When Jesus was growing up, there was no electricity. There were no televisions or radios. There were no computers and thus no email. People could not communicate quickly like we can do today.
Most villages had a town crier. Jesus would have grown up hearing the town crier. The orders of the local governor were communicated by the town crier. Other very important news was also communicated by the town crier.
The crier would normally wait until the evening when most of the people would be in their homes after returning from the fields. He would go up on the roof of the highest house in the village. From there, he would begin with a long drawn out call. Some reports have said that the crier resembled a distant, prolonged railroad whistle. (Obviously, these reports are from much later times than the first century.) Then he would cry out the news that everyone was to hear.
Jesus sent the twelve apostles out and told them in Matthew 12:27, “What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.” This verse is in reference to the miraculous inspiration that they would have in preaching the Gospel. But the principle still holds for us today.
The Gospel is God’s Word. The Bible is his instruction to us. The Great Governor has information that we are to give to every person. We should be like the town crier. We should be willing to yell the good news out from the highest rooftop. In other words, we should be telling everyone about the Bible. We should be telling everyone how to become a Christian. Be a town crier.
