Incomplete Healing

For the past couple weeks I've been meditating on the ministry of reconciliation and focusing especially on the guidance the Apostle James gives,

"Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. ¹⁴Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. ¹⁶Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working" (James 5:13-16).

 I pick up today's meditations at v. 15, "the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick. . ."


Obviously prayer of any sort cannot save anyone. Our eternal salvation rests forever upon our Lord's sacrificial life and death (Acts 4:12). James certainly knew that. What then did he mean to say? The word save is part of our problem. We are talking about sickness, most especially sickness of heart and soul. This is far more important than the physical illnesses any of us may suffer. At stake is our eternal destiny. Should we lose our faith in Jesus, we have nothing to offer in payment for our sins—nothing. Our salvation rests completely upon our trust and faith in Jesus (Romans 3:21-25). So James speaks about the prayer of one who believes in the one and only Savior. In Jesus that believer finds forgiveness. In Jesus he receives renewed life and an outpouring of Christ's Spirit. His prayers for mercy and forgiveness turn into praise and thanksgiving.

James continues, "and the Lord will raise him up." 


Jesus can and does raise us up from our sickness, just as he gave the paralyzed man renewed strength to rise from his bed and go home (Matthew 9:5-7). For that we do indeed pray, but Jesus gives us an even greater gift when we throw ourselves upon His mercy. That more significant life is received when we die with Jesus in baptism and rise with him to a life that will never end (Romans 6:4-9; 8:11). That dying and rising happens each time we confess our sins and receive forgiveness. Healed by the presence and power of Jesus, our physical being is often restored and raised up. Yet even if the Lord allows our faith to be tested by continued illness, we find peace and hope in our hearts because our sins are fully and completely forgiven and we are the Lord's.


"and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven." 


When faith has been weakened by idolatry, lust, slander, shame, fear, doubt, the loss of vocation and on and on, the believer needs to hear Jesus speak to him/her individually, "Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace." It is not enough to hear some general absolution spoken in Sunday worship. The forgiveness longed for must be spoken to the specific sinner and to his or her specific sins. And then joy comes. And with that joy comes renewed strength for the next task. Listen to James.

"Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed." 


As I said in my previous blog, more often than not further work remains. The sins confessed have broken and destroyed relationships and lives. Before moving forward the pastor knows he must be reconciled with those who slandered and maligned him. The adulterous husband longs for forgiveness and peace between himself and his estranged wife and children. The schemer who has bilked clients out of thousands of dollars wants more than to pay off his debts. This is the healing James speaks about and it takes hundreds of different shapes and forms, but healing can and does happen when we open our lives to Jesus. He is the healer of all our diseases (1 Peter 2:24).

Yet all too often the pastor who has been driven to despair by conflicts with congregation members, accepts a Call to another congregation. His sickness has not been healed. Wounded and only partially healed of his heart illness, that pastor may carry his disease into his new congregation. Wounded and damaged by their conflict with that pastor, those same former congregation members no longer trust any pastor. When a new pastor arrives in their midst the same conflicts break out and the illness continues.

The wife offended, hurt and severely damaged by her husband's unfaithfulness, sues for a divorce. She wants nothing less than never to see him again. The pain and suffering in her heart continue. Her husband, in turn, continues to carry guilt and shame for what he has done, even though he has confessed his sins and received forgiveness. The healing for the relationship and the family is certainly incomplete.

The schemer who tricked fellow Christians out of their life savings may have repaid his debts, but he has not and cannot heal the soul sickness that he has caused. Much work remains.

Only when sinners confess their sins to one another and learn to pray for one another, can there be healing, the healing that comes only from the Great Physician. He said, "I came that you may have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10).

I will discuss this process in more detail next time.

The Lord Raises Up The Sinner

In earlier Blogs I wrote about the need for reconciliation and the suffering that often happens to pastors and their families. This applies, of course, not only to pastors and other professional church workers. It happens to all Christians as they struggle with sin in their and others' lives. Here's what I wrote:

. . . self-centered desires destroy lives. There is but one road to healing. The Apostle James writes about it this way:
 Reconciliation is a difficult process. It involves confessing our sins to one another. It involves confessing our sins to God. It involves the giving and receiving of absolution and forgiveness from God. And it involves forgiving one another for the sake of what God has given us in Jesus Christ. It involves accepting that forgiveness from others. It involves accepting forgiveness in your own heart. This is the ministry of reconciliation.

"Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 

"Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working" (James 5:14-16).

 In my blog immediately before this one I wrote about a long past incident in my own life as a pastor. I shared the suffering I experienced at the time because of slander and gossip. I also mentioned how weak and sick I became because of my internal pain. 


The big question is always, How does one and his or her family move beyond all this? I believe that St. James has given us the answer. I will put the answer in an ordered way, even while I know that things do not usually progress step by step, but rather move back and forth, up and down. Yet I know from personal experience and from what I have seen, there is, by God's grace, a way out from under the guilt and suffering to a new life in Christ. 

1. . . . Is anyone among you sick? Life is not working for me. I'm weak, helpless and suffering. I can see no way out. It seems that people all around me know what I am, what I have done. They mock me, make fun of me, despise me. I'm ashamed and alone. I am sick. If hell is like this, I'm already there. Because of my sin, I am in a living hell.  
2.  if he has committed sins. In liturgical Sunday worship Lutherans acknowledge that "we are by nature sinful and unclean." Not only have I not loved our Lord with all our heart, I have not loved my neighbors, my friends, yes my family as myself and now I must admit it. This is a step I realize I must now take. I can do nothing but confess my sins: I have had a part in this mess. Instead of the Lord, I have bowed at the feet of several idol or idols. I have worshipped my pride, my sexual desires, my love of money, my overwhelming ambition to succeed, my love of power, you name it. It's there. I have broken the first commandment and I am ready to acknowledge this, but I'm scared to death of what will happen if I do. 
3. Let him call for the elders of the church. Freedom from guilt and shame is a gift. I cannot earn it. I do not deserve it. I cannot give it to myself. It can only come from beyond me. Where is such a gift? If no one owns it, where is it? Only the church of Jesus has it! Jesus called it the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 16:18-20). All the powers of hell cannot prevail against this power. Satan, demons, other friends or enemies, as well as my conscience cannot stand up against this power. It is the forgiveness of sins! I am set free. Why? Because of what Jesus Christ accomplished by His perfect life and His suffering and death upon the cross. This power to forgive sins belongs only to Christ. And He has put it in the hands of His church. Thank God, His church calls men to administer this power in Jesus' name. The elders or pastors administer and share this Good News, this grace of God publicly, but each Christian has the keys to heaven in his or her own hands to administer and share privately with the penitent sinner. 
4. ...and let them pray over him. The pastor will ask you to tell your story. He will invite you to pour it out in as much detail as you can. Only as you bring it out into the light, only as you drag out all the details, only then can it be dealt with. This is what confession is all about. And then the pastor will invite you to pray with him as he prays over all of it in the blessed and powerful name of our Savior. He will go with you to lay your sins at the foot of the cross. He will join you there to ask Jesus to make your sins His. He will ask Jesus to send you His Holy Spirit so that you may have the power and strength to accept what long ago happened when Jesus died. This will probably not all happen in one hour, maybe not in one week or even in one month. But as you and he pray over all that has been said and done you will sense the presence and power of your Savior. 
5. ...anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. Why oil? It isn't that oil has any power to heal your heart sickness. It is often soothing for the body, but sin is a matter of the soul. What then? It is simply that you—all of you, body and soul together—must know that Jesus loves and forgives you. For some of us, the touch of the hand, the smell and feel of the oil, helps us to hear this gracious word from Jesus, "Man, your sins are forgiven you. . . I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home" (Luke 5:17-26). It is true. Jesus says it. I feel it, both on my forehead and in my heart. I am forgiven. Praise God!  
6. ...and the Lord will raise him up. Only Jesus can heal us when paralyzed and made helpless by the sickness of our sins. The one who hears Jesus speak in his heart finds new power, new strength. He is able to pick himself up and go home. 

This is the beginning of healing. There is usually much more to do. Others have been harmed, made sick, caused to suffer. The process of reconciliation must continue. More on this another day.