Until electronic ignition, fuel injection, and computerized almost everything on automobiles, cars needed regular tune-ups. Oil & filter changes, valve adjustments, points and distributor all required attention about every 3000 miles. Cost: well under a hundred. Teslas. Lucids and Rivians haven’t been around that long to know what the effect mileage will be on them, but they’ll eventually need some attention to stay in optimum condition. Cost: likely well over a thousand. And probably way more.
No matter how advanced we become technologically, our lives need regular, maybe daily, tune-ups. Which is where the Shop Manual comes in handy. Especially those sections specifically meant to tune us up. Like the Book of Proverbs, the four Gospels, the second half of Paul’s epistles, and the whole Book of James. Thank God we’re saved by grace, but we’re also saved for grace...grace working in us and through us.
Using James’ epistle as the Shop Manual I invite you to go with me under the hood and do some tuning up. Some of us may need major work and perhaps additional, highly qualified help than offered here. But many will only need some minor adjustments to get our lives running better again the way God intended.
Each week we’ll look at a passage in James, reflect on it briefly, then suggest a specific tune-up. A friend who always DIY’d his own car maintenance once told me, “It always feels like it runs better after you work on it.” I think it’s the same when we work on our lives to realign them closer to God’s specs.
So, take out your Shop Manual, grab your spanners and drivers and let’s do some tuning-up. If you’re anything like me, the Service Light on my spiritual dashboard is flashing. I need to get my life into the workshop!
TUNE UP YOUR LIFE
Wisdom from the Book of James
Tune-up #1
Jim Rueb, January 26, 2022
Tune-Up Needed
Until electronic ignition, fuel injection, and computerized almost everything on automobiles, cars needed regular tune-ups. Oil & filter changes, valve adjustments, points and distributor all required attention about every 3000 miles. Cost: well under a hundred. Teslas. Lucids and Rivians haven’t been around that long to know what the effect mileage will be on them, but they’ll eventually need some attention to stay in optimum condition. Cost: likely well over a thousand. And probably way more.
No matter how advanced we become technologically, our lives need regular, maybe daily, tune-ups. Which is where the Shop Manual comes in handy. Especially those sections specifically meant to tune us up. Like the Book of Proverbs, the four Gospels, the second half of Paul’s epistles, and the whole Book of James. Thank God we’re saved by grace, but we’re also saved for grace...grace working in us and through us.
Using James’ epistle as the Shop Manual I invite you to go with me under the hood and do some tuning up. Some of us may need major work and perhaps additional, highly qualified help than offered here. But many will only need some minor adjustments to get our lives running better again the way God intended.
Each week we’ll look at a passage in James, reflect on it briefly, then suggest a specific tune-up. A friend who always DIY’d his own car maintenance once told me, “It always feels like it runs better after you work on it.” I think it’s the same when we work on our lives to realign them closer to God’s specs.
So, take out your Shop Manual, grab your spanners and drivers and let’s do some tuning-up. If you’re anything like me, the Service Light on my spiritual dashboard is flashing. I need to get my life into the workshop!
JIM
Shop Manual section: James 1:1
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:
Greetings.
Tune-up #1
- James refers in this opening verse to “…the Dispersion.”
- Identify an area where some spiritual dispersion has developed in your life. Doesn't have to be big but make it very specific.
- Then name that out loud so when you speak with the Chief Mechanic, He’ll know that you know what needs tuning up first
- You then can work on that together.
Count it All Joy
A lot easier said than done! A lot easier to read than to do. The full text in James 1:2 is “Count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds.”
James was writing to a young Christian church beginning to disperse throughout the Roman Empire in the first century. At that time the Empire was at or near its zenith. The successive emperors and their minions held all the cards. Not much happened without Roman influence, oversight or eventually coercion.
The Christian church on the other hand was at or near its weakest…or so it would have seemed at the time. A small, inconsequential, if pesky Jewish sect meeting in homes. It was out of the mainstream of the highly cultured and sophisticated life of the empire of Rome which, as described by Gibbon, “comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized portion of mankind.” No surprise that James begins his epistle with the subject of trials. The new Christians had plenty of them to deal with!
From the very beginning, Christianity has been a religion that addresses trial, not passively or with resignation or even denial. But as an integral part of our faith journey. For trial, or “suffering” as the Apostle Paul calls it in Romans 5, “produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and that hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.” Again, not easy stuff, and no fun for sure. But the outcome can be absolutely wonderful! If not fully in this life, certainly in the next.
In our passage this week James provides a more detailed description of trial, its pitfalls, its process and especially its outcome. Tuning up our lives involves seeing the whole picture, having a pretty good idea of how trial and triumph work together in the journey of faith. I could wish it were different—that life, especially a life of faith and faithfulness, did not involve trial. But in this post-Eden world, it does. The good news is that in Christ, trial is not the last word! There’s “a crown of life which God has promised to those who love him,“ (1:9).
In the meantime, “know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness…that (we) may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing, “(1:3). I don’t know about you, but for me that’ll involve some serious wrenching. In the spiritual, emotional and perhaps even the physical sense of that word. But I gotta do it!
JIM
Shop Manual section: James 1:2-15
Tune-up
- Call out a trial you’re facing right now?
- Read James 1:2-15 aloud either to yourself or with a loved one.
- Pray for God to help you apply, or perhaps reapply, strength to remain steadfast in your trial.
Just Do it!
I have been blessed over many years to hear some of the best preaching imaginable. From Billy Graham to J. Vernon McGee to Stuart Briscoe and more recently to T.D. Jakes as well as some gifted younger preachers not yet widely known. I have walked away in wonder and with renewed spiritual motivation at what I had just heard. Anointed, powerful, eloquent, relevant, and practical. Preaching has been key to shaping my life as a follower of Jesus. Still is!
But if you ask me to recount a sermon I just heard, especially a week later? Unless I took notes, I would seldom be able to name all the points or in some cases even summarize the narrative. It’s a little like that person James refers to “who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like,” (James 1:23b-24). Note to preachers: keep on preaching no matter what!
Preaching the Word is essential to the Church's spiritual life. And hearing the Word is critical to our personal spiritual life, beginning with our salvation (see Romans 10:14). But doing the Word is meant to be “the bottom line.” This is the insistent message of James. We’re not just meant just to know theology; we’re meant to do theology!
While the ministry of the Word is a huge blessing and necessity to the Church and to us, the ministry of doing the Word is key to the Word being effectively conveyed to the larger world. People around us may not be in place to hear a sermon, but they’re in place to see a sermon. To see that sermon through my attitude, my outlook, my words and my always imperfect and regularly needing a tune-up life.
We’re going to forget even the best sermons we hear. But what won’t be forgotten is the impact on others from the sermons we do: in our families, in our workplace, with our neighbors and in the church itself. The bad news is we won’t often be able to remember the sermons we’ve heard. The good news is others will often remember for the rest of their lives, the sermons we’ve done. James the Apostle said it long before Nike: Just do it!
JIM
Shop Manual section: James 1:16-25
Tune-up
- Read & reflect on this section of the Shop Manual: James 1:16-25
- Decide between you and God what you’re going to do, or work on.
- Do it and/or start working on it today!
Adjust Your Steering
One of the many unfortunate effects of the pandemic is the side-step, walk-around, steering-clear of others we’ve learned to do. Even with loved ones we’ve acquired an almost reflexive avoidance response that can sometimes surprise us. For some of us, unlearning that steer-clear maneuver will take some time. For others, it may take a lot longer.
For most of us, it’s actually a pre-pandemic kind of steering we’ve done since at least kindergarten. By middle school we’re getting pretty good at it. And by high school and on into adulthood some of us get close to NASCAR level. it’s become a very sophisticated, sometimes brilliantly undetectable art form.
Without minimizing James’ reference to partiality toward the rich over the poor, I’d suggest that we’re pretty good at partiality towards certain people over other people. Rich or poor usually doesn’t have much to do with it. There may be some history. There may be some unacquitted offense, perhaps happening many years ago. There may only be a kind of mild antipathy that minimizes the chance of our paths crossing, but we steer-clear.
It may be okay, and even healthy to steer-clear for a while, depending. But there comes a point, and only you will know when that is, when it’s time to adjust your steering. The adjustment is not under the car; It’s on the steering wheel in your own hands. Loving your neighbor as you love yourself, which James reaffirms in this passage, is not easy stuff. But with God’s leading and the Spirit’s help we can stop steering clear of someone in our lives and begin steering toward them, if only slightly at first
The result of adjusting our steering in this way can be a much freer running gear in our spiritual life, and probably in the other person’s spiritual life as well!
JIM
Shop Manual section: James 2:1-13
Tune-up
- Read & reflect on this section of the Shop Manual: James 2:1-13
- Ask, “Who have I been steering around for too long?”
- Make the ever-so-slight steering adjustment you think God might want you to make. Hint: No swerving! You’ll scare them…and yourself!
Drive It!
To a car person several marques reside at the very top of the automotive food chain. At or near the top is Ferrari. With its many racing victories since almost the beginning of motorsport and its luscious road cars, Ferrari is the stuff of automotive dreams. Including mine.
So you can imagine that when a friend told me he had purchased a new F430 Spider my heart skipped a beat. Within milliseconds my mind began searching for the most elegant way to ask if he’d take me for a ride. Fortunately, I didn’t have to ask. A week later he rolled up to our house in his gorgeous Ferrari Blue F430 with the top down. I jumped in and we went for a ride. Through the East Bay hills between the redwoods, out to the Warren freeway, back through the Caldecott tunnel, off whose tiled walls the V12’s song created a surround sound extravaganza.
When we were nearing home he said, “Shall we stop by Joy’s office?” We pulled into the parking lot, knocked on the window and she came out. After a few minutes, Frank looked at us, handed me the keys and said, “Why don’t you take her for a ride.” I was stunned! “Really??” “Yeah, go for it!” We got in, fired up the engine located just behind our seats under glass, backed out of the parking space and (very gingerly!) exited the parking lot. It was truly a lifetime moment, made possible by an incredibly generous gesture.
What Frank mentioned on the way home made what had just happened all the more remarkable! He said (to my surprise) that owners typically don’t put many miles on a car like this. Twenty thousand miles tops; usually much less. As it turns out, many of these supercars are owned and admired but not driven much. It’s a metaphor for this week’s passage in James.
Christians have a supercar faith which is owned and admired by one third of the world’s population. Our “Ferrari faith” is celebrated and affirmed in the most beautiful music, the most resplendent art and the most eloquent words ever written. But that’s too often where it ends. It’s Dead! says James. Martin Luther, who might have been a Porsche guy had he lived in our time, struggled with James’ emphasis on works.
But James isn’t abrogating justification by faith alone in the finished work of Christ. He’s saying, and saying it quite insistently, that we have an incredible faith, and it’s meant to “driven.”
The purpose of tuning up your life is to get you out on the road not back into the garage. So go ahead. Drive it!
JIM
Shop Manual section: James 2:14-26
Tune-up
- Read & reflect on this section of the Shop Manual: James 2:14-26
- What would it mean for you to drive your faith this week? Specifically.
- Now get behind the wheel of your faith and drive it. (hint: think near, not far!)
Words Count
I heard many years ago that Vladimir Lenin reportedly once said, “I can rule the world with 26 men.” The 26 men he was referring to are the 26 letters of the alphabet. From its very beginning Marxist-Leninism in all its installations has ruled largely by words, most of which are a literary version of the infamous Potemkin village. Deceitful wordsmithing is being employed again by another Vladimir to describe to the Russian people his grotesque rationale for invading Ukraine. The wanton killing of Ukrainians in their homes, and the senseless destruction of their beautiful cities and infrastructure is undoubtedly being described as “liberation.”
Words count! They can count for evil or for good, and all points in between. No one has a corner on prevarication or bearing false witness. But some are in a position to do infinitely more damage or good than others. Even a cursory reading of history will provide many names whose words changed the world for unspeakable evil or for massive good.
Controlling the tongue is what James addresses in this week’s passage. In a vaguely humorous but clearly sarcastic tone, James writes, “the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things,“ (v.5). The larger passage offers some metaphors for the tongue: the bit in a horse’s mouth, a ship’s rudder, a forest fire set ablaze, a stain to our whole body.
I think one of the reasons James focuses on the potentially destructive effect of the tongue is that cursing in all its forms so much easier and more common. Even for followers of Jesus. It takes intentionality, generosity, and some level of godly unselfishness to bless. It’s a no-brainer to curse.
I especially appreciate James’ observation that both blessing and cursing can come from the same mouth. To wit, I’m astonished at how sometimes I can be so kind with my words in one moment, then in the next be so unkind. Usually the latter happens in a flash, reacting to an unexpected rudeness that shatters my fleeting “What a Wonderful World” reverie.
James is not saying “You need to watch your tongue.” He’s saying, “You need to control your tongue!” Some people are better at this than others. But we all have times we’ll need to control our tongue. One of the ways I’ve found helpful is remembering I don’t always have to say what I’m thinking or feeling in the moment! That check has saved my bacon, and a lot of greasy clean up, more times than I can count! It’s not a complete tutorial on controlling the tongue, but it may at least be a good place to start.
JIM
Shop Manual section: James 3:1-12
Tune-up
- Read & reflect on this section of the Shop Manual: James 3:1-12
- You can’t necessarily plan it, but seize an opportunity this week to bless
- You can’t necessarily plan this either but seize an opportunity this week NOT to curse!
Know-It-All
Everyone has encountered a “Know-It All.” A person who can’t stop correcting you or a person who just can’t stop talking. It’s not always an unpleasant experience but it’s almost always a diminishing one.
In this week’s passage James refers to “the meekness of wisdom.” Unfortunately, meekness is too often thought of as weakness. Maybe that’s because those two words rhyme so readily. Maybe also because “strength under control,” which is the retail definition of meekness, is virtually undetectable and often taken for weakness when applied properly.
I once had the opportunity to lead a meeting of two large church staffs, ours and that of a then extremely popular author. His book titles and name would have been recognizable around the world. And here I was, a young pastor moderating a general discussion on the practical implications of the topics for which he had become justifiably so well known.
I can’t remember much of the discussion. But I do remember that not one moment during the hour-long meeting did the famous author look aside knowingly, look down and smile to himself, do a guy’s version of rolling his eyes. Nor did he offer more than a brief word, which is often a pretext for launching a tutorial from an expert—him. Instead, he participated just like anyone else in the group, appreciated nuance on the topic and never once asked me a question he knew I couldn’t answer. It was one of those encounters which resulted in my thinking, “Lord, help me to be like that!!” It was a beautiful example of James’ wonderful phrase, “the meekness of wisdom.” Here’s the whole passage:
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
The Apostle James here is further describing what being justified by faith alone in the finished work of Christ is meant to look like in real time. The description here is clear and unmistakable. And best of all, it offers some specific personal touch points for tuning up our lives.
JIM
Shop Manual section: James 3:3-18
Tune-up
- Read & reflect on this section of the Shop Manual: James 3:13-18
- Sometime in the next week, consciously press your “Listen button” instead of your “Talk Button.” Then do it at least once more. Continuing this will take more than a little practice, but will be rewarding! Guaranteed!
Near the Cross
The Cross is the most readily recognizable image in history. Succeeding the ichthys which identified Christians throughout the first few centuries A.D., the cross has become the most enduring and endearing symbol of the Christian faith.
The transepts of the traditional cross can be viewed as symbolic of the two dimensions of our faith: The Vertical Dimension: our relationship with God, and The Horizontal Dimension: our relationship with one another.
Throughout the New Testament these two dimensions are inextricably bound. At some points the emphasis is more on the vertical. A good example would be Romans 5:8: “But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” At other points the emphasis is more on the horizontal. A good example is the entire Epistle of James.
James’ emphasis on the horizontal is relentless, direct, and even at times accusatory. Not exactly a market-driven message for would-be or even long-time Christians. But absolutely necessary! Why? Because I may be the only Jesus that people can see right now. That notion has both brought me up very short and inspired me to seriously joyful possibility.
Lodged in the midst of this week’s passage is what I think is at the heart of what it means to live bo†h the vertical and the horizontal dimension of Christian faith. It’s in verse 6: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” It takes a humble heart to receive Jesus as my Savior. And it takes a humble heart to be Jesus to others, pointing them to the Savior.
So, after surviving the concussion of James’ harsh words in this week’s passage, let God renew His gracious work of humbling within you, which is the primary outcome of faith’s vertical dimension. He’ll then have an easier time doing His gracious work through you in others on the horizontal dimension. It’s not either/or; it’s both/and. The Cross beautifully signals that!
JIM
Near the cross! O lamb of God,
Bring its scenes before me;
Help me walk from day to day,
With its shadow o’er me.
Fanny J. Crosby
Shop Manual section: James 4:1-12
Tune-up
- Read & reflect on this section of the Shop Manual: James 4:1-12
- Identify an area or relationship that could use some more “Cross” in it from you.
- Apply the Cross consciously but without fanfare to that area or relationship.
Thinkin’ About Tomorrow
“See you tomorrow!” A common and seemingly innocuous phrase. “You bet! Look forward to it!” Like Annie in the eponymous Broadway musical, we naturally expect, if we don’t actually sing, her cheerful song:
The sun will come up tomorrow,
Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there’ll be sun.
Just thinkin’ about tomorrow
Clears away the cobwebs and the sorrow til there’s none.
Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you tomorrow,
It’s always a day away!
Sometime during my first few years in pastoral ministry, a man in our congregation passed away unexpectantly. Our lead pastor was on a sabbatical, so I took the phone call and went right over to the house. I’ve never forgotten what the brand-new widow said. “You never know at the beginning of a day what you’re going to face that day.” Now that I’m no longer a young pastor, or a young anyone, I have a much greater appreciation for her words.
Since that time Joy and I have experienced day after day year after year, literally decade after decade of incredible blessing. For sure during those years we’ve had a few phone calls, which is how bad news is still mostly delivered. But 98% of the time our plans have unfolded without incident. Praise God! And thank you, Lord!!
Thinking about tomorrow and the plans we make, I now more often say “If the Lord wills!” Out loud! I had learned these words from this week's passage in James. But experiencing the sheer uncertainty of life has brought this divine contingency home to me. I have known it theologically and intellectually, but it has now lodged in me spiritually and personally.
We live each day literally by the grace of God as a gift from our Heavenly Father. That realization has become an integral part of my prayer every day, especially at the dinner table or when turning in for the night. Sometimes thinking about tomorrow doesn't clear away the cobwebs and the sorrow til there's none. But reflecting on Psalms 3 & 4 helps me sink into my pillow with a little more peace of mind about tomorrow. Kind of an after-hours tune-up.
JIM
Shop Manual section: James 4:13-17
Tune-up
- Read & reflect on this section of the Shop Manual: James 4:13-17.
- Practice saying, “If the Lord wills” when thinking about your plans.
- Begin doing the “after-hours tune-up” with Psalms 3 & 4.
Noblesse Oblige
The French expression, noblesse oblige, has been a part of America’s lectionary since at least the Gilded Age. The concept’s roots may go as far back as Homer ‘s Iliad in the 8th century B.C. Noblesse oblige is the inferred responsibility of the privileged to act with nobility toward those less fortunate. If you had been a student at one of the elite colleges or universities during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this would have been the assumed purpose of your education inside those ivy covered walls..
Noblesse oblige is a fine if now for some politically questionable concept that has produced some of the most significant cultural and spiritual infrastructure in our country: schools, libraries, churches, public buildings, nature preserves, medical research efforts and concert venues like Carnegie, Davies and Benaroya halls. Wealthy individuals and legacy foundations like Ford, Rockefeller, Lilly, and Gates have given enormous resources toward improving the lives of millions around the world, including especially the poor.
When we encounter this week’s passage in the Epistle of James with its concussively harsh words to the rich, we might wonder who his primary audience might have been at that time. As far as we know there were no counterparts to the Vanderbilts, DuPonts, or Guggenheims, let alone a Jeff Bezos or an Elon Musk in the fledgling early Church. So how might this passage have applied to Christians then… and to us now?
I think at the very least this passage is a call to generosity. Sounds like an easy offramp from James’ bracing challenge here, right? But if generosity is a willingness to give from whatever resources God has entrusted to me it will be primarily a spiritual transaction. Ofttimes It’ll be a matter of not always easy obedience, and it will cost me something, maybe more than I expected. After Jesus noticed a poor widow had given just two copper coins amounting to a penny, while the rich had put in large sums, His comment was “Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those (rich) who are contributing to the treasury,” (Luke 12:41f).
As one of God’s nobles (1 Peter 2:9), whether rich or poor, my job is to keep an eye out for where, when and to whom oblige, or generosity is called for, no matter how seemingly small or unexpectantly large. In God’s economy my oblige is not primarily to another person or cause, but to God, the giver of every good and perfect gift to me…and through me.
JIM
Shop Manual section: James 5:1-6
Tune-up
- Read & reflect on this section of the Shop Manual: James 5:1-6.
- Ask yourself, “Where could I be more generous in my personal world?”
- Take some specific initiative of generosity today, no matter how small or crazy large
Remain Steadfast
Most biblical scholars consider the Book of Job to be the oldest in the Bible. I’ve been kinda glad to learn that because Job illustrates one of the most challenging issues of faith. It’s not a purely theological issue, although it brings forth some serious theological questions. It’s not an abstract intellectual issue, although it has challenged even the best minds. It’s certainly not a questionable textual issue; the Book of Job is considered one of the greatest literary compositions ever. It’s a highly personal issue.
The issue? The problem of suffering! Especially the problem of the undeserving, the innocent, the righteous suffering. The theological term for it is “theodicy,” the question of God’s goodness and omnipotence in the face of evil. Or in a single word, "Why?" The book of Job doesn’t answer that question. But it does illustrate what it looks like, some tempting explanations, and, most importantly, the excruciatingly faithful way Job handles it.
A few years ago I did a bicycle ride down the Oregon coast. I still can ‘t believe I was actually riding on Highway 101 with Winnebago, log truck and Ford F250 side-view mirrors barely clearing my handlebars. I sometimes shudder to think of it! Believe me, I was grateful to arrive safely in Gold Beach, where after a richly satisfying reward at the Dairy Queen I exited the trip to return home via rental car.
One of the things that ran through my mind a hundred times during those harrowing days in what is euphemistically referred to as “the bike lane” was, “Don’t panic! Don’t over-react!” And above all, “Hang on to those handlebars and drive straight!”
That bike ride isn’t even within light years of Job’s trial, or that of many, many others. What I can say however is that not panicking, not swerving from trust in God and hanging onto the handlebars in faith, though wobbly at times, has thus far kept me from crashing.
James’ words in this week’s passage point out a necessary tune-up for me, and perhaps for you, when life happens: Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful, (James 5:11).
Remain Steadfast! No matter what is happening, in spite of all appearances right now, no matter how confused or fearful you are feeling right now, the compassionate and merciful Lord's purpose will prevail. In your life and in this shaky world!
JIM
Shop Manual section: James 5:7-12
Tune-up
- Read & reflect on this section of the Shop Manual: James 5:7-12.
- Consider some issue you’re dealing with or trial you’re now going through.
- What could the encouragement to Remain Steadfast mean right now?
The Ultimate Healing
There’s no question that healing was and still is an integral part of Jesus’ ministry. Though his first miracle was turning water into wine at a wedding reception, many of Jesus’ subsequent miracles recorded in the four Gospels were physical healings. The most dramatic of these was raising Lazarus from the dead.
John tells us that “when Jesus heard that (Lazarus) was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was,” (John 11:6). When Jesus arrived in Bethany, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Martha, one of Lazarus’ sisters, heard that he was coming and ran out to meet him. The first words out of her mouth we’re those of countless believers through the ages. “Lord,” she cried, “if you had been here my brother wouldn’t have died!” Jesus’ first response was personal, “Your brother will rise again.” And then it was global, with perhaps the most significant words he ever spoke:
I am the resurrection and the life;
he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.
Thirty-five years ago, after our family received the news that my youngest brother had been diagnosed with Stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, we all began three years of intense prayer. At one point the elders of the church came, prayed over him and, per James 5, anointed him with oil. We were confident that the Lord would heal him. And He did! Our prayers however were not answered by an immediate healing, but by The Ultimate Healing.
During this Holy week we observe Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. Maundy Thursday commemorates Jesus’ command io love one another. Good Friday reminds us that Jesus’ own prayer to “remove this cup from me (of imminent suffering and death)” was not granted.
On Easter Sunday we’ll celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. It was the Father’s answer to Jesus’ prayer. Not as Jesus had prayed. But infinitely greater for the world than if God had allowed him to slip away unnoticed from Gethsemane to safety in a land far away.
So, yes, bring in the elders to pray and anoint with oil. Those prayers will be answered. Not always however for immediate healing. But when it matters most, God’s answer for those who live and believe in Jesus will be The Ultimate Healing. After that, no more tune-ups will be needed, praise God!
JIM
Shop Manual section: James 5:13-20
Tune-up
- Read & reflect on this section of the Shop Manual: James 5:13-20.
- Continue to pray for God’s healing in your own life and in others on your prayer list.
- Meditate on the risen Christ, through whom your Ultimate Healing is assured.