Words That Wound and Heal

For Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Proverbs 12:18

There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts,
but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

Medieval Jewish mystics imagined God's creation through his "word" of power in terms of blazing Hebrew letters rushing from heaven to form together into the substance of the cosmos. While the image is rather fantastic, it underscores the creative power of words as rooted in a biblical perspective. And if words can create, they can also destroy.

Today's proverb compares "rash words" to the thrusts of a sword wounding, cutting, and piercing those against whom they are directed. Ever since the reckless words of shifting blame uttered by Adam and Eve, our lives have be marked by words that hurt. Matthew Henry writes:

Opprobrious words grieve the spirits of those to whom they are spoken, and cut them to the heart. Slanders, like a sword, wound the reputation of those of whom they are uttered, and perhaps incurably. Whisperings and evil surmises, like a sword, divide and cut asunder the bounds of love and friendship, and separate those that have been dearest to each other.

And often, it is not even so much the content of what is said that hurts as it is the way in which it was said or the carelessness, prejudice, and failure to truly listen that such hasty words express.

The proverb continues, however, and points to the creative and restorative power that words also possess. Likely, the proverb is not merely making a simple contrast, but also a progression: when words have wounded, then those who are wise are called upon to speak words that heal. The tongue of the wise can bind up those wounds and apply the soothing ointment of kindness, encouragement, truth, persausion, concord, and good report.

Jesus above all is for us the Wisdom of God, the eternal Word who comes with healing in his wings. And it is in the word of the Gospel that Jesus is made known, that God's healing "Yes" of promise is spoken to our hurtful "No" of unbelief and sin. And it is through word of the Father's forgiveness and reconciliation that all other healing is made possible and of eternal significance.

Teach us, Spirit of Christ, to speak words that heal in order that Jesus may be upon our lips.