Doctrines of Christ
Lesson 30: Laying on of Hands
Part IV: Spiritual Authority
Our final lesson in the discussion of laying on of hands will begin in the Book of Mark 6:1-6, “1 Then He went out from there and came to His own country, and His disciples followed Him. 2 And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, “Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands! 3 Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” So they were offended at Him.4 But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.” 5 Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching.”
Ineffective at Home
This passage of Scripture gives us one of the most insightful lessons on the subject of laying on of hands. Miracles, signs, and wonders, followed Jesus everywhere that He went, except in His own home town. Certainly Jesus had the power within Himself to do the miracles, so what could short-circuit this power and render Him ineffective at home? I want to point out four issues that I see in this passage that we should learn from and avoid if we are to be effective when hands are laid on us or when we lay hands on others.
They Were Astonished
One of the best ways to study The Word is by studying words. Understanding the meaning of a word and its usage will many times help us to better understand the meaning of an entire passage or subject. So it is in the case of the word “astonished”. When Jesus expounded on the Scriptures that day in His home town synagogue His friends and relatives were “astonished”.
The Greek word for astonished is “ekpletto” and it means to knock one out of their senses. This meaning goes much further than our typical understanding of this word such as amazement or even admiration. Jesus’ words hit so hard it had a traumatic effect like getting punched in the head. I used to do a little boxing and I understand what it’s like to get hit really hard in the head. I was hit in the right ear by a left hook twice in the same boxing match. I never saw either of the blows but I remember that my mind just went blank, my legs were strong and I was still standing but my mind was like a test of the emergency broadcast system, woooooooooooo… I took the standing eight count and we continued but my mind was “astonished”.
Astonishment seemed to be a normal reaction to Jesus’ teachings. For instance look at the crowd’s response at the close of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:28, “28 And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching,” The Sermon on the Mount to the religious mind was like being hit in the head by Muhammad Ali.
Consider the Sadducees’ response when Jesus corrected the foundational errors in their doctrine concerning the resurrection from the dead in Matthew 22:33, “33 And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.” Once again He delivered a knockout blow to their religious minds.
When Jesus silenced the rich young ruler it was very similar to my experience of being hit with two left hooks in the same fight, they were double astonished. Mark 10:23-27, “23 Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 And they were greatly astonished, saying among themselves, “Who then can be saved?” 27 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.” They were knocked out of their senses to hear that it was hard for rich folks to enter the kingdom of God. Then while they were still reeling from the first blow the second came as He expounded on the teaching, leaving them to ask, “Who then can be saved? That’s what I call hard hitting preaching!
Perhaps the most insightful uses of the word “astonished” is found at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry at Capernaum. We read this in Mark 1:21-22, “21 Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught. 22 And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” He taught with authority, people loose their minds when they encounter authority!
The effectiveness of the ministry of laying on of hands is hinged on our ability to receive Divine Authority. Too often is the case where our humanity blinds others to authority as we will see in the next point.
They Were Offended
Jesus’ teachings are the source of astonishment in all of the cases that we studied. The things that He said knocked them out of their senses. But the case of astonishment in His hometown was not only “what” He said but more so “Who” was saying it.Once they began to absorb what He was saying they turned their sight on His humanity. He’s not a preacher He’s a carpenter… that’s Mary’s boy… that’s James, Joses, Judas, and Simon’s brother… Who does He think He is? And they were offended at Him.There’s an old saying that goes like this, “familiarity breeds contempt”. Those familiar with Jesus’ family, upbringing, work background, were challenged by what He said then immediately held viewed Him with eyes of contempt. Psalm 123:1-4 gives us some insight to the idea of contempt, “1 Unto You I lift up my eyes, O You who dwell in the heavens. 2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, So our eyes look to the LORD our God, Until He has mercy on us. 3 Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy on us! For we are exceedingly filled with contempt. 4 Our soul is exceedingly filled With the scorn of those who are at ease, With the contempt of the proud.”Contempt runs two ways. When someone looks on another person with contempt (disrespect) toward them the one being looked upon feels the effects of it. Those in Psalm 123 said that their souls were filled with contempt because they were being looked upon by the proud with contempt. This Psalm is all about them crying to God for mercy to heal them from the contempt. One more thought about contempt is that it is generated from a proud heart. The pride of Jesus’ friends and kinfolk in His home town rose up. They humanized Him then they were offended at Him. In Lesson 8: Faith’s Direction, we learned that there were five ways that we could be offended. First, we can offend God, Matthew 16:21-23. Second, God can offend us, Matthew 11:1-6. Third, we can offend people, Matthew 18:1-7. Fourth, people can offend us, Matthew 18:15-20. And fifth, we can offend ourselves, Matthew 18:8-10. What was the reason for the offence in this case? If you chose the second reason you were right, they were offended by God. There was absolutely nothing wrong with anything that Jesus was saying the problem was “who” was talking. If we would judge the contents of what is being said we would be less contemptible toward those who are saying it.
They Dishonored Him
When Jesus perceived their offence birthed out of proud contempt He said, ““A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.” It’s grievous to be used by God and accepted by strangers only to be rejected by those closest to you. Rejected by your country, relatives, and your own house, the better that you are known the more likely your ministry will be rejected. It is amazing to me when I travel abroad I am treated with the status of royalty I don’t ask for that and to be quite honest I am not comfortable with it. I guess it’s because I am used to the dishonorable status that I am viewed with by my own country and relatives. At least I do enjoy some honor in my house. The main issue here is dishonor. To honor means to place a value upon to dishonor means to treat as worthless. For instance “Honor thy father and mother” means to count them as valuable and even to give finance to them. Another clear example of this is found in I Timothy 5:17-18, “17 Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. 18 For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer is worthy of his wages.” This is an excellent passage to help us understand the word “honor”. The elders who ruled well were to be counted worthy of “double honor”. Then it is followed up by the teaching of wages for a minister. In other words a good elder that works in word and doctrine is worth double the salary. Jesus was dishonored. He was treated as worthless. There is a valuable lesson that we should learn here. The more familiar that we get with someone the more susceptible that we are to hold them in contempt and to dishonor them. When it comes time for ministry it only amounts to powerless words because we don’t believe that they are sent by God, which brings us to our last point.
Unbelief
They were astonished and offended holding Him in dishonor then Jesus summed up all of this with one word… UNBELIEF. He marveled at their unbelief. It takes great faith to receive the teachings of a teacher and to believe that they are sent by God. It seems that any revelation of their humanity undoes any need that we have to receive them. Unbelief seems to come from a hard heart. In Mark 16:14, “14 Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.” It seemed impossible to those who witnessed Jesus death to believe the testimony of some women who claimed that He had risen from the dead. Oh yes they eventually believed when they saw it for themselves but they could not receive this from the women who made this claim. Jesus rebuked them for not receiving the testimony about Him through others.Hebrews 3:12-13 explain how unbelief and hard heartedness run together, “12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”Those in Jesus’ home town allowed their hearts to be hardened through the sin of pride to reject Jesus and His teachings. This rendered Jesus largely ineffective reducing His ministry to just seeing a few minor healings. We need to keep our hearts soft lest we too become hardened through familiarity and reject those that God sends to us.
Spiritual Authority
I want to inject a short exhortation to understand true authority here. The Constantine congregations are always teaching that we should submit to authority. I believe in submission to God’s authority but I refuse to be beaten into submission by fear. Romans 8:15, “15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” In the Old Testament the religious structure was driven by fear based authority. In the New Testament we have the Spirit of Adoption and we are led by the authority of love. I gladly submit to loving authority even when I have to be corrected or rebuked. But I resist to the death those who would try to use fear to control me, fear is of the devil.One of our clearest teachings of authority comes from Matthew 20:25-28, “25 But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. 26 Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. 27 And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Jesus flatly warned us that we shall not lord over each other with Gentile authority structures. He then taught us that true authority serves in humility. Another teaching that Jesus gives us concerning proper authority is found in Matthew 21:23-27, “23 Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?” 24 But Jesus answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things: 25 The baptism of John—where was it from? From heaven or from men?” And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet.” 27 So they answered Jesus and said, “We do not know.” And He said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”There is an authority that comes from heaven and one that comes from men. Those with the authority from men always seem to despise those who come with authority from God. John the Baptist had heaven sent authority while those religious leaders of his day resisted him by their political authority. We need to learn to recognize the authority that heaven sends. We are so abused by Gentile authority that we seem to not even realize that this has come into the churches of our day. Jesus said “Yet it shall not be so among you,” but we readily accept abusive Gentile authority being imposed on us. We must demand that they earn our submission through serving out of love not lording out of fear.We must also learn that when the loving, humble, servant comes we should recognize him and believe and receive from him.