“Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave. As you enter the home, give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town” (Mt.10:11-14).
As Jesus was sending out the twelve to try out their wings apart from his presence, he gave them these instructions as part of a larger set. To us, this passage may seem a bit strange. What constitutes a worthy person? What does it mean to give the house your greeting? What is “your peace” that can be imparted and then retrieved? To some degree this passage is confusing to most of us because of cultural contexts that we are unfamiliar with. To some degree it is because of a spiritual context that we are unfamiliar with.
Luke’s version of what Jesus said can be helpful. Luke records the instructions Jesus gave to the twelve this way “Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house” (Lk.10:4-7).
In the first century in middle-eastern cultures it was traditional to declare a blessing over a house as you entered. That blessing was “Peace to this house.” The idea of peace to the Jew was that of “shalom.” Shalom didn’t simply mean the absence of conflict but rather the presence of God’s goodness, health, provision, joy, as well as peace with your neighbors. It was as if the word “shalom” contained all the blessings God had promised those who would follow him faithfully. A quick reading of Deuteronomy 28:1-14 will give you a sense of that. In that text, Jehovah lists a number of blessings and declares, “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all of his commands…all these blessings will come upon you and accompany you.” To declare a blessing over a house was a simply prayer asking the Lord to establish “shalom” over the house.
In the days of David, after a failed attempt to move the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem because David and the priests had not followed the prescribed way to transport the ark, a man named Obed-Edom was assigned as a caretaker of the ark and it was left at his house. After Uzzah had touched the ark irreverently during transport, he had died immediately so I assume Obed-Edom did not sleep well for a number of evenings after finding ark left in his living room. However, because of the presence of God in the man’s house and because the man had reverence for God, he was greatly blessed. “Now King David was told, ‘The Lord has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and everything he has because of the ark of God’” (2 Sam.6:12). After hearing that, David found a way to move the ark the Jerusalem. I believe shalom settled over the house of Obed-Edom and the result was constant blessing in all kinds of ways for those who lived there.
It was a gracious sentiment then for a Jew to enter a house and wish for God’s blessings to be poured out over the house. However, Jesus takes the idea to a very different level. He says that first of all the when the apostles entered a house where they would stay while ministering in a village, they were to “let their peace rest on him” if he were a worthy man – a good man, a reverent man, and a man of faith. If he were not a good man of faith, then they should leave and take their “shalom” with them.
This giving and taking of peace goes beyond a sentiment or a prayer. It implies that the apostles had been given authority to bestow the blessings of heaven or to take them away. It seems to parallel Jesus’s words, “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Mt.16:19).
My point here is that we still do not understand the level of authority that Jesus has delegated to us. The apostles had the capacity to assess a man’s heart through the leading of the Spirit and if they declared shalom over the house where they were staying, God would honor that declaration with blessings. If they removed shalom by some declaration or by shaking the dust off their sandals then he honored that declaration as well.
How often do we mindlessly say, “God bless you” with little expectation or little faith that he will? What if we believed that we had been given authority to actually, literally direct blessings from heaven onto a person, a household, or a business and that God would honor our direction. That would mean that we had been given a stewardship of those blessings (the riches of heaven) and that they were to be thoughtfully directed toward people who would use the blessings in godly ways (the worthy person).
I believe that we still the delegated authority to do just that when we speak shalom (peace) over a house or a person with faith and with thoughtfulness. We are told, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God” (1 Pet.4:10-11).
Speaking blessings is certainly a very real and profound way of administering God’s grace. “Administering” does not mean to give away God’s grace randomly but as a steward would dispense resources of the master in thoughtful ways as the Master himself would do. Some of that administration of grace was to be done by speaking and as one speaking the very words of God – which means speaking thoughtfully, intentionally, with authority, and with the expectation that those words will fulfill their purpose because they have been spoken as the very words of God by the Spirit’s direction.
Think about that today. Meditate. Think about who you are in Christ and the authority you have as his representative. As you go through your day, ask the Spirit to direct you to people who need the shalom that already rests upon you and then bless them in the name of Jesus with faith that God is actually going to do so in some real, tangible way because you spoke the blessing.
So…be blessed today by declaring the blessing of peace over a worthy person! Have fun.
