Pentecost 5 2026 (3YL)

Welcome

Good morning and May God’s rich blessing be with you today. As I said last wee we are in Pentecost, we are exploring Jesus instructions to his church on how to live out Holy Spirit empowered ministry. Today we get only 3 verses of from the Gospel according to St. Matthew. When I sat down with the text I was a little curious on how God would want us to take this time with such a sort text, but in his faithfulness he revealed how these three verses could have big impact on our Christian journeys.

My hope for us is we would see ourselves on both sides of Christ commands, both as those who welcome and also as the welcomed.

The Text

Matthew 10:40–42 ““The one who welcomes you welcomes me, and the one who welcomes me welcomes him who sent me.

Two ideas to be aware of here. Idea 1: Radical Hospitality of the Near East. In Jesus Day and even today the Middle East has this cultural distinction of Radical hospitality. That when strangers come to your community you allow them the head of the table, you feed them even if it means that you don’t eat. You allow them the best place to sleep. It was shameful for the whole community for even one of its members to fail in this hospitality. So in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, we see lot’s righteous hospitality to God’s messengers, but we see the wickedness of the city in there desire to violate it in the worst possible way. And there are other examples in the Bible.

The second thing to be mindful of is that of welcoming the messenger to welcome the king. In this time there was this Idea that one would go out in the king’s name, with all the authority of the king. And how you treated his messenger was seen as how you treat the king. The 12 apostles are representatives of King Jesus. How they are treated matters, and King Jesus is here on behalf of God in heaven and so to welcome Jesus would be to welcome God in heaven, and of course we know that this goes further that Jesus himself is part of the Triune reality and is himself God.

These two things will make verses 41 and 42 more translatable.

Anyone who welcomes a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward.

Once again we see Jesus talk of welcoming, or showing radical hospitality, this time to a messenger of the King, a Prophet. The Prophets carry God’s word to the people of Israel. Yes they talk of things to come, that is one prophetic mission, they also rebuked the Israelites in their wicked ways, that was another prophetic mission. They had messages of coming hope, that mission existed.

What ties all these missions together was that they carried the word of God. They were the messengers of the king. And so to welcome them was to welcome the message. The prophets were set aside for a heavenly reward, and those who welcome that message also have a heavenly reward.

And anyone who welcomes a righteous person because he’s righteous will receive a righteous person’s reward.

The theme of hospitality continues. This time not to anyone in any official capacity, but the righteous. Jesus, God in the flesh has status as God. The disciples, the tribal leaders of the new Israel have status as messengers of Jesus. The prophets, the bringer of the Word of God are recognized as having status of having office. Now you add the Righteous. They have status they are messengers of the king for living out his life and message. And to receive them will be to share in the reward.

And whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is a disciple, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.””

Now Jesus says something that is not like the others, the little ones, even the small acts of mercy to the little ones, the cold cup of water. They are not Jesus, they are not apostles, they are not prophets, they are not the righteous. They had no legal rights, 50% of children died before age 5 it was hard to let yourself get too attached knowing what might happen.

To these who can offer you nothing back, if you show the small act of mercy of bringing water you will have a reward that cannot be lost. Yes radical hospitality to those who are important shows something about your community, but how much more when it is to those who can offer you nothing back? There is the true reward.

Application

So in light of these 3 verses, these short teaching of Jesus can we see the echo in to our larger spiritual lives.

There is a radical hospitality that Jesus shows that we must emulate. We were sinners, in rebellion to God and for that he dies that we might come into his household to be treated as his children. “In my fathers house there are many many rooms…” To be of Christ, to be his disciples we must also show this hospitality to others. Not just to the very important but to those who can offer us nothing.

Saint Paul writes to the Hebrews Hebrews 13:2 “Don’t neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it.”

It is hard to have a church in a high need area, we only have so many resources. But let us keep wrestling with what is hard and loving those around us who can offer us nothing back. We never know when we are welcoming the stranger.

Second: as messengers, as disciples of Christ we bring with us the message and authority of the king. The main application of these verses is about how recieve messengers and having our hearts prepared for that. Secondarily we should also remember that when we are the messengers we harbor grace responsibility. Saint Paul writes to the Corinthians :2 Cor 5[20] Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (ESV)

Take serious the responsibility we have inherited and be his hands and feet to others.

Third: There are too many passages in the New Testament, that speak of our heavenly reward for us to ignore. I have spent my ministry trying to ignore them. See we all will have the reward of Heaven. It is what Jesus earns on the Cross and he passes it along to us. If we somehow earn more heaven heaven is not a gift of grace it is of our own merit. If I could ignore the rewards portions of the New Testament long enough I could get through my ministry without violating the Gospel. Well here we are talking of the rewards of Heaven in the Gospel of Matthew and we cannot ignore any longer.

So I went looking for advice on how to preach it and Augustine of Hippo came to my rescue. Jesus makes is clear that there are rewards for service. The rewards of the prophets, of the righteous et c. And yet if we could earn those rewards of our own merit then Jesus would not need to have come to rescue us. So if we do get those rewards is it because Jesus has empowered our righteousness through the Holy Spirit. Jesus give us the power of obedience and then rewards that obedience. Augustine of Hippo said it this way: "When God crowns our merits, He crowns nothing other than His own gifts."

We will receive the rewards of our Righteous lives in heaven because Jesus has granted it to us to be righteous. In any case take that Holy Spirit power and persevere in righteousness and one big way we do that is how we welcome the marginalized among us.

God does truly love us doesn't he. To welcome us as full members of his house, to sit at his table, even as we where yet sinners? We reject him, his messengers in our hearts and yet he then empowers us to love him and rewards the love he empowers. That power given to us by the Holy Spirit at Baptism. That participation at his table in communion. Brothers and sisters it is Pentecost, this is the season the church must roll up its sleeves to go love the unloveable, to show the world what he first showed us. Amen and amen.