Maybe, I thought, there was a reason why the passage was called to my mind and refused to relent until I finally grabbed my Bible to read it and to meditate upon it, and for the possibility that there was a reason, I want to share this with anyone who discovers this site.

That’s not to say that what follows is inspired in some way, or is the only way to understand the passage…  but in light of what we’ve been learning about each other this past week, and given that a new week is just around the bend, it is offered as encouragement and consolation specific to the struggles we are facing right now and invariably will continue to face in the days ahead.

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Is any man weak among you? Let him summon the elders of the congregation, and let them pray near him, having anointed him with olive oil in the name of the Lord. (James 5:14, ACV)

James 5:14 starts off by saying that if there is anyone weak among us, they should “summon” those whom they look to as “spiritual guides” or spiritual leaders among those whom they associate/congregate. In general, people look up to those in assigned positions in the congregation, such as pastors, priests, elders, presbyters, etc. However, the Greek text, in using the word, presbuteros, comes from presbus, which translates as elderly. So, I personally don’t see any requirement that “elders” be limited to those who are in a congregational position, when it could just as easily be someone in the congregation whom you look to as a stalwart member of the congregation. To limit it is to promote institutionalized Christianity, something which has not worked to our betterment or advancement as believers. You can, if you’d like, compare this conclusion with another scripture:

Dear brothers and sisters, if another Christian is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. (Galatians 6:1, NLT)

Some translations use “spiritual” in place of godly, but the point is clear and easily discernible: anyone who is godly or spiritual is in a position already to assist someone who has been “overcome by some sin” and for that reason, the notion that such matters should be directed solely to “the elders” or similarly organizationally or institutionally appointed men is patently erroneous. In fact, one Bible translation in particular (the NWT) uses the expression “who have spiritual qualifications,” which actually perpetuates the mistaken view that this refers somehow exclusively to those organizationally appointed.

Getting back, then to the topic…

The ACV translation says, “Is any man weak among you?” Again, going to the original Greek word, we have astheneo, which translates as “[to] be feeble (in any sense).” This is not something limited to someone who is physically sick. Anything can make us feeble! And this was proven during our discussions this week, as painful, ongoing struggles continue to be endured by the friends, leaving them feeling weak, vulnerable, alone, and, to varying degrees: hopeless.

Anyone finding themselves in such a condition should do what? The verse says that they need to summon the person or persons that they look to as spiritual strong, or that they feel close enough to to actually confide in about their weakness.

This part of the verse is loaded with so much, that I want to break it down into segments, so as to not miss anything here.

First, the person who finds themselves in a weakened state has to be the one who “summons” the help. This requires quite a lot on their part, I feel. First, they have to be willing to admit that they are in a weakened state or a situation that is sapping their strength, whether spiritually or physically or emotionally, or a combination of all three. This is particularly difficult when we, by our personality, don’t want to “burden” others with our problems when that is EXACTLY what we need to do at various times in our life–and the rest of us have to be willing to shoulder that burden with them. Too many times, we become convinced that if we try harder, we’ll overcome it; if we pray more, we’ll get our prayer answered and be all better; if we have more  faith, we will conquer.

This is a tricky thing, because on the one hand, we’re reluctant to “be a burden to others,” and at the same time, others are exactly what we need. The key here has to be being able to accept the fact that we need. Too often, we’re told by a religion that all you need is God, that all you need to do is pray, to have faith, to believe. The religion determines for us what it thinks we need, and then calls it Christianity, when really all it is is organized religion where you’re job is to fit in.

The fact of the matter is, if we didn’t need one another, we’d be the only person on the planet. Each person brings a unique aspect or quality to the body of Christ, and for that reason, we need each other.

So, if you find yourself weak, please never hesitate to “summon” us. While we care very deeply about you and for you, we cannot know what is going on beyond what you share. We cannot know what you’re thinking, or what you’re feeling, or what you are experiencing and struggling with. If you’re uncomfortable discussing it on the forum, then do so privately. But do so.

On that same aspect, we are under obligation to be approachable. We are under obligation to carry the “burdens of one another” (Galatians 6:2), and that by our doing so, we are fulfilling the “law of the Christ.” What is the “law of the Christ”? Is it not to love one another as he loved us? (John 13:34-35) When people look at us, do we not want them to say, “Now that’s what it means to be Christian!” and thus give glory to both God and Jesus? As crazy as the times are, as preoccupied as we are with trying to hold it together and muddle our way through every passing day, we’re told to keep an eye not just on our own personal affairs, but upon those of others. (Philippians 2:4)

That means that we have to come to know one another so well that even if the person who is “weak” hasn’t necessarily reached out yet, we can pick up on something they said that gives it away that they’re having a hard time of it.

This presents an arrangement that can be so wonderful! Why? Because if we, in looking out for each other, somehow miss what is going on with someone, we know that they will reach out to us in their hour of need; and if we are the one who is struggling and weak, but are having trouble talking about it, we know that others are keeping watch with us, and are ready to pick up on the signs as they present themselves. And that’s a blessing that we cannot, no dare not take for granted, even though it requires a sustained, tireless effort to put into practice.

As you can see, I haven’t even made it past the first half of the verse!

Continuing on, it says that the ones summoned need to “pray near” the one that is weak. First of, that means that we never tell the person to just pray about it. And we never ever send that person to someone else in order to be rid of the responsibility that such a summons entails. We should never sell short the ability of God to work things out through the beggarly things, namely us who think we couldn’t possibly help this person–before even trying!

Ideally, we want to physically be with that person, to fall down on our faces and plead with them to God that they be strengthened so that they can endure, that they be empowered beyond what is normal. Unfortunately, our separation at this time makes that next to impossible. But does that mean there is no alternatives? Absolutely not! For one thing, despite our isolation, we have available to us the internet, which comes at the right time in our life because it allows us to make contact with one another across vast distances. While the telephone has been able to do that for far longer, the internet has afforded us the opportunity to make contact in such a way that having a telephone could never do. For one thing: if it wasn’t for the internet, I would never have known that you live and breathe. The odds of me dialing a number and connecting to you are astronomical at best. But the internet did this, and so much more!

Having said that, how can we “pray near” the person? While it may seem “hokey,” we plainly tell that person that we’re going to pray WITH them about this–whether we tell them privately or on the forum in the appropriate place. We tell them, and then we follow through on what we say. And we keep praying for them, and with them, in this respect, for as long as they need us to. We pray just as often as we know they are having to pray. Maybe even more so!

Further, there is something else that we are required to do: “anoint them with [oil]…”

I’m sure I don’t need to remind anyone here that in Bible times, a person was anointed with oil as either a witness that a person was chosen by God (David, for example, was anointed with oil), or that they were sick and or dying (one of the outstanding instances in the Bible was when the woman anointed Jesus with oil before his arrest and eventual death). Today, this latter practice continues to be done in the Middle East, actually.

Culturally, we no longer practice this anointing with oil. But that doesn’t mean we can’t anoint them with oil symbolically. What that entails is our taking the time to make a witness to that person, reassuring them that they are indeed one of God’s children, and that they are chosen by God because they chose Jesus as their mediator and as their sacrifice. We acknowledge that what they are going through is real and that it is as hard as it is, without resorting to words that come across as condescending or imply that they aren’t doing enough. We assure them that we will do everything we personally can to be with them every step of the way, and we commit to doing so. Too often, we tell people such things, as a matter of politeness that amounts to nothing more than empty words. I know I don’t ever want to be guilty of that, and I’m certain nobody else here does, either. I can’t imagine anything more horrible than to have one of our close friends come to us with a plea for a problem, us tell them we’ll pray for them, and then go about our own lives while they pray and pray to God, thinking that we’re somewhere out here praying right along with them. What a betrayal of everything it means to be Christian!!

And the prayer of faith will rescue him who is depressed, and the Lord will rouse him. And if he should be a man who has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. — James 5:15, ACV

One of the things we can sometimes misunderstand is that in reading something like this verse, we begin to think that by “rescue,” that it means we will no longer be depressed or have feelings of depression. The reality is, the depression does not go away, no matter how much prayer or how much faith is expended. It’s still there: some days more than others… Regardless, it stays with us, eating at us, whittling away at our resolve, destroying us from the inside out.

Depression is a reality of our times, and perhaps a sign of them, as well. Depression can lead to hopelessness, which then leads to despair, and thereafter to suicide in all too many instances. Those unfamiliar with the intricacies of depression underestimate how powerfully debilitating it can be for the person suffering from depression. For the victim of depression, it is not a question of faith: it’s a question of why is it that all the faith in the world isn’t helping? Why is God so silent?

Indeed, it seems pretty cut and dry when you read the scripture. After all, it says that “the prayer of faith will rescue him who is depressed.” How many different ways can you take that to mean? I mean, seriously!

It could be referring to the prayers of those who “pray near” the depressed person, which we talked about in the previous post. That seems reasonable enough, doesn’t it?

Well, it does…  except for that part where the person suffering from depression finds themselves still suffering from depression. How can they feel rescued when the reality is that they’re still under the same vicious black cloud, plagued by the same dark thoughts? A person that is drowning is no longer drowning once they’re rescued, right? A person trapped down a deep well, struggling for air, unable to move, is no longer trapped once they’re rescued, right?

What then, of this passage? What’s more, what about the part where it says that the Lord himself will rouse them? If anything, it seems more and more with every passing day that it’s anything but!

Yet there it is, and we’re expected to believe what it says.

The problem with this sort of approach (that we just need to believe it because it’s in the Bible) is precisely what causes those suffering from depression to become more and more convinced that there must be something wrong with them personally, as individuals. That they’re so bad a person, that this is their punishment for their lack of faith (after all, if they had faith, they wouldn’t be in the situation they’re in), for not praying hard enough (after all, if they had prayed hard enough, they’d have been rescued), for not going to enough meetings or doing what their church expected of them (because if they had, then God would acknowledge them as true Christians and thus heard their prayer).

I don’t really have much of an answer. Only some possibilities. So, take this for what it’s worth, okay?

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In this scripture, the word “faith” is best understood from the original Greek, where we find the word pistis, which translates as persuasion. It can also be used in reference to a moral conviction of the truthfulness of God and a reliance upon Christ for salvation.

To sum it up, it is the acceptance and conviction that our rescue lies in our reliance upon Christ for salvation.

If prayer is our talking to God or to Jesus (all debates aside), then it is our having the ability to recognize that whatever it is that we are suffering from, even if it takes us to our grave, is not something that will be overcome on this side of the system of things in which we have found ourselves… that our salvation will only be had in the promised Kingdom where all these things are promised to us as being no more. It is our saying as much to God, and holding Him to His word.

At the risk of offending someone, allow me to take those thoughts and overlay them with the scripture under discussion:

And the prayer of faith will rescue him who is depressed…

“We must be willing to tell God that this is not something that we can personally conquer nor are we under the expectation that it can be fixed this side of the system of things, that only in Christ’s Kingdom will this happen, that that is where we are placing our hopes and prayers.”

…and the Lord shall raise him up… (Majority translation)

“That even if we have to fight this all the way down to our last breath, we hold God to His promise to raise us up at the Last Day for having fought the “fine fight” and remained as faithful as humanly possible in spite of our imperfections and sinful inclinations.”

To validate this approach to the scripture, I want to draw attention to the apostle Paul, who at one time spoke about a “thorn in the flesh” that afflicted him, causing him a tremendous distress. He prayed several times to have it removed from him, but it came about that Paul realized that it wasn’t going to be removed, at least in this lifetime, and that he would have to press on in spite of it, that it was through this debilitating tribulation that God’s power was being manifest. (See 2 Corinthians 12:7-9)

It is very difficult to view our depression as something through which God’s power is being manifested. If anything, every single aspect of it screams an absence of God’s power.

But that’s the nature of depression. It conveys a sense of hopelessness, of separation, of being forsaken. If it wasn’t that way, it wouldn’t be depression. It wouldn’t leave us weak and lost and feeling alone.

And that’s why it is so important to speak about it with others, to get it out into the open, because depression can also be insidious in that it rots from the inside out. It’s a cancer of the mind, and it’s a cancer of the spirit. It will eat away everything on the inside, leaving nothing but a faded shell of what we once were as a person, and nobody around us even aware of what’s happening. It’s one thing to be drowning in a body of water, where it is clearly evident, visible with the naked eye, that someone is in need of help… and something else entirely to be drowning in one’s own thoughts and emotions, away from where others can see.

So somehow, we have to reach out and talk about it, and the rest of us have to do everything within our power to bear them up through this. Pray with them, call them on the phone, call upon them in person if circumstances allow. Remind them that our lives are better off for having them in it! That maybe they don’t feel special, or are feeling lonely, but that we are utterly astonished at the resolve which they are able to summon up within themselves in order to stumble their way through the day–for certainly if any of us found ourselves in the same situation, can we honestly say that we would overcome to the extent that they have and are continuing to fight?

The truth is, God’s power IS being made manifest in them, for it goes to show that no matter how beaten down we can be by not only this system of things, but several millennia of sinful inclinations that only take us from bad to worse as a race, there is an undeniable spark within us that simply cannot be reached by any means whatsoever… and that the world would become a much darker place, should these ones be overcome in their struggles and have that spark snuffed out!

We can’t help but love these ones that have graced us here, or the ones that we encounter in our offline lives. They are carrying a burden that we ourselves would have collapsed beneath long before now…  so we are compelled to beg them to allow us to help them bear up, to continue on in their fight, all the while crying because while we know that these things must be, right down to the end, that did it have to fall upon these ones to bear it, even as Christ bore our sins away?

The fact of the matter is this, at least for me: these ones…  the ones struggling against the very weight of the world, the ones utterly “groaning” in their spirit…  they are the spiritual giants that I can’t help but stand in awe of, for their bravery–although they feel anything but, for their strength–although they feel anything but, for their unparalleled connection with the Father–even though they feel it’s anything but.

Thank you, all of you, for being you, and for affording the rest of us an opportunity to see what it means to not only be human, but what it means to be truly taking up the “torture stake” of Christ and walking that path as our modern-day exemplars of what it really means to be a Christian.

With Christian love and tears and prayers,

Your brother, Timothy

 February 17, 2008