Matthew 10: 40-42

Jesus said this morning in our text, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me.” Earlier this week, I read this little story, and it seemed to be appropriate. A teenage girl brought her new boyfriend home to meet her parents. They were appalled by his appearance: leather jacket, tattoos, and multiple piercings. Later, the parents pulled their daughter aside and expressed their concern. “Dear,” said the mother diplomatically, “he doesn’t seem very nice.” “Oh, mother, please,” replied the daughter in exasperation. “If he wasn’t nice, why would he be doing 500 hours of community service?”

This is our third Sunday reading and hearing from Matthew, chapter 10. Jesus saw the crowds and had compassion for them. They were harassed like sheep without a shepherd. The harvest was plentiful, but the laborers were few. He then gave his disciples authority over unclean spirits, disease and sickness. Last week we talked about the disciples being told they had nothing to fear as they journeyed in the mission field, but those who didn’t go into the field to bring in the harvest were held just as accountable in their devotion to Christ as those who did.

Today Jesus expressed his last words to the twelve before they went on to proclaim the message of his kingdom. We hear Jesus say today, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me” (vs 40). Do you remember Jesus speaking on loving him more than family members, and that he brought a sword and not peace? The new relationships he invited his disciples to affirm were like family bonds within the group devoted to Jesus first. SO, WHOEVER WELCOMES YOU AS YOU BLESS AND BRING GOOD NEWS TO OTHERS WELCOMES JESUS AND GOD THE FATHER WHO SENT HIM FIRST. “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me,” Jesus said. This is the bond. Wherever we go and bring blessing and peace and healing whether intentionally or by accident, we do so with Jesus and in his name. This is the bond. We, not just you and not just me, WE are united in Christ to bring manifestations of his kingdom. As WE live in this powerful relationship and move about in this world, we’ll be welcomed and we won’t.

In May 1990, the civil war in Liberia was starting to heat up. A family of Southern Baptist missionaries in Liberia left the country to find a safer place to set up their ministry. They were sent to Kuwait which became embroiled in its own war within three months of the family’s arrival. In August 1990, the missionaries were taken hostage along with a large group of Americans in the country and were forbidden from leaving until the war was over. Sometimes we’re welcomed, and sometimes we’re not.

We go about in this world in his name, and we traverse this plant, this state, this community connected, bound to one another because the same Spirit, Holy Spirit, abides in each of us.  Jesus shared this with his friends, his learners, to emphasize they were not sent on their own, by themselves. If they were received or welcomed when they came to convey truths and grace and power of the kingdom of heaven in the name of Christ, they did so in the company of Christ. The significance of this message is extended to us and to all his followers throughout the ages. When we share his grace and truth by actions or words, and are welcomed to do so, Christ Jesus is welcomed. We are not alone when we endeavor to share grace and truth, power and love, to bless, heal, help, comfort. We are not alone. We try to bless in the name of the One who did so for us, and we join in the efforts of others who have tried to do so throughout the ages.

What unites all of us is the name of Jesus and the comfort of the Holy Spirit and the One who sent Jesus to us in the first place. WE ARE NOT ALONE. WE ARE TOGETHER. We share in a mission to bless in his name, to heal in his name, to bring light into darkness in his name. When we are welcomed to do so, Jesus is welcomed. In the moment, HE may look like you, HE may sound like you, HE may dress like you. You’re not the one being received or welcomed. Our Lord and Savior is being welcomed, received, heard, experienced, showing signs of the coming of his kingdom into the life of the one you’re loving in the moment. This doesn’t mean you are unworthy. This means you and Jesus are one. That blessed one you’re trying to give something significant to sees you but is confronted with the grace and mercy of a loving Savior and God of all. It’s almost as if he’s disguised himself in you and me.

There were once three demons given the task of hiding God so well that no one would ever find him again. The first demon said that God should be hidden on the farthest star. But the second demon feared that rocket ships would one day reach that star and God would be discovered. “Let’s put God at the bottom of the deepest ocean,” that demon said. The third demon said he could foresee the day when food would be grown on the ocean’s floor to feed the world, and then God would be found. So, this demon said, “The only place we can hide God so that no one will ever find him again is inside each person. No one will discover God there.” Again, Jesus said this morning, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”

(Preached at St Mark UMC in Anniston, AL, July 2, 2023)