JESUS' SECRET BLESSING

PEACE BE UNTO YOU

In one of the final scenes in the Gospels, the risen Christ appears before His mourning disciples. Although His body bears the fresh scars of crucifixion, He greets them heartily with, "Peace be with you" (John 20:19)

Of course, Jesus didn't speak in English so let's analyse what in reality were His original words that He spoke, and more important what does the Hebrew reveal about them?

If we go back to the "roots", the phrase "peace be with you" is so common among Christians today that one hardly gives it any thought at all. But let's think about its meaning carefully.

Although Jesus taught about peace and love frequently, the greeting, "peace be with you" does not appear anywhere in the Gospels before His crucifixion. To understand Jesus' greeting, we need to go back to its original Hebrew.

It's the Hebrew that reveals the 'meaning'. The Hebrew words uttered by Jesus were, "Shalom lakhem" ָׁ(לוֹם לָכֶם). "Shalom" as everyone knows means "peace" and comes from the root SLM (שלם) meaning "complete." This is because peace is the ultimate state of wholeness. Another word that comes from this root is "shelem," a type of temple sacrifice that expressed gratitude to God.

This sacrifice, also called "the offering of well-being" (Leviticus 3:1), it symbolized a fellowship offering as an expression of gratitude and a means of maintaining fellowship between the person offering and God. The animal's sacrificed life emphasised the value of gratitude and maintaining harmony with God. Neither peace with God nor thanks to God was to be considered a cheap or unimportant gift.

Thus, we gain new insight into Scripture.

When Jesus greets His disciples with the words, "Shalom lakhem," He is essentially telling them, "Don’t worry that my physical body was tortured. It was all for ultimate good of the world, for I am a 'peace-offering unto you.' "