“Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.” (Matthew 10:40-42 NIV)
Happy Monday, dear Friend! May the blessings of the Lord Jesus be with you all! A belated Happy Father's Day to the dads out there! Keep Jesus' promises alive in the way you love your children, whether they be biological or not!
My wife tells the story of a day she and her mom and brothers and sister took a very long walk from their town of La Joya, Texas, to Garciasville, Texas, to see her dad. It was his birthday and he took the family car to work there. It's a journey of 15.4 miles on a very warm September day. They took off without taking water or food and about halfway there a blind woman along the route heard them and called them over. It was as if she knew they were thristy and offered them all a cool drink of water. She had prepared boiled potatoes for her lunch and shared those with my future family. It was a blessing from God!
There's something almost startling about how small the acts are that Jesus elevates in these closing verses of his commissioning speech. "Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward" (Matthew 10:40–42, NIV). A cup of water. That's the whole transaction. No sermon, no miracle, no theological insight — just water, offered to someone thirsty, because of who they represent. The woman's gift to my mother-in-law, my future wife and brothers and sisters was a sermon that still blesses to this day. God provides! And sometimes God uses us to bless!
Jesus has just spent an entire chapter sending the twelve out with authority to heal the sick and proclaim the kingdom, warning them they'll be like sheep among wolves, telling them not to fear those who can only kill the body. It's a heavy, high-stakes commissioning. And then He ends it here, with something almost tender by comparison — a promise that the people who receive the ones He sends are, in some mysterious way, receiving Him. And receiving Him means receiving the Father who sent Him. The chain runs all the way back: cup of water, disciple, Christ, the Father Himself. Nothing in that chain is too small to matter, because nothing in it is disconnected from the rest.
This is where Pentecost quietly stands behind the passage. Before the Spirit was poured out, the disciples were the ones being sent, the ones depending on the kindness of strangers along dusty roads. But after Pentecost, the same Spirit that filled that upper room took up residence in ordinary believers everywhere — which means the logic of this passage never stopped applying. Every act of welcome, every cup of water given to someone in Christ's name, is still received by Christ Himself, because His Spirit is what makes the disciple a disciple in the first place. Pentecost is what makes "whoever welcomes you welcomes me" durable across every century since — not just true of the original twelve, but true of every Spirit-filled life that carries his name into someone else's day.
There's a deep mercy in how low Jesus sets the bar for reward and how high He sets the value of small things. You don't need a platform. You don't need eloquence or theological precision. You need a cup of water and a willing hand. The Spirit who came at Pentecost is still moving through exactly those gestures — still meeting thirsty people through ordinary acts of hospitality, still receiving, in the receiving of one of His own, a welcome offered to Himself.
Think of your interactions with people. Are you the same on Monday as you were on Sunday in church? (And we hope that you were nice and welcoming?). Your witness could be a blessing!
PRAYER: Lord, let us see your Spirit moving in the small and ordinary kindnesses we're given to offer today. Let us be made as Your witnesses and servants who bless the world in loving ways! This we pray in Christ Jesus' strong name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! OUR CALL TO ACTION: Offer one tangible act of welcome — a cup of water, a kind word, an open door — to someone today, trusting that the Spirit receives it as if given to Christ himself.
I love you and I thank God for you! You matter to God and you matter to me. You can be a living cup of water for the Lord!
Pastor Eradio Valverde, Jr.
