Anointing Oil

Something often used in ministries of healing is anointing oil.  Some traditions have a service in which the oil is consecrated for use during the upcoming year.  Usually, the oil is olive oil and in some cases spices may be added to it.  In the early church anointing oil was used as a part of prayers for healing; however, much later the ritual of anointing someone with oil was more about preparing them for death.  More recently that practice has been altered so that the anointing has a purpose which is more about living than dying.  

When I was growing up in the rural parts of south Georgia, I can never remember seeing anyone anointed with oil.  I did hear about its use in the Pentecostal churches, but back then there was more separation between the mainline Protestant community and the more independent Pentecostal churches where less sedate worship took place.  I was some twenty years into my ministry before I acquired my first anointing oil and actually began to make use it.  I was introduced to its usage and the practice of it by an Episcopalian pastor friend in Vidalia.  To my surprise he used it regularly which blew all my preconceived misconceptions out the window.   

Of course, it is a practice mentioned in the Scripture in numerous places.  Mark 6:6-13 tells the story of Jesus sending the twelve out two by two.  They came back reporting that they had "...cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them."  The most often read passage about anointing oil is found in James 5::14 where it says, "Are any among you sick?  The should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord."  Certainly, there is no special power in the oil, but it is a sign of God's presence and blessing as well as a visible reminder of the grace of God touching the broken for purposes of wholeness.