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Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity, Year B, 2024 — exegesis on the Epistle, James 5:13-20, part 1

The Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity — the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost — is September 29, 2024.

Readings for Year B in 2024 can be found here.

The exegesis for the Gospel, Mark 9:38-50, can be found here.

The Epistle is as follows (emphases mine):

James 5:13-20

5:13 Are any among you suffering? They should Pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.

5:14 Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord.

5:15 The Prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.

5:16 Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.

5:17 Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.

5:18 Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest.

5:19 My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another,

5:20 you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Commentary comes from Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.

We have now reached the end of the letter from James to his Jewish converts.

The Lectionary has featured all the chapters of his letters in recent Epistle readings:

  • Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, Year B, 2024 — exegesis on the Epistle, James 1:17-27, part 1, part 2
  • Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, Year B, 2024 — exegesis on the Epistle, James 2:1-10, (11-13), 14-17 — part 1 (ring rental businesses), part 2, part 3
  • Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity — Year B — exegesis on the Epistle, James 3:1-12, part 1, part 2 (the tongue, a sinful body part)
  • Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity, Year B, 2024 — exegesis on the Epistle, James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a, parts 1, 2 and 3

As those who have followed the readings over the past few Sundays have no doubt observed, James has some hard-hitting messages. On the face of it, particularly when we look at the letter from our lax 21st century standards, James appears to be harsh.

Yet, he wants his Jewish converts to put aside their many temporal trials to focus on their salvation. He has posed them practical tests to determine the extent of their faith and how they live that faith in the everyday world.

John MacArthur has much more on this incredibly inspired letter:

… the first thing I want us to do is think about the context in which this passage is written. James is writing this letter to an assembly of Jews. They are called, in Verse 1, “Those who are scattered abroad.” They are a church, an assembly of Jews who name the name of Christ. They have been scattered out of Palestine, out of Jerusalem, by the persecutions of Acts 7 and 8. We call that the dispersion or the diaspora. And here is a group of Jews living in an assembly, naming the name of Christ, somewhere in the Mediterranean area. We don’t know where, but there would have been plenty of places they could locate in the Mediterranean region, in Asia Minor or some such place.

Because they are Jews to start with, and most certainly because they are Christians and exalt the name of Christ, they find hostility. And so, they are in a situation of tremendous stress. They are under trials. Chapter 1 opens up telling them that they are to learn how to be patient in their trials. They are under temptations that are severe. They are under persecution.

And James is writing to them in the midst of the stress and hostility and persecution and temptations and trials that the world is bringing to bear on them to exhort them to stay faithful. Some of them need to examine theirselves – themselves to see if they’re even saved. The ones who are genuinely Christians need to remain faithful in a very difficult situation. They are experiencing great trouble; they are being persecuted for what they believe. The pressure is coming at them from outside and from inside. From outside, the anti-Christ hostility; from inside, the lusts and the temptations that are elicited out of them from the things in the world that would attract them. It’s tough. It’s a battleground.

And through this wonderful epistle, James is calling his readers to endure it all. To endure it, as he says in chapter 1, without wavering, without being unstable, without doubting. To look past the pain and the persecution to the glory. To look for the crown of life, as he calls it in chapter 1, which is that eternal life for which they are prepared.

He calls them to accept their temptation as a part of humanness, but to use the means of grace to overcome it. He calls them to avoid being angry with the world, avoid being vengeful, avoid giving back an unrighteous attitude. He calls on them to put away all sin, to live by the Word of God obediently, no matter how difficult it is; not to be lured into the world to become its friend.

And so, from all of these implications – and we just covered chapter 1 in that little review – we can be sure that they were in a hostile situation, and it was very, very difficult.

In chapter 5, he returns to that same theme. Look at verse 7. He comes right back, as he closes, to the theme with which he opened the epistle, “Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, till he gets the early and late rains. You, too, be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not complain, brethren, against one another, that you yourselves may not be judged. Behold, the Judge is standing right at the door.

“As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.”

Now, you get the thrust of that, don’t you? From verse 7 to 11, he is calling them again to be faithful in persecution. They are in a continual situation of suffering. They are in a continual stress of animosity. It could produce irritability; it can produce weakness. I mean you can just sort of give up in that kind of onslaught. It’s possible for a believer to get angry, to even sin with his mouth, to retaliate, to feel vengeance.

And so, he says in verses 7 to 11, “Be patient; endure your mistreatment; strengthen your hearts.” In the Greek, the word means prop up your hearts with determination, persistence, inner strength; hang on, do not complain, suffer affliction. That’s the word in verse 10. It means to – it’s that same word we saw in 2 Timothy, kakopatheō. It means to suffer evil treatment. Endure, verse 11, hang on. You get the feeling of this epistle? It’s an exhortation to people who are under persecution to hold patiently, strongly, without complaint, taking their share of suffering and enduring it all for the name of Jesus Christ.

We certainly see in the Western world a lot of activists and protesters who are angry with the world, no matter what excuses they give for their vandalism, e.g. calling the world’s attention to climate change or the cost of living. In other parts of the West, those angry with the world take their passions to extremes and shoot people, sometimes fatally.

None of that is spiritual, godly living. Even unbelievers have higher standards than vandals and murderers.

Returning to James, in this passage he discusses the power of prayer, another notionally outmoded idea in 21st century life, including in many churches. Yet, James describes why it is so important. His words were true then and just as true today.

MacArthur says:

These verses, beloved, verses 13 to 18, are all about one subject: prayer.

Prayer is mentioned in every single verse, from verse 13 through verse 18. The heart of endurance – what is the heart of endurance? Do you want to be able to endure, what do you do? Pray. You depend on a divine resource; you go to God. And, frankly, I suppose we would have reason to be shocked if James had written an epistle to persecuted believers who were doing their best to endure a very difficult situation and started out and ended up and in the whole epistle never mentioned prayer. But he hasn’t mentioned it till now. I’m so glad he did. It’s fitting that it comes at the end, because, in a sense, it’s the climax of everything.

The persecuted, troubled, tempted church will find at the heart of its endurance is a strong commitment to prayer. This, then, is a passage on prayer. People being called to patience and endurance and strengthening of their hearts, and suffering without complaint, and taking affliction like Job did, and enduring it all are going to have to be people committed to prayer.

So, what James is telling us, then, is that the heart of your endurance is prayer. Verse 6 – go back to verse 6 of verse – of chapter 5. He speaks to the rich, and he says, “You have condemned an put to death the righteous.” I’m telling you, this kind of persecution was severe. There were some worldly, rich people who were literally killing these believers. This was a rather serious hostility. For some of them – I want to tell you something – they were suffering. Some of them had suffered, by implication of that verse, death. Some of them were suffering bodily injury, no doubt; physical wounds and being persecuted physically. Some of them were literally crushed in their mental/emotional spirit. They were really devastated. Weariness, weakness, defeat had set in, in some cases.

Some of the soldiers, to put it simply, are going down on the battlefield. Some of them have been wounded deeply. Some of them have been crippled seriously. And so, James says, “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.” That’s always the resource, beloved. It’s so simple, and it’s so direct. And somehow we lost it somewhere along the line, to be honest with you. If anyone is suffering, let him pray.

Just as a point of reference, these sermons of MacArthur’s are from 1987.

James gives us a key to prayer: those who are suffering should pray and those who are cheerful should sing songs of praise (verse 13).

Matthew Henry’s commentary provides a useful analysis on prayer, particularly in light of James’s Jewish audience, and tells us why God presides over times good and bad:

As Christians we are taught to suit ourselves to the dispensations of Providence (v. 13): Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms. Our condition in this world is various; and our wisdom is to submit to its being so, and to behave as becomes us both in prosperity and under affliction. Sometimes we are in sadness, sometimes in mirth; God has set these one over against the other that we may the better observe the several duties he enjoins, and that the impressions made on our passions and affections may be rendered serviceable to our devotions. Afflictions should put us upon prayer, and prosperity should make us abound in praise. Not that prayer is to be confined to a time of trouble, nor singing to a time of mirth; but these several duties may be performed with special advantage, and to the happiest purposes, at such seasons. 1. In a day of affliction nothing is more seasonable than prayer. The person afflicted must pray himself, as well as engage the prayers of others for him. Times of affliction should be praying times. To this end God sends afflictions, that we may be engaged to seek him early; and that those who at other times have neglected him may be brought to enquire after him. The spirit is then most humble, the heart is broken and tender; and prayer is most acceptable to God when it comes from a contrite humble spirit. Afflictions naturally draw out complaints; and to whom should we complain but to God in prayer? It is necessary to exercise faith and hope under afflictions; and prayer is the appointed means both for obtaining and increasing these graces in us. Is any afflicted? Let him pray. 2. In a day of mirth and prosperity singing psalms is very proper and seasonable. In the original it is only said sing, psalleto, without the addition of psalms or any other word: and we learn from the writings of several in the first ages of Christianity (particularly from a letter of Pliny’s, and from some passages in Justin Martyr and Tertullian) that the Christians were accustomed to sing hymns, either taken out of scripture, or of more private composure, in their worship of God. Though some have thought that Paul’s advising both the Colossians and Ephesians to speak to one another psalmois kai hymnois kai odais pneumatikais—in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, refers only to the compositions of scripture, the psalms of David being distinguished in Hebrew by Shurim, Tehillim, and Mizmorim, words that exactly answer these of the apostle. Let that be as it will, this however we are sure of, that the singing of psalms is a gospel ordinance, and that our joy should be holy joy, consecrated to God. Singing is so directed to here as to show that, if any be in circumstances of mirth and prosperity, he should turn his mirth, though alone, and by himself, in this channel. Holy mirth becomes families and retirements, as well as public assemblies. Let our singing be such as to make melody with our hearts unto the Lord, and God will assuredly be well pleased with this kind of devotion.

Lest we modern readers think that James is being insensitive, MacArthur tells us that he is anything but insensitive. He understands what his converts are going through only too well:

Now, with that as a background, then, you understand that this is a passage about prayer. It’s a passage about prayer. It’s not a passage about healing; it’s a passage about prayer. Let’s see, specifically, what it teaches. Four things that I want to point out to you. Prayer and comfort, prayer and restoration, prayer and fellowship, and prayer and power. Okay? The relationship of prayer to comfort, the relationship of prayer to restoration, the relationship of prayer to fellowship, the relationship of prayer to power.

Prayer provides to the wounded warrior comfort, restoration, fellowship, and power. That’s the idea. Each of these is a wonderful resource to that loyal Christian who is suffering greatly in his spiritual experience.

So, James – this is a – this is a look into his heart. There’s a warm, sympathetic spirit that comes through this portion of this epistle. It’s not just five chapters of strong, demanding, confronting exhortation. There’s a tenderness here. He recognizes the hardness of the conflict. He knows there’s the need of prayer. And he not only covers four features of prayer, but he fits everybody into it.

In verse 13, he talks about the believer, the individual. And then in verses 14 and 15, he talks about the elders, the pastors, the leader of the – the leaders of the church. Then in verse 16, he talks about the whole congregation, the one anothers.

MacArthur takes us through the classical Greek in the manuscript that appears in other New Testament letters — as well as in the Old Testament:

Now, with that in mind, let’s look at point number 1. This is just so rich. Prayer and comfort, verse 13, very simple. Prayer and comfort. “Is any among you suffering?” Same word as in verse 10. Exactly the same word – we saw it in 2 Timothy 2, in our study there in the mornings. It means to suffer evil treatment. “Are any of you persecuted?” That’s what it means. “Any of you being abused, treated wickedly, including some kind of bodily beatings? Any of you in distress? Any of you in calamity? Any of you that are feeling the blows and you’re crushed? Let him pray. Turn to God for comfort.” That’s the idea. Turn to God.

Peter put it this way, “Casting all your” – what? – “care on Him because He cares for you.” That’s the spirit. Pray. Take it to the Lord.

Jonah said – and Jonah was in deep trouble, no pun intended – Jonah prayed, and he said, “While I was fainting away, I remembered the Lord. And my prayer came to Thee.” That’s the spirit, Jonah 2:7. “When I begin to faint away, I remember the Lord, and I pray to Him, and God, in His wonderful grace, delivered that prophet.”

The word here in the Greek means a continual pleading. When life isn’t going the way it ought to go, and you’re weary with the battle, and you’re weak and in faith, and you’ve begun to sort of get crushed under the whole thing, continually plead to God for comfort. That’s a basic truth. I mean it’s just so basic, but so easily forgotten …

I don’t know how it is, but somehow in the colleges and seminaries and ministries of our nation, we have come to the place where pastors think their role is to preach the Word on one hand and counsel on the other. That’s not what Scripture says. You don’t go to the spiritually strong to hear their worldly wisdom; you go to the spiritually strong when you’ve hit rock bottom to get on your knees with them and be strengthened by the power of their righteous prayers. Whatever happened to that ministry? Where did it go? And who put in its place the insipid kind of things we’re living with today, where people who have no power in prayer have become the experts on helping everybody with their problems. Strange. Sad.

It’s a prayer ministry God has called us to; we’re to give ourselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the Word. I understand the ministry of the Word, and now I understand better than I ever did the ministry of prayer. It is to come alongside the wounded warriors, the broken soldiers, the brokenhearted people who are at the bottom, and they don’t even have the strength to call on God out of their own heart, and they need me. That’s the ministry. That’s the pastoral duty, to come alongside that weary Christian who is defeated, without strength, and on behalf of that individual, lift up prayers to God from a righteous heart.

MacArthur then looks at the Greek for ‘cheerful’:

On the other hand, he says, “Is anyone cheerful?” And he may be somewhat sarcastic in saying that “Let him praise.” That’s the other side …

And perhaps, as I said, even a bit sarcastically or ironically, he may be saying, “Is anyone cheerful? I mean I can’t imagine that anyone is in your circumstance, but should someone be cheerful, let him sing praises.”

Now, let me tell you about that word “cheerful.” That is a very interesting word – euthumei. Eu means well – E-U transliterated. Thumos means the principle of life or the principle of thought or the principle of feeling; to put it simply, the soul or the spirit. What he is saying is anyone who is well in spirit. That’s very helpful in understanding this text. Anyone who is well in soul. To put it simply, anyone who has a happy attitude; you’re on top. That is in contrast to the other.

He’s not talking about physical things here; he’s talking about your spirit. On the one hand, you have the suffering soul; on the other hand you have the happy soul. On the one hand, you have the wounded, broken spirit; on the other hand you have the whole, rejoicing spirit. One is singing praise; the other’s pleading for comfort.

He says, “If you’re cheerful, if you’re happy in spirit, if you’re strong of mind, strong of disposition, if you’re inner self is experiencing well-being, let him sing.” And he uses a beautiful Greek word psalletō, from which the word “psalms” comes. “Let him psalm. Let him psalm.” Praise is basic to spiritual comfort. Prayer is basic to spiritual comfort; the two are closely related.

So, verse 13 talks about comfort. “You’re in deep spiritual pain, your soul is broken? Pray. Your soul is rejoicing? Praise.” And praise is really a form of prayer, isn’t it. It’s not the petitioning, pleading form; it’s the praising, thanking form.

James then asks if any among the congregation are sick; if so, they should call for the elders of the church to pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord (verse 14).

I’m going to come back to more of MacArthur’s interpretation of this verse in a moment, but, this is what he has to say, wrapping up on verse 13 and leading us into verse 14:

So, the main interpretive point that I want you to notice out of verse 13 is that James is not concerned for prayer in relation to those who are physically sick; he’s not concerned with prayer for those who have some disease, but those who are mentally and emotionally suffering the effects of their trials, temptations, and persecutions.

Consequently, as we approach the next point, he moves beyond the one who is suffering to the one who, frankly, has just lost the ability to endure the suffering. And when he comes to verse 14, you’ve got the fallen soldier. You’ve got the wounded warrior; the exhausted, weary, depressed, defeated Christian.

‘Sick’ is the word used in most translations of the Bible in verse 14. This has led, over the centuries, to possible misinterpretations of what James meant.

As MacArthur points out, James is talking about the spiritually exhausted, the overly-stressed Christian soldier.

Henry explains the same train of thought and how it has been misinterpreted in various strains of Christianity. It was no doubt this verse that gave rise to what used to be known in the Catholic Church as the sacrament of Extreme Unction, extreme because it was to be used only at death. Unction implies an anointing. Today, the Catholic rite is called the Sacrament of the Sick and Dying. A Catholic may have the rite and anointment several times from serious illness up until death, if he or she so wishes.

Henry runs through both Catholic and Protestant interpretations of the verse and says that prayer is what is important, not the anointing:

We have particular directions given as to sick persons, and healing pardoning mercy promised upon the observance of those directions. If any be sick, they are required, 1. To send for the elders, presbyterous tes ekklesias—the presbyters, pastors or ministers of the church, v. 14, 15. It lies upon sick people as a duty to send for ministers, and to desire their assistance and their prayers. 2. It is the duty of ministers to pray over the sick, when thus desired and called for. Let them pray over him; let their prayers be suited to his case, and their intercessions be as becomes those who are affected wit his calamities. 3. In the times of miraculous healing [the Apostolic Era, which ended in the early Church], the sick were to be anointed with oil in the name of the Lord. Expositors generally confine this anointing with oil to such as had the power of working miracles; and, when miracles ceased, this institution ceased also. In Mark’s gospel we read of the apostle’s anointing with oil many that were sick, and healing them, Mark 6 13. And we have accounts of this being practiced in the church two hundred years after Christ; but then the gift of healing also accompanied it, and, when the miraculous gift ceased, this rite was laid aside. The papists indeed have made a sacrament of this, which they call the extreme unction. They use it, not to heal the sick, as it was used by the apostles; but as they generally run counter to scripture, in the appointments of their church, so here they ordain that this should be administered only to such as are at the very point of death. The apostle’s anointing was in order to heal the disease; the popish anointing is for the expulsion of the relics of sin, and to enable the soul (as they pretend) the better to combat with the powers of the air [Satan and his minions]. When they cannot prove, by any visible effects, that Christ owns them in the continuance of this rite, they would however have people to believe that the invisible effects are very wonderful. But it is surely much better to omit this anointing with oil than to turn it quite contrary to the purposes spoken of in scripture. Some protestants have thought that this anointing was only permitted or approved by Christ, not instituted. But it should seem, by the words of James here, that it was a thing enjoined in cases where there was faith for healing. And some protestants have argued for it with this view. It was not to be commonly used, not even in the apostolical age; and some have thought that it should not be wholly laid aside in any age, but that where there are extraordinary measures of faith in the person anointing, and in those who are anointed, an extraordinary blessing may attend the observance of this direction for the sick. However that be, there is one thing carefully to be observed here, that the saving of the sick is not ascribed to the anointing with oil, but to prayer …

MacArthur tells us why ‘sick’ should not be used in translations:

… this is the key to interpreting the passage if you understand the context. I am convinced that the thrust of this passage has absolutely nothing to do with physical sickness or disease at all. It is not a passage about healing physical disease. It is a passage about healing spiritual weakness, spiritual weariness, spiritual exhaustion, spiritual depression which calls for spiritual means – namely – what? – prayer. Prayer. There’s no compelling reason at all, in this text, to think that James has dropped in here a section on physical healing. That is incongruous. What a strange place to drop a section on healing diseases.

The passage before would never cause you to expect that, and the final two verses wouldn’t cause you to expect it either. It would really be out of sync with the context. But a section on how to help people who are spiritually weak, and broken, and embattled, and bruised, and wounded, and hurt, and have lost the victory, that makes sense …

And that brings us to the discussion of prayer and restoration in verse 14. Follow this. The Scripture says, “Is any among you” – and then the Greek verb is astheneō, the root verb. The translations have always said “sick.” As a result of that, everybody assumes that he’s talking about sickness. But what does it refer to? There are several terms, in the New Testament, that can refer to sickness or disease. The term here is a very, very important one. Astheneō may refer to sickness; it may, and it is so used in the New Testament. But all Greek lexicons agree that its primary meaning – and I checked out about five different ones – that its primary meaning is to be weak, to be feeble, to be impotent.

In fact, in the epistles and Acts, it is used most of the time for that kind of weakness. In Romans 4:19, in Romans 14:1 and 2, in Romans 14:21 it is used of being weak in faith. In 1 Corinthians 8:9 and also in verses 11 and 12 of that same chapter, it is used of spiritual weakness. In Romans 5:6, it is used of spiritual weakness, the impotence of the unsaved. In 2 Corinthians 11:21, it is used to refer to the weakness of personality.

Look with me for a moment at 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 10. And this is a very interesting use of this same word. Paul is talking about his persecutions, about his difficulties. And he says that he has a thorn in the flesh which he prayed that God would take away, and He never did. God said, in verse 9, “My grace is sufficient for you; My power is perfected in weakness.”

Then in verse 10, he uses this same word astheneō, “Therefore I am well-content” – in another form – “I am well-content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties.” In other words, this same word uses here for the weaknesses that come in human flesh as a result of the difficulties of life. It is a term, then, that, mostly in the epistles and in the book of Acts, has to do with weakness – and mostly with spiritual weakness.

Now, if we just translate it in James 5 – go back to James 5 – consistently with its commonest use in the epistles, it would read this way, “Is any among you weak?” Now, does that give it a whole different sense? You’re in the middle of the battle; you’re fighting for your life, as it were, against the persecutors, and you’re losing out. He says in 13, “I know some of you are suffering. Pray. But any of you who are weak – I mean you’ve arrived at the point where you’re defeated, you’re down on the battlefield – maybe persecution put you there, maybe sin put you there – the point is that you’re weak. You’re weak mentally; you’re weak emotionally; you’re physically weak; you’re spiritually defeated. It may have some ramifications in your physical body, the persecution, the trials, the temptations, the battle. You have tried to pray during the process. You’ve just not been able to draw on the power of God, and now you find yourself in a position of being spiritually weak.”

Then he says, “Do this. If you’re just suffering, you pray.” But if you’ve hit bottom, do you want to know something? It’s hard for you to pray, isn’t it? In fact, you may not be able to pray effectively. So, what do you do? You’ve got to find somebody else to – what? – to pray. And who do you want to find? If you’re spiritually weak, you want to go to someone who’s – what? – spiritually strong. So, who would you go to? Verse 14, “Let him call for the” – what? – “the elders of the church.” Go to the elders of the church. Why? Because they’re the spiritual strength that you need. Go to the elders of the church; they’re the overseers, the pastors, the spiritually strong. Read their qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. They’re the godly; they’re the spiritually mighty. Go to the spiritually strong, those who are victorious, those who are patiently enduring; draw on their strength …

If you’re suffering, pray. If you’ve hit bottom and you’re weak, and the power’s gone out of your life and out of your prayers, and you’re overwhelmed with the persecution and the trials and the struggles, then go to the spiritually strong and let them pray over you.” See that? Isn’t that a beautiful ministry? Boy, that makes so much sense.

Then MacArthur discusses the anointing, which can be read as a literal balm for wounds suffered in assaults from persecution as well as a spiritual balm for brokenness:

I’ll tell you what it is. The word here for anointing – very interesting; I have to tell you this so you’ll understand. The word is – the verb is aleiphō. It means to rub or oil. The best way to translate this would be, “Rubbing him with oil in the name of the Lord.” It doesn’t mean dotting his forehead with a little dab of oil. It means rubbing. Literally, it means to crush over.

It’s used of an outward anointing of the body, in this case with olive oil – elaion which is olive oil. And literally, the text says, “After having oiled him.” Oil him …

What in the world kind of oiling is this? Well, somebody says, “It’s ceremonial. It’s emblematic of the Holy Spirit. You put a little dab on their head, and that’s sort of reminiscent of the Holy Spirit.”

Well, look, the word aleiphō means to oil somebody, to massage them. It was used of washing someone. It’s used of pouring oil over someone’s head or pouring oil over their feet, rubbing them with oil. You see, the word aleiphō is never – I’ll say it again – never used in Scripture to speak of a ceremonial anointing. That’s a completely different word. It’s the word chriō. It’s a completely different word.

Aleiphō is the mundane, secular usage where you literally oil something. The root of it is lipos which means grease. It’s not a ceremonial word. All uses of the ceremonial anointing use the verb chriō, and every time you see aleiphō, it has to do with that applying oil to someone. People did it after a bath.

In fact, oil was the base of soap, and it literally could refer to washing someone. It was used with wine. You remember in Luke 10:34, the Good Samaritan put wine and oil on the man? The wine, of course, because it fermented and had alcohol, cleansed the wounds, and then the oil soothed him. It only was good for a topical or external application.

Athletes were often rubbed down with oil because of the soreness of their muscles, and sometimes oil – often oil was perfumed with a fragrance. It is still used in the Middle East.

Now, to say “to oil someone” literally meant if you had a believer coming in weak and weary and wounded and crushed and broken in the battle, and maybe that person had literally been persecuted by their employer or by someone who hated Christ, and they came in with a wound, they would literally pour oil on that wound.

If that person had been abused in their employment and made to work long hours, the elders of church, because there were no trustworthy medical doctors to go see, in the primitive science of medicine in those days, they would come to the trustworthy elders of the church. And those men, in gracious kindness, would take some oil out and rub the sore muscles of that weary believer, who in the service of Christ had borne the brunt of someone’s hatred. But it also had a metaphorical sense. To say to someone that you want to oil them could as well mean, “I want to stimulate, encourage, massage your spirit, warm your heart, provide strength to your weakness.”

So, from a literal viewpoint, you can see a persecuted Christian coming in, whose body is broken because he has been attacked literally and physically for the cause of Christ. You can see a believer coming in who’s wounded and broken and crushed in his spirit. On the one hand, they might really apply oil. On the other hand, they might encourage and love and warm and strength and stimulate in the metaphorical sense.

In fact, according to Luke 7:46, if you went to a home and you were the main guest, the first thing they might do, after they cleansed your feet, was pour oil on your head. A fragrant, lovely oil, just to soothe you from the dirt and the dust and the heat of the day. In that part of the world, the sun could dry you out, and it was a refreshing, refreshing time. That’s the spirit here. That’s the idea.

Oil was applied to external wounds. That goes way back. I found that in Isaiah 1:6, “From the soul of the foot, even to the head, there is nothing sound in it” – he’s talking about Israel in the form of a human body here metaphorically – “only bruises, welt, and raw wounds, not pressed out or bandaged, nor softened with oil.” Now we know what they used oil to do: to heal external wounds and soften and make supple the parched skin. That’s a wonderful ministry.

Do you know what it says? This is the ministry of restoration, that the wounded, broken, pained, weak, weary, exhausted soldiers who are out there fighting the battle come into their commanders, their shepherds, their pastors, and those pastors come alongside, get on their knees and pray with the spiritual strength that they have in behalf of that dear person, and in compassion reach out to strengthen, stimulate, bind up the broken heart, and even minister to the wounds if there be wounds in the human body. That’s the ministry of love. That’s the ministry of care.

Somehow, we’ve lost that. We’ve substituted for it something far less, far less. Even Mark 6:13 says, “The apostles went around rubbing oil on people.” They understood that. They ministered physical comfort. Now, all that to say here are the week and the weary and the defeated. Perhaps they’ve been injured by the persecutors. They are dry, parched souls. They’re so severely wounded in the battle, they themselves can’t even cry out to God. They just don’t feel they have the spiritual strength. They come to the spiritually strong, the godly leaders, and they are having the responsibility to meet their needs, to come down and pray with them and pray for them, encourage them, stimulate them, bind up their wounds. It’s all pictured in the twenty-third psalm when it say of the Great Shepherd, “He anointeth my head with” – what? – “oil.”

Do you know what that meant? When the shepherd brought all the sheep into the little fold on the hillside, after they’d grazed all day, he put his staff down in front of the little entry, and only one sheep went through at a time. And as one sheep went through, he put it down. The next one stood in line. He checked over the whole body. Wherever there was a wound, he poured oil and soothed it. Wherever the skin was parched, he rubbed it soft and then let the sheep go in. That’s the shepherd’s ministry. That’s the ministry. The ministry of caring. It’s a ministry of restoration.

Somehow, this is just as absolutely foreign to the church today as it can be. I don’t know that we even instruct on how to do this. I’m not sure you need much instruction. This is the ministry of prayer. And I want to say to you that as a pastor and elder here – and I say this on behalf of the rest of us, that we want not only to teach God’s Word to you, but we want to be strength to your spiritual weakness. We want to be the spiritually strong to whom you may come, that we may gather around you, and if need be, oil you in the sense of stimulating, massaging, encouraging, comforting, strengthening, restoring you, and crying out to God on your behalf with the prayers of righteous men.

And then he says, “That all in the name of the Lord.” What does that mean? All on behalf of Christ. All consistent with Christ. Is that consistent with Christ? To say “in the name of the Lord” means consistent with His name. That means consistent with who He is, because His name is who He is. God said, “I Am that I Am; that’s My name.” To do that in the name of the Lord means to do it because that’s what Christ would do. To pray in the name of the Lord means that’s to pray and say, “This is what Christ would want.”

My exegesis continues tomorrow starting at verse 15.



This post first appeared on Churchmouse Campanologist | Ringing The Bells For, please read the originial post: here

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Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity, Year B, 2024 — exegesis on the Epistle, James 5:13-20, part 1

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