Hudson Taylor was director of the China Inland Mission. Once he was interviewing candidates for the mission field. “Why do you wish to go to foreign mission?” he asked them one after another. “I want to go because Christ has commanded us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,” said one. Another said, “I want to go because millions are perishing without Christ.” Others gave different answers. Then Hudson Taylor said, “All of these motives, however good, will fail you in times of testings, trials, tribulations, and possible death. There is but one motive that will sustain you in trial and testing; namely, the love of Christ.”

In today’s gospel, Jesus teaches those whom he is sending out as messengers of the gospel that they must be driven by the love they bear for him, and sustained by the love they receive from others. In other words, preaching the gospel is not just a question of being a channel of God’s love, for a channel flows only in one direction. It is more like being an electrical conduit which receives current only to give it out, and gives out current only to receive again. The high rate of physical fatigue, mental exhaustion and spiritual dehydration among church ministers has to do with the belief that the minister is there to give care and support to all without a corresponding realization that ministers themselves also need to receive care and support. Jesus tells us that it is a question of loving and being loved, of giving and receiving.

Today’s gospel reading is the final portion of Matthew 10 in which Jesus gives his disciples an extended teaching on mission or ministry. In the first part of the reading, Jesus paints a portrait of the missionary or minister who is worthy of the name “Christian.”

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me;
and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. (Verses 37-38)

In other words, the messenger of Christ must be someone who is in love with Christ in such a way that love of parents and children (and implicitly, love of spouse) assumes a secondary importance. Not only love of family but love of oneself becomes secondary as well. To take up one’s cross and follow Jesus is to sign one’s death warrant because the way of the cross ends up on the Calvary of crucifixion. The only credible (“worthy”) messenger of Christ is the person who has found a reason to live and a reason to die, and that reason is Jesus Christ himself. That is why the first part of the reading concludes with the general principle: “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” (verse 39)

The second part of the reading talks about the Christian messenger not as one who dispenses love, but as one who receives the love and hospitality of the people. This time it is the disciple who is on the receiving end. “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me” (verse 40). Many ministers are slow to accept help from the people. They think their part is only to dispense love and consolation to others. The fact is, the person who is incapable of receiving love is equally incapable of giving it. Remember the analogy of the electric cable: a cable that cannot or does not receive electric energy cannot give it either. The best missionaries we know in Africa are missionaries who would visit the natives and sit down to share their meagre meals with them. By accepting the hospitality that the people have to offer, they open themselves more to the give-and-take flow of love.

To conclude his teaching, Jesus encourages the people to be generous with his messengers. Let us take these words of Jesus to heart and act on them to the best of our ability. Remember, we do not need to give gold or silver; a cup of cold water is enough:

Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple -- truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward (verses 41-42).