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Sacrificial Leadership and Laying on of Hands
Sacrificial Leadership and the Laying on of Hands
The Bible does not make this connection clear through direct declaration, but I do wonder if this is a connection the Bible is implying. What am I talking about? The laying on of hands and all that it signifies.
In the OT, Moses laid his hands on Joshua, and thusly conveyed authority upon his successor (Num 27:18,23, Deut 34:9).
In the NT, the practice of laying one’s hands upon another is again associated with the conferral of positional authority or designation to a position of responsibility. (Acts 6:6, Acts 13:3; 1 Timothy 4:14). In Acts 14:23, when elders were “appointed”, that word literally means, “stretching out the hand”.
We have generally not practiced this, regulating the act to the cultural confines of “greet one another with a holy kiss”. But what if this, in both the OT and NT, is not copying cultural practices, but instead is connecting the ecclesiastical with the soterlogical?
Here’s where I am going. In the OT, the laying on of hands is also associated with sacrifices (Leviticus 1:4; 3:2, 8, 13; 4:4, 15, 24, 29, 33; 16:21; Exodus 29:10, 15, 19; Numbers 8:12). Animals gave their lives to benefit others. Therefore, sacrifice and service are connected via the same process.
Not just in the OT is serving connected to sacrificial offerings. Paul said,
“For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time for my departure is close.” (CSB’17 2 Timothy 4:6)
Is it possible that Moses laid his hands on Joshua, the apostles laid their hands on the servants in Acts 6, the church laid their hands on Paul and Barnabas in Acts 13:3, and other NT examples, that these are not solely cultural practices of conveying power and authority; but instead, these examples show us the sacrificial nature of serving?
Sacrificial serving then would be another way of saying, “servant leadership”, like when Jesus contrasts leaders in the world with those in the church (Mark 10:42-44). Now connect that to what Jesus immediately says about His own servant leadership,
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”” (CSB’17 Mark 10:45)
Jesus paid the ranson, of both leading and serving, through His sacrifice.
“The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,” John 17:22 ESV
What is Jesus’s glory in the context of John’s gospel? Crucifixion and resurrection, washing feet, working signs that reveal the nature of God. How incredibly honoring and humbling to receive Jesus’s glory!
If all the above is true, then laying on one’s hands is conveying approval and conveying a specific type of power or authority – sacrificial servant leadership.
Now make this application to becoming elders (Acts 14:23). When men refuse to step up to become elders, they are refusing to become leaders who are sacrifices.
But this can’t become finger pointing at others since all Christians are to be sacrificial serving lives:
“Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.” (CSB’17 Romans 12:1)
Maybe we need to go back to laying hands on people and seeing servvant leadership as for what it really conveys – sacrificial leadership.
• “Therefore, let us leave the elementary teaching about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, faith in God, teaching about ritual washings, laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.” (CSB’17 Hebrews 6:1-2)
• “Don’t be too quick to appoint anyone as an elder, and don’t share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.” (CSB’17 1 Timothy 5:22)
• “to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as a priest of the gospel of God. My purpose is that the Gentiles may be an acceptable offering, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.” (CSB’17 Romans 15:16)
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