Welcoming Christ in his vulnerable people
Matthew 10:40-42
Jesus said, ‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.’
Jesus has sent out the 12 disciples, and has given them authority to preach the kingdom, to cure ‘every disease and sickness’
And last week we learnt that as they spend time with Jesus so they will grow into the likeness of Jesus.
And today we come to the end of the mission instructions to his followers.
Three things I would like to draw attention to:
1. Identity
Jesus identified himself with his sent followers.
‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me’.
Just as the Father sends Jesus and identifies Himself with Jesus, so Jesus sends his followers and identifies himself with them
I would like to go further.
Just as the Father in heaven identifies himself with Jesus who left heaven and became a human being, just as he identifies himself with the Lord Jesus humiliated and shamed and in great pain hanging on a cross, so Jesus identifies himself with his sent, broken, humiliated and shamed followers.
He is saying, ‘What they do to you, they do to me’
If they welcome you, they welcome me.
If they reject you, persecute me, they persecute me.
So for instance, Saul. He goes off to Damascus to round up the followers of Jesus and to bring them back to Jerusalem for imprisonment or execution. But on the road, there is a blinding light and a voice, which both he and the soldiers with him, hear. The voice says, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’
Jesus identifies himself with his persecuted followers.
Or there is Matthew 25.31-46, and the sheep and the goats.
This is often flattened to say that when we feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked and visit and care for the sick and those in prison, we are doing that to Jesus – who identifies himself with the poor.
And it ends up as a little moral tale about how we should do good to those in need, because then we are doing good to Jesus, which means that we can end up trying to save the world and it leads to exhaustion, disillusionment, pride or a sense of feeling utterly crushed because we cannot do it.
That does not mean that Christians are not called to care for the poor. Of course we are.
But in Matthew 25 the sharper point is about how the nations receive the vulnerable brothers and sisters of Jesus.
The ones who are hungry, thirsty etc are ‘these my brothers and my sisters’, the followers, the disciples of Jesus. Jesus identifies himself with them.
And the nations will be judged by how they have treated the followers of Jesus who - if we are faithful to Jesus - will be despised, hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick and in prison.
And it is the same message in Matthew 10.
Jesus identifies himself with his followers – not those of us in the spotlight, with our clerical or religious social standing or status – but those who have heard his call, who have taken up their cross, and who are learning to die to themselves and this world.
Jesus assumes that because of obedience to his call they will be hungry and thirsty. And he identifies himself with us in our brokenness, in our crucifixion, and we are identified with him in his resurrection.
2. Welcome
We are shaped by what or whom we welcome
Jesus has sent out his disciples. And he says, ‘If they welcome you, basically beggars with an amazing message and an astonishing gift, they welcome me.
Welcome is more than a word, although it often begins with a word.
It is about opening our lives and maybe homes to another.
It is about allowing ourselves to be changed by another.
If I spend time with particular websites I will become like what I welcome into my mind.
If we welcome someone because we see Jesus in them (‘a righteous person’ is first of all someone who is in a right relationship of love and trust with God and the Lord Jesus), if we open our heart and our mind and our doors to them, if we spend time with them, and receive what they would give, we will become like them
And if we welcome one because she is a follower, disciple of Jesus, learning to walk the Jesus way, to die to herself and the things of this world, to become like him, we will become like her.
3. Vulnerability
When Jesus sends out his disciples, he tells them to go with nothing – no money, no change of clothing. And they are to be dependent on the people to whom they are going.
They go as people who are completely dependent.
Jesus said, ‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.’
We continue our reading through Matthew 10
Jesus has sent out the 12 disciples, and has given them authority to preach the kingdom, to cure ‘every disease and sickness’
And last week we learnt that as they spend time with Jesus so they will grow into the likeness of Jesus.
And today we come to the end of the mission instructions to his followers.
Three things I would like to draw attention to:
1. Identity
Jesus identified himself with his sent followers.
‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me’.
Just as the Father sends Jesus and identifies Himself with Jesus, so Jesus sends his followers and identifies himself with them
I would like to go further.
Just as the Father in heaven identifies himself with Jesus who left heaven and became a human being, just as he identifies himself with the Lord Jesus humiliated and shamed and in great pain hanging on a cross, so Jesus identifies himself with his sent, broken, humiliated and shamed followers.
He is saying, ‘What they do to you, they do to me’
If they welcome you, they welcome me.
If they reject you, persecute me, they persecute me.
So for instance, Saul. He goes off to Damascus to round up the followers of Jesus and to bring them back to Jerusalem for imprisonment or execution. But on the road, there is a blinding light and a voice, which both he and the soldiers with him, hear. The voice says, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’
Jesus identifies himself with his persecuted followers.
Or there is Matthew 25.31-46, and the sheep and the goats.
This is often flattened to say that when we feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked and visit and care for the sick and those in prison, we are doing that to Jesus – who identifies himself with the poor.
And it ends up as a little moral tale about how we should do good to those in need, because then we are doing good to Jesus, which means that we can end up trying to save the world and it leads to exhaustion, disillusionment, pride or a sense of feeling utterly crushed because we cannot do it.
That does not mean that Christians are not called to care for the poor. Of course we are.
But in Matthew 25 the sharper point is about how the nations receive the vulnerable brothers and sisters of Jesus.
The ones who are hungry, thirsty etc are ‘these my brothers and my sisters’, the followers, the disciples of Jesus. Jesus identifies himself with them.
And the nations will be judged by how they have treated the followers of Jesus who - if we are faithful to Jesus - will be despised, hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick and in prison.
And it is the same message in Matthew 10.
Jesus identifies himself with his followers – not those of us in the spotlight, with our clerical or religious social standing or status – but those who have heard his call, who have taken up their cross, and who are learning to die to themselves and this world.
Jesus assumes that because of obedience to his call they will be hungry and thirsty. And he identifies himself with us in our brokenness, in our crucifixion, and we are identified with him in his resurrection.
2. Welcome
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| Adriaen van Nieulandt, The Prophet Elisha and the Shunamite Woman (2 Kings 4.8-37), c1602-1658 Statens Museum for Kunst |
Welcome is mentioned quite a bit in these three verses. The word is used five times.
We are shaped by what or whom we welcome
Jesus has sent out his disciples. And he says, ‘If they welcome you, basically beggars with an amazing message and an astonishing gift, they welcome me.
Welcome is more than a word, although it often begins with a word.
It is about opening our lives and maybe homes to another.
It is about allowing ourselves to be changed by another.
If I spend time with particular websites I will become like what I welcome into my mind.
If I spend time with a particular group of people I will become like them
And if we welcome one because we hear God through them (‘receiving a prophet in the name of a prophet’) we will be transformed by God’s word
And if we welcome one because we hear God through them (‘receiving a prophet in the name of a prophet’) we will be transformed by God’s word
If we welcome someone because we see Jesus in them (‘a righteous person’ is first of all someone who is in a right relationship of love and trust with God and the Lord Jesus), if we open our heart and our mind and our doors to them, if we spend time with them, and receive what they would give, we will become like them
And if we welcome one because she is a follower, disciple of Jesus, learning to walk the Jesus way, to die to herself and the things of this world, to become like him, we will become like her.
3. Vulnerability
When Jesus sends out his disciples, he tells them to go with nothing – no money, no change of clothing. And they are to be dependent on the people to whom they are going.
They go as people who are completely dependent.
And if someone gives them even ‘a cup of cold water’, that person will receive a reward.
Jesus modelled that vulnerability.
When he travelled to Samaria, he asked a woman to give him a drink of water because he was thirsty. I imagine she could have said, ‘Go away’, probably less politely. After all, he was a Jewish man, and she was a Samaritan woman.
We are not told whether he ever got his drink of water. But we are told that his request opened up a conversation. And she received more than she could ever have given. She receives the life-giving water of the Holy Spirit which Jesus was offering her.
But what it means for us as followers of Jesus is the call to be real, to be willing to be vulnerable.
Jesus modelled that vulnerability.
When he travelled to Samaria, he asked a woman to give him a drink of water because he was thirsty. I imagine she could have said, ‘Go away’, probably less politely. After all, he was a Jewish man, and she was a Samaritan woman.
We are not told whether he ever got his drink of water. But we are told that his request opened up a conversation. And she received more than she could ever have given. She receives the life-giving water of the Holy Spirit which Jesus was offering her.
But what it means for us as followers of Jesus is the call to be real, to be willing to be vulnerable.
People cannot give us a cup of water if they do not know we need a cup of water.
So if someone asks us, ‘is everything OK’, there are times when we need to be prepared to say, ‘No, I am struggling’. Not with any assumption that we expect them to help us – but just simply being real.
And for us as followers of Jesus who are sent, it does mean that we will need to be willing to be vulnerable.
In Matthew 10:16 Jesus says, “See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”
I think of one couple, Josh and Nina. They became Christians from a non-Christian background, in an ordinary Church of England church. They heard Jesus words: to sell what you have and give to the poor. They sold their house and moved with their children to work as sent followers of Jesus in Nepal and then Ukraine, where they opened their home to young women making the transition from orphanage life to adult life. I met them in Kyiv, and they came to work for us in Moscow, before Josh trained for ministry and is now a vicar.
Perhaps we are not called to something as radical as that. Some of you may be: whatever our age. Robin and Penny were academics who retired. They could have settled down, but at the age of 65 they moved to St Petersburg with CMS in order to work in theological education in the early 1990s.
But we are all called to be obedient. And obedience to Jesus will at times make us vulnerable.
We cannot expect to preach the Kingdom of God, to live for Jesus, to bear his name without experiencing rejection, maybe persecution, from a world that has rebelled against God.
But our hope is this: that because Jesus has so identified himself with his people, when people welcome us for the sake of him, they welcome him. And when they welcome him, they will welcome the Father who sent him.
So if someone asks us, ‘is everything OK’, there are times when we need to be prepared to say, ‘No, I am struggling’. Not with any assumption that we expect them to help us – but just simply being real.
And for us as followers of Jesus who are sent, it does mean that we will need to be willing to be vulnerable.
In Matthew 10:16 Jesus says, “See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”
I think of one couple, Josh and Nina. They became Christians from a non-Christian background, in an ordinary Church of England church. They heard Jesus words: to sell what you have and give to the poor. They sold their house and moved with their children to work as sent followers of Jesus in Nepal and then Ukraine, where they opened their home to young women making the transition from orphanage life to adult life. I met them in Kyiv, and they came to work for us in Moscow, before Josh trained for ministry and is now a vicar.
Perhaps we are not called to something as radical as that. Some of you may be: whatever our age. Robin and Penny were academics who retired. They could have settled down, but at the age of 65 they moved to St Petersburg with CMS in order to work in theological education in the early 1990s.
But we are all called to be obedient. And obedience to Jesus will at times make us vulnerable.
We cannot expect to preach the Kingdom of God, to live for Jesus, to bear his name without experiencing rejection, maybe persecution, from a world that has rebelled against God.
But our hope is this: that because Jesus has so identified himself with his people, when people welcome us for the sake of him, they welcome him. And when they welcome him, they will welcome the Father who sent him.
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