Luke 10:5

A CORDIAL SALUTATION

‘And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house.’

Luke 10:5

Among the instructions delivered to the seventy was this instruction which was that without waiting to prove their entertainers they were to enter upon their quarters pleasantly, cheerfully. It was to be their habit to anticipate the best.

I. We know how very doubtful some persons always are, in reference to anything new, which they have not yet tested. There is not a particle of sweet faith in them. It seems impossible for them to expect smilingly that good is coming to them. You proffer them a new idea, a new plan, or method, and you can tell by their manner that their hearts are far from whispering ‘Peace to this thing.’ Have we never noticed the difference between two persons in taking possession of some temporary lodging! How soon something is certain to be found by him who does not say first to the house ‘Peace to you’! These are little things, and yet Christ spake of and cared for them.

II. The seventy were to assume also that the inmates were worthy of cordial salutation.—Begin always, says Christ, by feeling graciously towards them. The average Englishman is not at all given to this, and needs to be exhorted and urged in this direction. He is naturally shy of strangers, and perhaps shows some suspicion too. Yet Christ charges us that we learn to beam upon our fellows whom we chance to encounter. Let us nourish the habit of believing in one another, of anticipating discoveries of beauty and grace in one another.

III. The Incarnation of the Lord constitutes us all brethren together with Him; and how can he be said to confess that it is so who is not prepared to think generously of every man whom he meets, to look upon him with feelings of goodwill, and to accept him cordially? Thus the little thing on which we have been dwelling runs up into, and has its root in, a very great thing—nothing less, really, than our faith in the Holy Incarnation.

Illustration

‘It is probable that “ Peace be to this house” was a common Jewish form of salutation’ (See 1 Samuel 25:6; Psalms 122:7).