HEALING OR HURTING WITH TONGUES?
James 3:1-12
Isaiah 50:4-9
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost (Lectionary 24), Year B
Analysis by Peter Keyel
James 3:1-12
1Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. 3If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. 4Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits.
How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! 6And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. 7For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, 8but no one can tame the tongue – a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. 10From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. 11Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? 12Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.
Isaiah 50:4-9
4The Lord God has given me
the tongue of a teacher,
that I may know how to sustain
the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens –
wakens my ear
to listen as those who are taught.
5The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious,
I did not turn backward.
6I gave my back to those who struck me,
and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face
from insult and spitting.
7The Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
8he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand up together.
Who are my adversaries?
Let them confront me.
9It is the Lord God who helps me;
who will declare me guilty?
All of them will wear out like a garment;
the moth will eat them up.
“We trust that we can persevere through the attacks because we know that God has promised us new life.”
DIAGNOSIS: Our words betray us
Step 1: Initial Diagnosis (External Problem): Our words hurt others
James’ recommendation against being a teacher, and rationale for it, holds true today. Maybe even more so today, in a world where everyone can be a teacher, thanks to social media. If you’re learning from someone, they are a teacher, degree or not. If you’re teaching someone, you’re a teacher.
And most of those teachers today (as it has been through history) give wrong and/or hurtful information. Especially those teachers in the media. Especially those teachers on social media.
Government “misinformation” teachers who tend to define misinformation as all information contrary to the government position. But also the teachers in Sunday School. How quick are we to accuse other Lutherans of teaching wrong?
James is right in that the tongue can cause lots of damage, and teachers are expected not to teach wrong. We help enforce these norms, and we participate in it.
Step 2: Advance Diagnosis (Internal Problem): We can’t help it
While James allows that many hurtful words or incorrect teachings may be “mistakes”, he is quick to point out that we can’t control our tongues. “No one can tame the tongue” (v. 8). We want to curse others with it. How often are we willing to be charitable enough to even consider an incorrect teaching a mistake?
We want to attack the wrong teachers with our tongue – wrong teachers who were still created in God’s image.
Step 3: Final Diagnosis (Eternal Problem): Restless evil, full of poison
James identifies the problem. Behind James imagery of salt water failing to produce fresh water, and spring water distinct from brackish water is bad news. We are possessed by a restless evil, and are unable to stop cursing our enemies. The evil taints the whole, and our attacks on those created in God’s image (wrong though we believe them to be) set us up as God’s enemy. If we’re fighting God, we know that ends in death and damnation.
PROGNOSIS: God’s Word saves us
Step 4: Initial Prognosis (Eternal Solution): Restless good, full of life
Jesus was also given the tongue of the teacher, and He was not rebellious. Jesus gave His back and his life to those who struck him when He was killed on the cross, enduring God’s criticism for us all. God vindicated Jesus in the resurrection, and promised mercy for God’s enemies. God creates new life through the resurrection, one that is now a restless good.
Step 5: Advanced Prognosis (Internal Solution): We can’t help it
The new life in Christ leads to a new life of faith. What does that faith look like? An inversion of the poisoned tongue that James described. As Isaiah describes it, instead of attacking those who are wrong, we can face those attacks. The desire to attack is gone. We trust that Jesus will see us through the worst and vindicate us; and that means we can face our enemies not in order to attack them, but to forgive as we have been forgiven and without faltering in faithfulness to the gospel (cf. Mark 8:34-35).
We trust that we can persevere through the attacks because we know that God has promised us new life. The cause and effect in Isaiah is “the LORD God helps me; therefore…” (v. 7). The desire is no longer to hurt, but to heal and help.
Step 6: Final Prognosis (External Solution): Our words heal others
With this new life and this newfound trust in Jesus, therefore, we are freed to use our words to heal others. When the desire is to sustain the weary and to listen as those who are taught, what happens?
In love and mercy, we get to fulfill James original hope, that we use our tongue to bless both the God who gave us new life, and others created in God’s image. Filled with faith, would we want it any other way?
