Greeting

Each culture has its own customs of greeting. These typically involve the exchange of standard questions and responses, the expression of emotion and the performance of distinctive gestures—shaking hands, hugging, kissing, bowing, kneeling, clapping, patting one’s chest and so on. Often the specific words and actions are defined by the relative social position of the two parties meeting: thus, we greet our friends differently than we would a king.

Purpose of Greeting

The purpose of greeting is to establish relationship. It is the first thing communicated in any meeting and can have several positive effects.

First, a greeting serves to recognize other people. In a world where people are often together but not in relationship, the act of greeting recognizes individuals as being worthy of relationship. It says, “You are significant to me.” It may also say, “You are so significant to me that I remember you.” This is the first step in offering hospitality and leads naturally to a welcome, that is, to an invitation for people to be at home where we are. This is what the world did not offer Jesus when he came to us (John 1:11) but what Jesus offers people who come to him (John 1:37-39).

Second, a greeting can affirm others. The image we have of ourselves is partially dependent on how others respond to us. Thus, greeting can be a way of strengthening another person’s self-image. It says, “I think you are a valuable and gifted person.”

Third, a greeting can invoke a blessing. As with a salutation, the greeter expresses a wish of peace or well-being over the other person. Even something as simple as “Good morning” can be a means of bringing goodness into another’s day. For the Christian the greeting can be a prayer: “Lord, bless this morning with your goodness.”

Problems with Greeting

Unfortunately, greetings may degenerate into routine performances of outward displays of fellowship that lack depth. When words are spoken merely to maintain appearances, they become lies—conveyers of nonreality. Recognition, affirmation and blessing may express the appearance of relationship, but in fact it is only a façade. Not only can greetings be given falsely, but they can be received falsely for merely selfish reasons. Jesus criticized the Pharisees for this: “You love . . . to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces” (Luke 11:43 NRSV).

In contrast, Jesus challenged his followers not to wait to be greeted but to take the initiative themselves, to greet rather than to be greeted. Furthermore, he challenged them to greet those outside their familiar circle of friends (Luke 14:12-14). By this first step in loving their enemies, Jesus’ followers would be known (Matthew 5:43-48).

Christian Greetings

“Peace,” shalom in Hebrew, was the standard Jewish greeting in Jesus’ day. It expressed in a nutshell the Jews’ hope for God’s rule in the age to come—a life characterized by security, welfare and relational harmony. No doubt the twelve disciples heard Jesus use it many times and never thought much of it. But on resurrection Sunday when Jesus suddenly appeared before them and greeted them, “Peace be with you” (John 20:19), they could hardly have failed to appreciate the profundity of his words. Those who feared for their lives received peace.

In his letters Paul transformed the traditional greeting to reflect the new experience of the gospel. The standard Greek greeting was chairein; Paul changed it to charis (“grace”)—a slight change in spelling but a profound change in meaning. Combining this with the Hebrew tradition, he typically greeted people in his letters with “Grace and peace to you.” However, he would often make the significance explicit by adding “from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” He thereby set the stage for explaining the reality of the gospel: peace (that is, the hope of the Jews) and grace (that is, the means by which God has made peace possible).

Paul’s letters were far from formal, impersonal theological documents; they were living letters seasoned with personal greetings, especially Romans 16. Paul’s greetings in his letters found their counterpart in the mutual greetings of the earliest Christian congregations, who customarily met each other with the kiss of peace (1 Cor. 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:12) or sent greetings to one another by letter or through traveling Christians (Col. 4:14). These descriptive and prescriptive examples in the New Testament show that greeting is a way of deepening the family experience of the people of God. The Lord’s Supper and reading the Scriptures should not be neglected, but neither should we neglect greeting one another.

Perhaps the most astounding greeting in the Bible is that of the father in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-24). After becoming destitute, the wayward son realizes his only hope is in returning home. He rehearses his own greeting by which he hopes to regain favor with his father, but his father surprises him. The father runs to meet him on the road, greets him first with hugs and kisses, and welcomes him home with a feast fit for an honored guest. Such open acceptance would shock the typical Palestinian man, who would say the father has lowered himself too far. And yet this is how God treats those who return to him after wandering away!

» See also: Blessing

» See also: Conversation

» See also: Farewell

References and Resources

G. L. Sittser, Loving Across Our Differences (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1994).

—Gerry Schoberg