This is the fifth entry in our series THE ONLY NECESSARY THING, in which we are learning what prayer is, how it “works”, and different forms of prayer we can implement into our spiritual rhythms.
Until this point we have been focusing on forms of prayer - centering prayer, liturgy, confession, psalms - that largely focus on our relationship to God. This week we pivot to why and how we prayer for others by exploring the laying on of hands. Consider the following passages of scripture:
People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them. (Mark 10:13-16)
Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength. (Acts 9:17-19)
They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. (Acts 6:5-6)
Intercessory prayer brings up perhaps one of the most important questions of all - why do we bother praying? Why doesn’t God just “do stuff”?
If the conclusion of the Bible is that “God is love”, then we must reassess our understanding of how God intends to put the world right. We must remember that the Bible is a record of people wrestling with the nature of God, trying to figure out Who and What God is. Sometimes they receive divine revelation that changes their whole worldview; other times they ascribe motives to God that fall short of what we see in Jesus later in the narrative. Yet, by the time we arrive at the letter of 1 John we find a capstone revelation that could only come by processing the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus - “God is Love” (1 John 4:16).
So often in the Christian household, when trying to define “God”, we get hung up on a concept of perfection that has more to do with Greek philosophy than Jewish theology. The pervasiveness of the omni’s - God is all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful, all-present - lead us to imagine a rather still-faced god, an immovable object who is not affected by creation. Questions of theodicy - why is there evil in the world and what is God doing about it - are then framed in terms of control, which means God has a lot to answer for. But if we are more careful to listen to the progressive revelation of scripture and we reorient our primary definition of God to love, as the first disciples of Jesus did, we realize we are now in the realm of dynamic relationship, a God Who is with us and turns curses into blessings. So how does Love behave?
Paul answer us with his beautiful poetic meditation in 1 Corinthians 13. We can playfully enter this passage into dialogue with the community of John by replacing “love” with “God” and seeing how it shifts our understanding of theodicy:
God is patient, God is kind. God does not envy, God does not boast, God is not proud. God does not dishonor others, God is not self-seeking, God is not easily angered, God keeps no record of wrongs. God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. God always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Cor. 13:5-7)
The problem of evil and the solution are framed quite differently now. God does intend to fix the world, but God will do it as Love and not as a coercive force. God chooses to work alongside and with God’s creation, not imposing God’s will upon matter, violating our free will. And it begins to reveal to us that we do indeed have a role to play in the repairing of the cosmos.
Our faith is not merely an exchange of ideas, but of tangible actions through which we connect God to the world. I find it profoundly helpful to understand the sacraments, or “sacred acts”, of the faith as ways to make the invisible visible. The intangible tangible. The eucharist, baptism, the laying on of hands, these are actions that move us from the realm of esoteric ideas to lived-in realities.
In that light we can see that the laying on of hands is a symbol, but not in the way that symbol might mean “less true” than facts. Something does indeed happen, although it may be hard to pin down in conventional language. In a world marred by no touch or bad touch, healing touch on God’s behalf repairs and restores. The internet age has fragmented and isolated so many of us to the point where we have lost the hunger for good touch that places us in a space with real people. Many of us have also experienced bad touch in our stories that was intended to threaten and control. When we allow those who love us to kindly lay hands on us in prayer, we become more naturally open and vulnerable, which allows the light in.
When lay hands on one another, we become the hands of Jesus to bless, heal, deliver, and empower. Again, this is an understanding of symbol that acts as a bridge between ideas and reality so that we quite literally become the Body of Christ in our time. Throughout the scriptures we see God’s faithful placing their hand upon others in prayer, all the way back to the patriarchs who blessed the next generation to carry the story forward. The three little scriptural vignettes I began this essay with show us some of the primary reasons in this way. To bless someone through the laying on of hands is to invite the goodness of God to shine upon their lives. To lay hands and pray for healing invoke’s God’s spirit to restore us to our created intention; whether physically, mentally, or spiritually. Similarly, touch can be an integral part of deliverance prayers that denounce the darkness and call in the light, standing up against the lies that haunt us. And finally, we lay hands to commission others to the task of ministry, such as ordination. These types of prayer in one way call forth who someone already is and ask for empowerment for them to grow into the task ahead through wisdom and discernment.
To practice the laying on of hands of course requires closeness to others on the journey of faith. It is important to remember in this form of intercessory prayer that we must be kind and considerate in our touch as we are combatting no touch and bad touch and the effects they have had on the soul. This is also a moment to remember that we are not giving advice through prayer, but carefully listening to God’s heart for those for whom we pray and speaking it out loud. Prayer after all is a mystery. It is not that we have no idea why it “works”, nor that it is a magical incantation that convinces God to move if and only if we get the words right. Rather it is something we participate in faith, coming into agreement with God by saying in any number of ways, “Your will be done”.