June 28, 2020 Sermon: Matthew 10: 40-42

June 28, 2020                     Sermon                                Matthew 10: 40-42

                 Matthew begins our passage today with a very fitting tribute to the “divine waterfall” used so often in John.  “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”  Whoever welcomes the disciples are welcoming Jesus, and whoever welcomes Jesus welcomes the Father in heaven who sent Jesus.  So let us say…welcome.

                This is the conclusion to the passage that began a couple of weeks ago when Jesus commented the fields were ripe but the workers were few.  And we have had two weeks of Jesus describing the up’s and down’s, most recently Jesus letting the disciples know that when he sends them out with the ‘peace that surpasses all understanding’, into the world dominated by sin, the world under the house of Beelzebub, the devil, that what Jesus calls peace is actually going to be a sword.  And we dealt with the consequences of that. 

                But there is one final dimension to be considered.  We have moved past where Jesus will acknowledge us before the Father who acknowledge Him before others.  We have moved past enduring to the end to be worthy of Him.  The disciples, now and then, have presented themselves to the world, and now we are where the welcome of the world is received (when it is welcome and not the sword).

                Jesus gives us three possible outcomes:  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; ⁴²and 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.”

                So round one: Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward.  Recall, Jesus is NOT calling his disciples prophets.  He uses the images of disciple and teacher or slave and master, which his audience would have been familiar with.  Being a prophet was never what the disciple or apostle was.  In the New Testament, it moves to becoming a gift of the spirit that an apostle may possess.  That is not what it once was.

                A prophet was the mouthpiece of God.  Most of the books of the Old Testament are named for the prophets whose words are collected within.  Isaiah, Jonah, Malachi, all the guys in-between, they were prophets.  It was their job to make sure the Children of God knew what God wanted of them.  It was not a message that was forever new or evolving over time.  It was laid out in the law of Moses.  Thus certain of Jesus’ opponents claim Moses as their authority.    

                In the Old Covenant, the trouble was that the people would drift away from what the Lord had commanded.  And when they did that, the Lord had a prophet to come and tell them what they were doing wrong.  And that is always a popular role to have isn’t it, being the one to tell others that they are doing wrong?  Especially people of power…

               In Hebrews 11, which lays out the prophets who were heroes of the faith, we have this description of the rewards program for being a prophet, from verses 36-38,

Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.

                The last fully accredited prophet in the Bible is John the Baptist, who spoke God’s Word to the authority of Herod, the King.  The Word he brought was a very public condemnation of Herod’s involvement with his brother’s wife.   And though he is the one who baptized Jesus, his prophetic work cost him his head.

                So when Jesus talks about the prophet’s reward, it’s not a good thing.  There is a pattern of evangelism that follows the prophetic style.  It tends to be very legalistic in its approach, very much “I say God says ‘do this’ or God says ‘don’t do that’, so you better listen or its hell for you…” or “You better give your life to Jesus or you are going to hell!”  See the pattern?

                And this is a generalized condemnation where prophecy in the Old Testament where obedience and consequences were inside the bounds of time and space to a specific generation.  You, now, obey the Lord your God or I will raise up this enemy to come beat up on You.  It was a constant reminder that the Promised Land was a land given them by God and maintained for them by the power of God.

                So…maybe not the prophetic route…how about the righteous person?  Whoever welcomes the righteous person in the name of the righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous person.  A lot of interpretation on this passage likes to compare and contrast ‘prophet’ and ‘righteous person’.  The prophet is the one who speaks the right words, while the righteous person (yes, I am intentionally changing this from the masculine “Righteous man”), while the righteous person does the right thing-which is better.  In other words, don’t be the prophet, be the righteous person, don’t say it, do it.

                I don’t agree with that interpretation.  Being a prophet is not a bad thing in the eyes of Jesus.  It is just an old way of doing things.  Jesus’ approach was far more wholistic.  Yes, he certainly prophesied, especially when he foretold the doom of Jerusalem.  But what he did was far more than that.  Teaching, healing, raising from the dead, all part of the Jesus mission.

                But being a righteous person is a little different.  It depends on a certain code of behavior.  What does it mean to be righteous?  It means to be right.  So self-righteous is when I myself have decided I am right (and I am going to tell you about it), but in the Biblical perspective, the righteous person was made right by Jesus, through salvation.  It is a fundamental difference, because the righteousness of Jesus sticks.

So the interpretation that divides prophet and righteous person is correct, so far as it goes.  Righteousness is based on what we do, proper behavior, following the rules.  And an evangelism based around that tends to be one that talks about how we must behave.  It is not exactly legalistic, but it can easily begin to look like it depends on one’s self-control. 

                Unlike the prophet, there is no clear Biblical precedent of the reward of the righteous on earth.  There is certainly the heavenly reward, but, like the prophet, there is nothing inherently wrong with the righteous person.  But where this evangelism may begin in the testimony of Jesus’ work for us, “I was lost but now am found…”  it can move quickly to “and I do these things because this is what Jesus wants.”  But I believe Jesus is after something more.

                Who remembers this television reference?  Monty, I will take what is behind Door Number 3!! ⁴²and 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.” Here is, to continue the television reference, where I am ready…To Make A Deal…

                Giving a cup of cold water to a little one.  Seems somehow unimpressive when stood up the proclamation of God’s Word, or being made Right by God.  But see how Jesus uses language here.  First, he sets up a comparison, with the word Welcome.  Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me, welcomes the Father.  What comes next revolves on the word ‘welcome’, whoever welcomes the prophet…whoever welcomes the righteous man…the structure is fairly precise. 

                But consider this, when Jesus says, “Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me…”, who is he referring to?  Prophets?  Righteous people?  No, his disciples.  This is how we interpret the contrasting language.  It is not about welcoming, it is about giving, giving cold water in the name of a disciple.  It is not about who we welcome, the prophet or the righteous, it is about what we do with that welcoming.  The one who gives EVEN a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple…the implication being that the disciples has come and been welcomed and action follows, “none of these will lose their reward”, the implication being their ‘heavenly reward.’     

                See what Jesus did there?  He is NOT dismissing the words of the prophets, he is not dismissing the righteousness, He is seeking the reaction to the Good News.  In other words, it is not good enough simply to accept the Good News of Salvation, it must translate into action, and something as simple as cold water for a little one in need.  

                The Word of God, the Deed of Righteousness, it begins in the simplest actions done in love and compassion.  The work of the disciples begins in mercy.  Nothing more, nothing less. 

                That’s why getting involved in a political movement against the palaces of power that suppress and repress these people….and I leave you to fill in the blank.  That is why this involvement is Jesus’ work.  This is why Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is one of the most compelling and vibrant ministries of the PCUSA, because we are front-line helping those who have suffered disaster.

                And you know why PDA has the blessing of FEMA and the blessing of the Red Cross to be a clearly faith-based organization going in to help while many, many others are not?  Because PDA takes this mandate clearly.  It is the glass of cold water, it is the response to the immediate need.  We are NOT hinging our help on acceptance of what we teach.  The homeless do NOT have to listen to the sermon before they receive their supper. 

                It is important to note that the work of the disciple BEGINS with the glass of cold water.  It certainly doesn’t end there.  Welcome the disciple and Jesus is welcomed.  Jesus is welcomed and the Father is welcomed.  Our faith is in the one who can provide for EVERY need.  No matter what.  Perhaps the richest question we could be asked when helping someone else is “Why are you doing this?”  The short answer to that one is “because Jesus has sent me to do this.”  Now that is a conversation starter of unique proportions.

                So here’s the thing.  We are coming to a week when we are going to be able to gather in person again, as well as remotely.  This is a tremendous time to consider how we, the First Presbyterian Church of Perth Amboy, are going to be the givers of the Cold Glass of Water, how we are going to reach out with the love and mercy of Jesus, how we are going to be there for a world in need.  There is our future, there is our purpose, there is the vision that Jesus has for us.  Shall we embrace it?

Amen.