After Pentecost Devotional - Day 20

“And anyone who gives one of my most humble followers a cup of cool water, just because that person is my follower, will surely be rewarded.” Matthew 10:42

Jesus' imagery of a cup of cold water sometimes leads us astray. It is not that Jesus messed up with his message. It is that we are so prone to distort his words and lead others in missing the point.

The words here are about how God's grace extend even into the minimal reaches of our actions of worth. God will not overlook the least of our attempts to treat others with righteousness, grace, mercy, justice, and love. God looks favorably upon our attempts to do what is good and right. God encourages us to shift the direction of our lives and actions as we become more like God, even in the smallest of ways.

The problem comes in as we look at Jesus' comments and twist them in a manner to shirk our greater responsibilities toward others. Jesus was not speaking in anyway to define the limits of God's expectations for our lives and actions. Rather, he was addressing the fact that God would make note of our meager attempts to fulfill the responsibilities before us.

Giving one in need a cup of cold water is a good thing. Giving one in need only a cup of cold water is not a good thing. Jesus' point was that even the minimal actions we take would be rewarded by God, not that being minimalist is the end-all-be-all for assuming responsibility for others in need.

It is easy to share refreshment and nourishment with strangers. It costs us little to nothing, both economically and psychologically. We can deliver canned food to a food pantry, we can pay for someone else's meal at the drive through. We can donate to a soup kitchen. We can give our excess clothes to a community clothing closet. These actions cost us next to nothing. They do not include others in our day-to-day living. They do not interrupt our lives. They do not bring the needy into our homes, routines, or lives in any way that is significant.

Jesus called us to do much more than that. Jesus called us to receive people of no importance before society as though we were receiving Jesus. He called us to roll out the red carpet to those we would much rather ignore, simply because of their relationship to God. On one hand, Jesus was talking about honoring and caring for those who are God's prophets or God's people. On the other hand, his words apply to all those for whom Jesus had come to accept and reconcile to God.

It is too easy for us to miss the point. It is too comfortable for us to miss the point. After all, the point requires so much more of us than we are naturally willing to give. It requires that we quit treating people according to the categories we devise to give ourselves some degree of higher importance. As Jesus reminds us, none of us is any more important or special, except in so far as we reflect God to the world. This is our mission and calling. In reaching out with grace and generosity toward others on this same mission, we join them in the mission before us all.

Determine to support those who are fulfilling the mission of Christ to reconcile all.


"Lord, make me more aware of my mission and the need to support others on that mission."

—©Copyright 2016, Christopher B. Harbin
http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/ 
My latest books can be found here on amazon

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