Matthew 10:40-42

Matthew 10:40-42

The one who welcome you welcomes me.  And whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.  The one who welcomes a prophet into the name of a prophet will receive a reward of a prophet.  And the one who welcomes a righteous one into the name of a righteous one will receive a reward of a righteous one.  And whoever should give one of these little ones a drink of cold water into the name of a disciple, amen I say to you all, he should surely not lose his reward.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Jesus gives us a great message here.  Not many of Jesus’ followers ever met Him face to face.  Not many of us have been able to hear Him audibly and choose to come back and listen more.  He was only alive for a short time and even then in a reasonably isolated context!  However, here Jesus tells us that whoever welcomes one of his disciples also welcomes Him!  We may not be able to physically welcome Him in person, but we can sure welcome Him by welcoming the disciples that He sends into our midst!

Where have you seen this dynamic?  What disciples has Jesus sent into your life that you happily welcomed?  How does it make you feel to realize that in doing so you likewise welcomed Christ?

Second Thought:

In the middle verses, Jesus gives us another moment of ease.  Not all of us can be great prophets.  Nor can we all be incredibly well known for our righteousness.  However, if we welcome such people into our life, we will receive a reward like them.  In fact, who among us can’t even bring some joy into the life of a child?  In other words, God has not called us to all be people of change on a worldwide scale.  But He has called each of us to support godly change in our area.  He has called us to listen to those who come our way and to learn their ways.  In doing those simple things we can earn reward from God.

Do you support ministry?  How do you do this?  How does this put your place in the kingdom of God on display?

Third Thought:

However, notice that there is a definite scaling in the list of Jesus.  We can receive someone because they are God’s spokesman.  That’s the highest reception we can acknowledge in a servant of God.  However, we can receive them as a righteous person without acknowledging that they speak God’s truth.  That’s still reward-worthy, but less so.  Finally, we can simply look to ease temporal hardship and welcome a person into our life just to give them a little something.  That is still reward worthy, but less so.  Jesus’ point to us is that welcoming people and receiving them into our life puts God’s love on display.  That is always worthy of reward in the kingdom!  But if God sends me a prophet to speak into my life and I only give him a cup of water without listening to the message, I deserve less reward than if I had embraced the messenger and the message!

Who in your life do you welcome as prophets?  Do they deserve that reception?  Who do you welcome because they are righteous?  Do they deserve that level of reception?  To whom do you only give temporal ease in this life?  Do they deserve that level of reception?

Passage for Tomorrow: Matthew 11:1-6