40"He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. 41He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. 42And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward."
This text confuses me. Jesus is using phrases in a way that are probably common to the culture of that time but are foreign to me. I am really struggling with what He is trying to tell me. So I am going to take this a small piece at a time to see if I can figure it out.
Receive... What does it mean to receive someone? When I think of receiving someone, I think of welcoming them into my home, making them a guest, taking care of their needs. I think Jesus is extending this definition to even giving someone a cup of cold water, any service to others.
Receives you... I assume that here He is still talking to His twelve apostles. This is easy for me to understand that those who receive one of the apostles, who welcome them, take care of their needs, is receiving Jesus. And those who receive Jesus, as through the apostles, receive God. This point is clear to me, makes sense to me, but the next statements are the ones that really confuse me.
In the name of... What does it mean to do something in the name of someone else? What you do in the name of someone else is as though that other person were there doing it, usually for more authority than you would have had otherwise. All responsibility for actions and consequences go to the other person. For example, a phrase we have all heard in the movies is "Open up, in the name of the law". The person speaking would not normally get a response from those he was speaking to. Their own name would not be recognized as one with enough authority, but since they are doing it in the name of the law, those inside are actually facing the law and are punishable by the law if they do not open. Another example would be if you did something in the name of Annette Godtland. Hopefully you were first given permission by me to do something in my name. But if you claimed to be doing the act in my name, you would be doing it for me, probably because I couldn't be there to do it myself for some reason. But that would also mean that I would be responsible for anything that went good or bad from those actions. It would be like doing me a favor, or doing work for me, but since it would be in my name, I would be responsible for all outcomes.
Receive a prophet in the name of a prophet... Receive a righteous man in the name of a righteous man... The part I was struggling with here is if this means to do the receiving in the name of a prophet or righteous man, or if it means simply receiving a prophet or righteous man who is coming in the name of a prophet or righteous man. Verse 40 seems to be emphasizing one who comes in the name of another. Verse 42 seems to be emphasizing receiving in the name of another. Is Jesus instructing us to serve others in His name? Or is He instructing us to serve others who come in His name?
Receive a prophet's reward... Receive a righteous man's reward... Again, I am confused here. Is He saying that those who would receive these people would receive the reward due to those people, or receive a reward from those people. There is a big difference here. Are we supposed to try to get the same reward as the ones due to the others? Or are we being warned that the reward we would receive is simply one from those people rather than from God. In other words, maybe we shouldn't do something in the name of a prophet or a righteous man when our only hope is to get a reward from the one in whose name we did it. Rather, we should do things in the name of God to get our reward from God.
One of these little ones... At first I thought Jesus was referring to his twelve apostles He was sending out because He said doing it in the name of the disciples. But usually little ones is referring to small children, and He already referred to His twelve apostles as "you". So He had to be referring to someone else here. Were there little children present as Jesus was talking to them?
Only a cup of cold water... At first I read this as "even a cup of cold water", but now as I have studied this text a little more closely, I believe Jesus is referring to someone so stingy that the only thing they would give to the small needy children is a cup of cold water. And they probably only did it because the disciples told them they should give.
Reward... Is Jesus saying that someone who gives only a cup of cold water to a child will still receive a great reward because they did it in the name of a disciple? I don't think so. At this point I'm starting to feel this text is more of a warning than instruction for getting great reward. I think Jesus is saying such a man will receive his reward, but it will only be as great as he gave. His sure reward would be no better than a cup of cold water.
So after this long, drawn out study, I think that the conclusion I am coming to is that we are to receive others, to serve others, not in the name of those who told us to serve others, but in the name of God. If we do it in the name of those who taught us, the reward can be no greater than what they are able to give us. But if we do it in the name of God, our reward can be great. For in serving others in the name of God, we are serving God.