The readings for Sunday are available here.
“Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me,” Jesus says.
Welcoming a prophet seems to earn the same reward as being a prophet in the first place, and so does welcoming a righteous person earn the reward of being righteous. Even the giving of a simple cup of water is important and worthy of reward.
In some important way, Jesus wants to link engagement with being.
We might not consider ourselves to be prophets, or even especially righteous. But by engaging with those around us in a particular way, Jesus insists that our engagement becomes something more. And our call to be disciples represents something bigger, because when people welcome us they also welcome Jesus. Which means that our call is not just to learn and to emulate – although it is certainly that – it’s also to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the world.
The only requirement for participation is having some limited idea of who Jesus is. A small story to tell.
Jesus says all of this in the context of sending out the disciples into the world, on their own, without his guidance and support. They’re a mostly uneducated, questionably respectable band of over-eager Jesus followers, and no responsible religious institution would ever think to send them out as representatives, because they just aren’t ready. They have very little going for them. They have no meaningful experience, no training, no wealth or power or privilege. All they really have is relationship with Jesus, and the commission he gives them.
And that is more than enough.
Over and over again through the story of Jesus, we see this strange conviction that the people Jesus meets are capable of doing what he does. Jesus sends out everyone from the recently-demon-possessed to the socially outcast, to the disciples themselves, insisting that they already have everything they need. One man, having been freed from the things that oppressed him, begs Jesus to let him follow him (meaning, to become a disciple too) – but Jesus says no. Instead, he sends the man back to the very people who chained him up in a graveyard, insisting that he tell his story.
The only requirement for participation is having some limited idea of who Jesus is. A small story to tell.
From there, whoever welcomes that person also welcomes Jesus. And blessing abounds.
May we know that we, too, are sent by Jesus. May we have the faith to tell our story, and to engage with those around us. May we welcome others, trusting that we will encounter God. And may we know that blessing abounds.