed in dealing with these issues with patients. James 5: 16
reads: “confess your sins to one another and pray that you may be healed”. Some
sickness is caused by sin, some by Satanic attack and mostly by living in the
fallen world.
Pray with Affiance.
There is an exhortation to trust and to be patient. Job and Elijah are
presented as examples of people like us – to indicate the importance of faith, of
patience and empowerment in prayer. The Prayer of Faith cannot be inconsistent
with Faith as Fruit of the Spirit[iii]. So
the “prayer of faith” cannot be interpreted as the prayer of emotional
intensity, or as a human effort to put increasing pressure upon the Almighty.
It is produced by the Holy Spirit. It is characterised by love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. James 4:3 emphasises
the need to ask to receive. The faith being applied is supernatural faith given
by grace by God – the same faith by which we were saved.[iv]. This
faith is like a positive form of defiance. In fact there is an archaic
English word for it. It is affiance[v].
It is a commitment to stand firm with persevering faith regardless of what is
observable.[vi]
Healing
is a delegated activity of Christ through church elders.
Anoint with oil and
pray with the authority of the promise
– “the prayer of faith will heal the sick” and bring also assurance of
forgiveness where this is needed. Mark 6: 13 (ESV) reads: And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick
and healed them. This is the only reference in the Gospels to anointing
with oil. The context is Jesus sending out the Twelve with authority (Mark 6:
7). James sees this delegated authority from Christ being devolved onto the
elders of the local church(es).[vii] The
rite of anointing with oil should not be seen as obligatory. Christ never
instituted it in the way in which he instituted Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
There is only one place in the New Testament where we are told that the
apostles did it, but they often exercised the authority which anointing would symbolise. The holy anointing oil formed an
integral part of the ordination of the priesthood, and of prophets and kings.
In Hebrew and Greek the words for anointing with oil are cognate with the title
Messiah or Christ. Christ is the
Anointed One, and James is saying that just as the apostles exercised this
delegated authority from Christ to heal, so should the church elders. Healing
is not merely prayed for but is also declared!
Along with the elders having authority from Christ to heal, verse 16 encourages
group intercessions and petitions to God for healing and forgiveness.
Healing is presented as the will of God (in contrast to over-confident assertions about future life style
activities which James 4: 13-17 says are contingent on the unknown will of God).
“The prayer of faith will heal the
sick and the Lord will raise him up.
Because of the nature of the promise and because of the nature of faith, we
should adhere to the instruction, live with paradoxes, and not change our
prayer to conform to earthly visibility. Because flesh and blood cannot inherit
the Kingdom of God[viii],
we shall die before Christ returns, but that death is within the process of
overarching eternal healing. By faith we defy the limits of the present order.
Because with Christ as head over the church God is currently in process of using
the church within his plan to recapitulate all things[ix], we
should expect in-breakings of the coming Kingdom, even in miraculous ways.
[i] The ministry activity of James 5 depends upon it being asked for. No attempt should be made anywhere to manipulate it
or
impose it. As with any other ministry by a chaplain, it is connected with the
level of “contract” provided by the patient or
other
client, and their response to any discussion which may arise; and to whatever
level of instruction or preparation may
appropriately
be provided by the chaplain.
[ii] Mark 10: 52; Luke 7: 52; Luke
17: 19.
[iii] Galatians 5: 2-23
[iv] “faith from the Son of God”
Galatians 2: 20
[v] archaic
“trust”, “confidence” Middle English, from Anglo-French, from affier to
pledge, trust, from Medieval Latin affidare to pledge, from Latin ad-
+ Vulgar Latin *fidare to trust. (Merriam Webster);
14th
century - Piers Ploughman "Mine affiance and my feith
is firm in his belive";
Litany in The
Book of Common Prayer 1662 - prayer that the monarch "may ever more
have affiance in thee and seek thy honour and glory".
[vi] Hebrews
11: 1-2. Faith is the title deed of property not yet in possession. The promise
is the only evidence of the expected results still invisible.
[vii] Calling of the elders to pray over
the sick is presented by James in such a way that it should be seen as part of
universal church order, not just as an optional extra for healing services or
for churches or groups that go for it.
[viii] 1 Corinthians 15: 50
[ix] (Ephesians 1 : 10-23)
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