A Holy Kiss

A Holy Kiss.  Any reader of the world news barely needs to peek past the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, Ukraine, or the failed state of Haiti to observe turmoil. Today, India retaliated against Pakistan’s attack in the disputed Kashmir territory. Civil war in Khartoum, Sudan, predictably swells and recedes displacing millions as refugees. In Myanmar (Burma), despite recent earthquakes and promises to a ceasefire for humanitarian aid, the controlling military junta continues to shell its own people since their coup d’état in 2021. Mexican drug cartels, MS-13 gang violence, military assets in the South China Sea, and non-stop cyberwarfare show that conflict remains high despite global trade, instant communication, and cuddly cat videos on Instagram. The more we advance toward cooperation the more we revert to tribalism.

Entering this worldwide scene of incurable turmoil, quietly and unassumingly, is the church. On any given Sunday morning, in virtually any functioning New Testament church, a miracle blooms. Not the kind of miracle that televangelists obsess about, but the ordinary kind that the world cannot accomplish despite all its (so-called) improvements. Blink and you might miss it, but when the saints of God pass to one another the peace of God in the name of God, with such frequency that it might even seem boring to some, is shockingly miraculous.

When the apostles concluded their letters to the churches, five times written in a command form, “Greet one another with a holy kiss” (Rom. 16:16; 1 Cor. 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:12; 1 Thess. 5:26; 1 Pet. 5:14), they were walking where angels fear to tread. In a hostile slice of history where infiltrated spies, betrayals, inquisitions, persecutions, imprisonments, and martyrdoms were common (not unlike today in many nations), the Lord wanted the saints to extend and receive social greetings in the fellowship. Ah, but what a vulnerable act a greeting is! 

In America, we don’t have cultural kisses, but we have handshakes and high-fives. In many countries, friends greet one another with a kiss. Left-right-left, or right-left, or an air-kiss, a cultural kiss is not a small thing. Skip it, botch it, or spoof it and one might find himself henceforth unceremoniously disinvited to every social interaction. But the kiss isn’t the miracle; the holy kiss is. The holy kiss treats the other person as a saint. I endorse you as an insider. Even at first introduction, simply by naming the Name, the saints skip all the probationary customs of slowly, suspiciously affording a foreigner the status of guest, candidate, and brother. Christian fellowship starts at hello! Whether or not we engage with an actual kiss, we begin as friends—even Jews and Gentiles, patriots and loyalists, free and slave.

Peek back again at the world news. What miracle would it take for Indians and Pakistanis to forgive each other, for el policía and los cartelistas to sit next to each other at church sharing a hymnal, for Israelis and Palestinians to extend a holy kiss to each other freely, willingly, frequently, and publicly? None of that comes except by way of redemption through Christ.