As is often the case, the lectionary reading from Matthew today is just a small part of a much larger whole.  When Jesus says, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me…” he is addressing the twelve disciples, commissioning them to proclaim the good news and embody the new kingdom among the towns and villages dotting the ancient landscape of the Holy Land.  Earlier in Chapter 10, Jesus indicates that the disciples’ mission will hinge on the hospitality of others: “You received without payment, give without payment…. Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave…. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town” (Matt. 10:8, 11, 14).  In most ancient cultures – and in many contemporary ones, though not in the U.S. – hospitality is not only a virtue but is deeply fundamental to society itself.  That is to say that without the practices of hospitality, society itself would come unglued.  In her insightful book Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition, Christine Pohl says that “Hospitality was viewed as a pillar on which all morality rested; it encompassed ‘the good.’  …Early Christian writers claimed that transcending social and ethnic differences by sharing meals, homes and worship with persons of different backgrounds was a proof of the truth of the Christian faith” (p. 5).  Understanding the vitality of ancient hospitality opens new windows of understanding into the message of Jesus throughout the book of Matthew.

In our passage, Jesus draws on several different images to demonstrate what hospitality, what welcoming, might look like.  While in Matthew 25 he famously says, “I was a stranger, and you welcomed me,” here Jesus invokes the “prophet,” the “righteous person,” and the “little one.”  His point is that when people welcome others through the practices of hospitality – especially those who may not be well-regarded by society (strangers, prophets and children) – they are opening themselves to receive the gifts of God, the “reward of the righteous.”  The image that Jesus chooses to convey a truly warm welcome is that of offering “a cup of cold water.”  Water was (and is) a precious resource in the Middle East.  Throughout the Bible, various authors make the point that water comes from God (e.g. Deut. 11:8- 17); this uniquely life-sustaining gift is beyond humanity’s ability to conjure or create.  Thus, in offering a cup of water to another, a person acknowledges that what they have is none other than a gift from God.  Water is not his or her own possession to horde at the expense of the thirsty one knocking on the door.

Throughout the gospel of Matthew, careful readers find themselves called to imitate the welcoming spirit of Jesus, who says in chapter 19, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.”  As modern readers of this ancient text, we must learn to open ourselves to the possibility that we do not always stand in the shoes of the disciples, sent out to preach the kingdom; sometimes we may find that our primary calling is to put a radical hospitality into practice, welcoming the stranger, the child, the prophet, with a cup of cold water and an open heart.  

BY CHRIS LIU BEERS, PROGRAM ASSOCIATE,

NC COUNCIL OF CHURCHES