Friendship and Healing in the Bible
Caterina Baffa, Theology, Medicine, and Culture Fellow, Duke Divinity School
In modern hospital settings, the work of medicine and healing often happens in starkly individual settings. Although there is certainly biblical precedent for the role of separation in the face of illness, there is also a strong strain towards the restoration of those ill people from the margins into general community. We need only consider Jesus’ numerous healings of people afflicted by diseases such as leprosy which previously excluded them from approaching any other members of their community. But healthcare today can instead be an isolating experience, a problem even further heightened by the distancing measures necessary during the peaks of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here I will critically examine what biblical texts can teach us today about healing with friendship and community at the forefront. The Book of Sirach is a deuterocanonical text which is one of the few biblical books to make friendship a major and explicit topic of the text. I will first demonstrate that Sirach prioritizes friendship not simply as a form of connection or pleasure but as a duty; friendship and relationships in community serve as an arena for proving faithfulness and modeling the friendship of God. Although Sirach presents a provocative image of the role of friendship in leading a faithful life, he does not make as clear how this version of friendship plays directly into the work of healing and caring for the ill.
I will thus turn towards Jesus’ model of healing by examining the Gospel of John’s story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Here lies another crucial instance of friendship because Lazarus and his sisters are said to be dear friends to Jesus. I will argue that this story can teach readers 1) the characteristics of healing conducted when community is prioritized, and 2) how Jesus goes about the process of healing from a place of friendship. From this biblical analysis we can consider what patients, caregivers, friends and family, and healthcare practitioners can learn and apply to their own lives to incorporate relationship and community into today’s work of health, caring, and healing.
Here I will critically examine what biblical texts can teach us today about healing with friendship and community at the forefront. The Book of Sirach is a deuterocanonical text which is one of the few biblical books to make friendship a major and explicit topic of the text. I will first demonstrate that Sirach prioritizes friendship not simply as a form of connection or pleasure but as a duty; friendship and relationships in community serve as an arena for proving faithfulness and modeling the friendship of God. Although Sirach presents a provocative image of the role of friendship in leading a faithful life, he does not make as clear how this version of friendship plays directly into the work of healing and caring for the ill.
I will thus turn towards Jesus’ model of healing by examining the Gospel of John’s story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Here lies another crucial instance of friendship because Lazarus and his sisters are said to be dear friends to Jesus. I will argue that this story can teach readers 1) the characteristics of healing conducted when community is prioritized, and 2) how Jesus goes about the process of healing from a place of friendship. From this biblical analysis we can consider what patients, caregivers, friends and family, and healthcare practitioners can learn and apply to their own lives to incorporate relationship and community into today’s work of health, caring, and healing.