daily java

Daily Java: All the brothers here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss. (1 Corinthians 16:20).

I wonder whatever  happened to the Holy Kiss?

It’s always good to greet people you know, especially when you haven’t seen them in a long time. You see them, you’re glad, you go up to them and hug them, you hold them for a minute – you are just glad to see old friends.

Usually when I see my son Sam I hug him and then kiss him on the neck. I’m not sure why, but I just like doing it. When they were children, we always kissed them, and some of that continues.

I remember at one church I pastored, he and his wife came in to the sanctuary. We were giving away food once a week to whoever came – food we had gathered and sorted at four large local grocery stores. Sam and Kristin (his wife) came in and he came over to me. I hugged him and kissed him like I usually did.

For some reason, that impressed the fire out of the people that had come. There were a lot of people there and they were all low income people, many from dysfunctional homes. They just didn’t see much if any positive physical contact between a father and son. I suppose that in their world, people beat, not kissed.

In the old custom, people kissed a lot. In the Bible, it was common to read about people kissing each other. It was used for affection, it was used for old friends greeting each other. It was also used for respect: a student would kiss his teacher on the cheek as a token of respect.

That was what made it so tragic when Judas betrayed Jesus. He told the soldiers who came to arrest Jesus that the one he kissed would be the one they were looking for. Since there were no pictures in those days and they had only seen Jesus from a distance, they needed some physical authentication. So Judas kissed Jesus.

Jesus responded, Do you greet me with a kiss? Almost shocked. He knew Judas was going to betray him, but I don’t know if he knew how it would be.

There is nothing in this world worse than someone using an act of friendship or respect as a means of betrayal. It has happened to me more than once and it is an exquisite pain.

But still, Paul wanted it done. It was the custom of the day and a good one, and he says do it. Show each other love and respect.

Shaking hands is kind of the modern version, I guess. Fist bumps too, although I always thought those looked goofy.

I think I read somewhere that a church council had decided to get rid of kisses of respect somewhere in the third century or so. I am not sure, but it sounds like something a church would do. Seems like I read that it had been misused with men and women, so they did the banning thing.

Whatever happened, we don’t do it today. When I was younger, and confronted with a young man who was all cool and tough, I would grab him in a big hug, lift him off the floor and kiss him on the cheek. I am quite big and was quite strong, so that worked nicely. It always startled them. Guys I did that to I never had any more trouble out of them.

I don’t do that anymore. I would probably throw my back out.

Another good custom gone. Be sure to show affection to each other, though. That will do the job.