Posts Tagged ‘giving a cup of water’

Giving cups of water. Who is in and who is out?

July 1, 2023

Pentecost 5 – 2023
Matthew 10:40-42
Marian Free

In the name of God, who reveals Godself to us in many and varied ways. Amen.

If I am honest, I would have to say that these verses from Matthew have always troubled me, partly because I am not entirely sure what the author is getting at and partly because Matthew’s retelling of this saying is so different from the accounts in Mark and Luke.

There are only three verses in today’s gospel, but they are quite complex. What does it mean for example when it says: “whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous?” The implication seems to be that the person doing the welcoming is themselves righteous and even that the one welcoming a prophet, does so at least on behalf of a prophet. If this is the case, Matthew is drawing a line that we do not find in Luke or Mark.

Matthew records these sayings in the context of Jesus’ sending the disciples out into a hostile world in which they risk being handed over to both the religious and civil authorities and in which families will be divided, “brother will (even) handover brother to death.” Jesus has warned the disciples that he has come not to bring peace but a sword and that whoever loves father or mother more than they love him, is not worthy of him.

It seems that in this context Matthew is using these sayings of Jesus to encourage believers to look inward – to protect and support their own. If the world is not a safe place, the believing community will have to pull up the drawbridge to protect themselves and at the same time they will have to ensure that they take care of each other. Certainly, in Matthew’s gospel the expression: “little ones”, used in connection with giving a cup of water, is a Matthean term for members of the community.

Understood in this way, Matthew’s language is inward looking not outward looking.

I don’t have to tell you that the authors of the Synoptic gospels tell the Jesus’ story very differently. Depending on their particular agenda, they arrange the material in a particular way and place their emphases in different places so as to give Jesus’ sayings a nuance that is relevant to their purpose. As I have studied and preached on Matthew over more than two decades, it has seemed to me that the author of Matthew presents the gospel as more exclusive – more inclined to define those who are “in” and those who are “out.”

Of course, we don’t know exactly when Jesus said what or where he was when he said it, but the sayings recorded by Matthew in this setting include two that are unique to him and two that occur in some form in Mark and Luke. Both Luke and Mark have the saying about receiving a disciple and Mark also has the saying about someone giving a cup of water. According to Mark (Chapter 9) the disciples have been arguing about who is the greatest. In response Jesus takes a child and says: “Whoever receives one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever receives me receives not me but the one who sent me” (9:36). Immediately following this, the disciple John complains to Jesus that he saw someone (not a disciple) casting out demons in Jesus’ name. Jesus replies that anyone who is not against them is for them and “whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.”

Mark’s memory or intention is to give the impression of an open community in which whoever acts in a Christ-like way cannot by definition, be against the community of faith, but rather is sympathetic. towards them and as such is entitled to be rewarded. Mark’s context for the sayings is one of chiding – not encouraging – the disciples.

In Luke (Chapter 9), the saying is reported in much the same way as in Mark – that is the first saying is Jesus’ response to an argument as to who is the greatest. Again, Jesus takes a child and says to the disciples: “Whoever welcomes this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me; for the least among all of you is the greatest.” Again, the complaint about someone casting out demons follows, to which Jesus says: “Whoever is not against you is for you.”
Matthew does include the saying about receiving a child (18:1), but he leaves out the story about the non-disciple casting out demons thus forgoing an opportunity to demonstrate Jesus’ inclusivity, Jesus’ understanding that those who were not signed up members of the community were to be valued, not ostracised, and that those who were sympathetic to the movement were to be treated as if they were members. In other words, Mark and Luke seem to avoid the hard and fast boundaries that are beginning to appear in Matthew’s gospel.

That, I know is a lot to take in, especially when, unlike me, you cannot place the texts side by side. What is important to note is that the gospel writers are quite liberal in the way in which they use Jesus’ sayings, both in the actual wording and in the context in which they place them.

The choice of gospel today and the parallel texts in Mark and Luke provide a good example of the need to see scripture as a whole, rather than focusing solely on one passage. Our scriptures – the Old and New Testaments – were written at different times in history and for entirely different purposes. A close reading will throw up contradictions, multiple versions of one event and differing interpretations of the same. The Bible also contains a variety of forms of expression – history, prophecy, poetry, letters – which need to be read and understood in ways appropriate to their form.

None of this is intended to undermine the value of individual accounts, nor does it give us permission to neglect or dismiss those things that do not fit our idea of what the scriptures say. Studying scripture enables us to understand why differences exist, the contexts in which the differences arose and what they might have meant to those who first heard them. When we study the gospels, we are better able to understand the experience and the needs of the believing communities in the latter years of the first century and to allow that understanding to inform and shape our own practice and ministry.

When we compare the ways in which the Synoptic gospels have recorded the sayings that we heard from Matthew today, we might conclude that they first occurred in a missional context, in which Jesus is telling the disciples, that those who respond positively to them are already on their way to receiving Jesus, and that those who support them (be it simply with a cup of water) will be rewarded – even if they are not card-carrying believers.

Are these words that we need to hear and does it help us to be less anxious that people are not coming to church, and more willing to affirm and encourage the good will that they show and the good that they do?

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Who gets the water?

June 27, 2020

Pentecost 4 – 2020

Matthew 10:40-42

Marian Free

In the name of God who empowers us with the Holy Spirit to be Jesus’ presence in the world. Amen.

Matthew concludes his ‘missionary discourse’ with a rather confusing and apparently disconnected set of sayings. I have to confess that I have always found this passage difficult and disconcerting. Chapter 10 is primarily about Jesus’ sending out of the disciples, his instructions to them and his warnings as to what they might expect from the world. Suddenly, at the end of the chapter, it appears that Jesus is addressing a different audience: “Whoever” and he introduces prophets, righteous ones and little ones when he had been speaking about the disciples. 

For me, the confusion lies both in Jesus change of direction, and also in the way that the passage is usually interpreted. As the Collect for today suggests: “O God, your Son has taught us that those who give a cup of water in his name will not lose their reward: create in us generosity of heart, that we might share our bounty with others,” the last verse in particular is interpreted as an exhortation to extend generosity to others. Generosity towards others, particularly the poor can be interpreted as generosity towards Jesus (see for example, Harrington, 154)[1]. But that is not how the passage reads. If the four sayings are a whole, then the last verse, as the first, must relate to the disciples not to an undefined “little one”. The cup of water must be offered to a disciple, not to the poor.

If we take the sayings in order, it is clear that the first phrase “Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me” refers to the disciples (or to the twelve) – those whom Jesus has “sent out” at the beginning of this discourse. In the final line, the “whoever gives a cup a water” must refer to the “whoever” and of the first line and the “you” must be the same “you” of that line. In verse 40, the “whoever” is the party whom Jesus is now addressing and the “you” refers to the disciples. In other words, Jesus is referring to the generosity that people can and should offer to the disciples and not to what the disciples might or might not do for others! 

Mark uses the phrase about the cup of water in a completely different context, but he makes it very explicit that the disciples receive (not give) the water: “whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.” (Mk 9:41). 

This is why I find the passage disconcerting. The usual direction of generosity is reversed. Instead of the disciples giving relief to others, they are the recipients of generosity. Further, these statements undermine our understanding that discipleship is about service. They suggest instead that discipleship is about being honoured, respected and served.

Puzzles such as this cause us to be grateful for the scholarship of others. Luz points out that first four sentences have the same form and that key words are repeated (up to six times as in the case of “received”)[2]. This makes it clear that that the last three verses elaborate on the “you” of the first verse. We know that Jesus has been addressing the disciples which tells us that they are the “you” about whom speaks. This means that the “prophets”, “the righteous ones” and “the little ones” all refer to the disciples whom Jesus has sent. The actions described are the actions that the “receivers”, the “welcomers”, and the “givers” do towards or for  the disciples – not the actions that the disciples themselves engage in. 

As the disciples are Jesus’ representatives, the way in which people respond to them is indicative of their response to Jesus. The way in which they respond to Jesus determines their response to God and their place in the kingdom (their reward).

Here the gospel writer (or Jesus) employs a Rabbinic principle: a person’s representative is like the person himself (sic). Receiving the representative is the same as receiving the person.  Further, both the person and his/her representative may share the same fate. This principle is particularly pronounced in the gospel of John – “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9).  Jesus’ identification with God is replicated in the disciples’ representation of Jesus and Jesus’ fate is the fate that the disciples can expect. Perhaps more importantly, John’s gospel makes it very clear that judgement is not related to good or bad behaviour but is determined by a person’s response to Jesus (and therefore to Jesus’ disciples).

Here in Matthew, we have one of the few instances of a parallel with the fourth gospel. The one sent (the disciple) is to be seen as the representative of the one who sends (Jesus) and the treatment received by the one sent (disciple) is a reflection of the esteem in which the sender (Jesus) is held and of the relationship between the one receiving the message and the sender (Jesus). In other words, the way in which a person receives a disciple is indicative of their relationship with God. If the disciples are received as if they are Jesus, a prophet, a righteous person or a little one (a member of Matthew’s community (Mt 18)) the one who receives them, welcomes them or gives them sustenance is thereby demonstrating their positive (or negative) response to the gospel. A positive reaction to the disciples and to their message indicates a positive relationship with God and the “rewards” are the benefits (including eternal life) that devolve from that relationship. 

The primary point of the passage then, is not generosity – either towards the poor, or towards the disciples. The primary point of the passage is the reception (or not) of the message – spread first by Jesus and then by the disciples. The chapter begins with Jesus’ sending out of the disciples and concludes by alerting those to whom they take the message that they will be judged by how they receive it and how they react towards those who bring it. 

[1] Harrington, Daniel, J. S. J. The Gospel of Matthew. Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1991.

[2] Luz, Ulrich. Matthew 8-20. Minnesota: Fortress Press, 2001, 119f.

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