St Mary's

Today Talk from Rev'd Julie

28th June 2026

AI on Google defines a reward as “something given or received in return for a good deed, hard work, or desired behaviour. It can take many forms, including physical compensation (like money or gifts) or intangible benefits (like praise or satisfaction)”

I have a Tesco card which rewards me with points when I spend money with them – the more I spend the more points I get and the more points I get the more money back I get in the form of vouchers.  It’s a clever way of encouraging us to spend more money.  Many companies entice you to buy from them by giving you a reward for placing your first order with them – a free gift or a percentage off the price. They are all rewarding you for your behaviour – spend money with us and we will make it worth your while.

When my boys were very small we would reward their good behaviour with praise and occasionally with a small treat.

Rewards are everywhere.  If I work hard I can reward myself with a holiday.  If I do this horrible job that I really don’t want to do I’m going to reward myself with some cake. 

There are also rewards that we get indirectly: the satisfaction of a job well done, of a difficult task achieved, of helping someone.  The enjoyment of spending time with people we love, of doing something we love.  If we open our eyes rewards are everywhere.

They are even in our Gospel reading this morning.

“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.”

Tesco’s club card, praise for good behaviour, and treats are rewards that are easy to understand but Jesus’ words about rewards are not so clear.  When I read this passage I did what every preacher is taught to do and turned to commentaries to see what others have to say about this passage to help me understand it.  I have to tell you that not one of the commentaries or study Bibles that I looked at said anything about this passage – they all skipped over it.  Except for the NIV Study Bible.  The only thing it said about the whole passage was “ prophet.  John the Baptist was the last prophet of the old covenant.”  That was really helpful. Nowhere in our passage or in the chapter it is in is John the Baptist mentioned.  Thanks for that!

The passage comes at the end of Chapter 10, at the beginning of which Jesus sends out his twelve disciples to “preach this message: “The kingdom of heaven is near.  Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.”  The rest of the chapter is Jesus instructions to the twelve on what to do and what might happen.  It’s right at the end of his instructions that he talks about rewards: “Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward.”

What is a prophet’s reward?  Jesus doesn’t say.  So what is a prophet?  The Got Questions website defines a prophet as: “ a person who speaks God’s truth to others….prophets had the task of faithfully speaking God’s word to the people.” So perhaps a prophet’s reward is God’s word.  And perhaps if someone receives a prophet they receive God’s word as their reward.

Then Jesus said “Whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward”.  But again, he doesn’t tell us what a righteous persons reward is. So what is a righteous person?  The Dictionary of Theology (which, of course, I read from cover to cover on a regular basis) says that righteousness is “right standing and consequent right behaviour”.  So perhaps a righteous person’s reward is right standing with God and the way of living that brings.  And perhaps if someone receives a righteous person the reward they receive is an understanding of how to be right with God and how  to live in response.

And finally, Jesus says: “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.”  And once again Jesus does not explain what he means. 

Giving someone a cup of water could be seen as welcoming someone, it is a form of hospitality, it’s caring for someone. So whoever gives “one of these little ones who is my disciple” a cup of water is, in fact, welcoming a disciple. So perhaps the reward that they get, that they will not lose, is the disciple’s reward.  At the beginning of our passage Jesus said “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me”.  So if someone welcomes a disciple then they are welcoming Jesus.  But that is not all.  If someone welcomes Jesus they welcome the one who sent him: God the Father. So if someone welcomes a disciple their reward is Jesus and his Father.

So to recap.  To welcome a prophet is to receive God’s word.  To welcome a righteous person is to receive the understanding of how to be right with God and how to live in response.  These are valuable things, these are rewards that are much better than Tesco vouchers, a free gift for a first order, or a treat.  But the best reward of all is Jesus and his Father.

Earlier in his instructions to his disciples Jesus instructed them not to take any money, no bag, no spare clothes.  He said “Whatever town or village you enter, search there for some worthy person and stay at their house until you leave.”  In Jesus day, people were expected to show hospitality to any traveller who asked for it, they were expected to open their homes and allow them to stay and to feed them and look after them.   Jesus speaks of welcoming a prophet and a righteous person.  Welcoming them implies welcoming them into your home and looking after them.  By doing so you will receive the appropriate reward.  So receiving a prophet or a righteous person requires a lot of work, making sure they have somewhere to sleep, that they are fed and that they have anything else they might need.  Still you get a pretty good reward; the word of God spoken truly, or understanding how to live in right standing with God.

Giving a disciple a cup of cold water is nothing like as much work as welcoming a prophet or righteous person and yet the reward is so much greater: God himself in the form of both the Father and the Son.

The whole of chapter 10 is Jesus speaking to his disciples, giving them instructions as he sends them out.  But at the end of the chapter, speaking of rewards, it seems to me that Jesus is widening his audience to include everyone else listening as well as the twelve disciples.  The final sentence seems to be spoken to everyone. “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.” 

Jesus is letting people know that if they welcome his disciples they are welcoming him. And by welcoming his disciples Jesus says that they will not lose their reward.  He did not say gain their reward as when welcoming a prophet or righteous person but not lose their reward.  To me this suggests that Jesus is speaking to people who are already following him, who have already received the disciple’s reward.  Perhaps Jesus is warning all of his followers that they must welcome other disciples and perhaps not welcoming them risks losing their reward.  If a disciple’s reward is Jesus then by not welcoming another disciple they may risk losing Jesus.  That’s a scary thought. 

Other disciples are made in the image of God, they are clothed in Christ, when we are with them we are with Jesus, with God.  Do we always treat them as we would if it were Jesus standing in front of us? In any group of people there will be someone you don’t agree with, or someone you don’t like or someone who drives you up the wall. (Side note: all of us are someone that isn’t agreed with or liked by someone, or the person that drives someone up the wall. It’s not always “them”  sometimes it’s “me”. Think about that!)

There are people in our church who we are quite happy when they don’t turn up, or who we avoid like the plague when they do turn up.  There are certain types of disciples who do not share our views who we wouldn’t welcome if they came.  But if we do not welcome that disciple we are not welcoming Jesus.  If we do not treat the disciple that we do not like well, we are treating Jesus badly.  And we are missing out on a potential reward.  By welcoming someone we would rather not be with and treating them well we will receive the disciple’s reward; Jesus.  Who knows how many times Jesus wanted to speak to us, show us grace, show us love through someone we don’t like?  How many times have we missed Jesus?  How many times have we missed the chance to serve Jesus?  How many times have we missed the change to show the love of Jesus to another person and therefore our love to Jesus?

It’s hard to live in community be it a family, work colleagues and, yes, even our church family. Like I said there is always someone we don’t get on with for whatever reason.  But Jesus calls us to love one another.  We are quite good at remembering that we have to love our family, our friends, our neighbours and even our enemies but sometimes we overlook the fact that we have to love our brothers and sisters in Christ.  On the night before he died, when he had washed the disciples feet, Jesus said to them:  “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34)

So Jesus asks us to make a special effort to love brothers and sisters our fellow disciples. We know we must go out in the world to serve the lost and the needy as if we were serving Jesus but we don’t always remember that we have to serve other disciples as if we are serving Jesus as well.  But it is in welcoming, looking after, serving, loving our brothers and sisters in Christ that we do not lose Jesus.  If we can’t see Jesus in our brothers and sisters surely it is going to be harder to see Jesus in those outside the family. 

Church is a community we learn to love and serve those around us so that we can go out into the world and serve everyone.  It’s not easy – who rubs us up the wrong way the most easily? Family.  We learn to love best by having to love someone that we don’t like, we don’t agree with, who drives us up the wall.  If we can learn to love them then we are well on the way to being able to love anyone and everyone.  Our reward for loving someone, for welcoming them, is to see Jesus in them, to serve Jesus in serving them.  And that is the reward that we risk losing if we do not welcome “one of these little ones who is my disciple.”  We risk losing Jesus.   Amen