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Laying On of Hands
Brian Mashburn
July 13, 2014
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Laying On of Hands
Among the six elementary teachings about Christ listed in Hebrews 6:1-2, there are two practices: baptism and the laying on of hands.
For most of us in this church family, baptism is accepted as an elementary teaching about Christ, while the laying on of hands as any kind of valued exercise has been all but lost.
I wonder what spiritual truth has been lost to us, or at least diminished, by our ignoring of this activity. What spiritual power did this common Christian practice, listed by the Hebrew author as equally elementary and foundational as baptism, have invested in it?
I've read every New Testament reference to it in search of an answer to that.
If you were a Christian in that first century, and you were about to have "hands laid on you" by your church, you were about to be blessed, healed, empowered, or appointed into a calling.
This was basic, elementary, foundational stuff. The church's ministry of blessing people, of healing people, of calling on the Spirit to fuel and gift people, and of appointing or dedicating people to Kingdom service was assumed and common.
Perhaps this is worth revisiting for us? We already practice this sparingly, gathering around those about to depart from us on a Kingdom mission. But perhaps we should recapture and re-implement this elementary teaching about Christ in a greater way.
Not because we must, but because we can.