Hospitality With a Cold Cup of Water

This sermon was preached on June 27, 2028, at Beechmont Presbyterian Church on Matthew 10:40–42. In these verses, Jesus teaches that welcoming others is also a way of welcoming him. This reflection explores the call to hospitality, the challenge of loving the stranger, and the sacred possibility that Christ often meets us in those we least expect.

Beauty and the Beast

The other day, I was rewatching Beauty and the Beast with my mom. If you remember, the reason the Beast becomes the Beast is because the prince denies shelter to an old woman who wants refuge from a storm. Mind you, she does not want to stay for free. She offers a single rose in exchange for shelter.

But the prince looks at this stranger and immediately begins making assumptions about her.

She is old.

She is poor.

She is ugly.

She is not worth his time.

So, he turns her away.

And you may know the rest of the story. She is an enchantress. She puts a curse on him and on everyone in his castle. She tells him, “Until you have found someone to love you as you are, you shall remain forever a beast.” Then she disappears, and he falls into despair, for who could ever love a beast?

We have often been taught that this story is about recognizing true beauty.

But what if we look at this story to learn something about hospitality?

What Is Hospitality?

When we hear the word hospitality, we might think about greeting visitors, sharing a meal, hotels, or inviting friends over. These are all good things. Sharing a cup of cold water? A very good thing to do.

Hospitality, after all, is embodied. It has to be practical and tangible.

But the Bible pushes us further than that.

The biblical word for hospitality means love of the stranger, love of the foreigner, or love of the outsider.

So this is not only about receiving a sibling into your home or inviting a friend for coffee. It is about loving the stranger.

It means asking ourselves as we go through life:

• How do I treat those who are different from me or unknown to me?

• How do I treat the immigrant?

• The newcomer?

• The inconvenient?

• The vulnerable?

Scripture repeatedly invites us to love, welcome, and care for the stranger. There is no question about that. You can find this language in 1 Timothy 3:2, Titus 1:8, and 1 Peter 4:9.

But do you know where that specific word does not appear?

In Matthew 10. Matthew 10 does not use the Greek word for hospitality.

Welcome Me

Instead, Matthew uses the language of welcoming and receiving again and again. “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”

Jesus is speaking to his disciples and telling them that they are his representatives in the world. Therefore, welcoming a disciple or giving a cup of water to a little one is the same as welcoming Jesus.

As Bonnie Pattison writes in her commentary, extending hospitality to a follower of Christ carries profound meaning because God is the ultimate recipient.

And God and Jesus are not strangers to the disciples, right?

They are not strangers to us.

We know Jesus.

Or at least we think we do.

Christ in the Stranger

As I think about the prince and the old woman, I realize that the prince believes this woman is no stranger to him. He thinks he has seen her kind before. She is just another poor person asking for charity outside the castle.

He assumes he knows her. And because he assumes he knows her, he dismisses her.

But then she surprises him.

Jesus can surprise us too.

He is the little one who is thirsty.

He appears in the poor person on the street.

He emerges in the vulnerable person in crisis.

He comes in the face of someone in need.

Sometimes Christ comes hidden in the stranger. And loving the stranger is what hospitality is all about.

We are asked to stop assuming. We are asked to resist the temptation to judge. We are called to offer a cold cup of water to the person we think we already understand, because that stranger may be the very place where Christ comes to welcome us and to call us to welcome others.

A Cold Cup of Water

So does that mean we are meant to walk through life keeping an eye out for Jesus?

Yes. Yes, it does.

Hospitality is hard work. Hospitality is not simply about being nice or polite. Hospitality is kingdom work.

Pattison points out that Jesus specifically mentions a cup of cold water. Why so specific?

Because Jesus is pointing to hospitality that goes the extra mile. To offer cold water required drawing water from a deep well and often carrying it uphill in a heavy jar to the family home. Cold water was not effortless. It required labor. It required sacrifice.

Offering a cup of cold water to an ordinary believer was a generous act, one that might require another long trip back to the well.

Jesus’ words reveal that no act of service or personal sacrifice toward “the least of these,” who belong to Christ, goes unnoticed by God.

In the document Practicing Hospitality: An Essential Practices Study, we are reminded that hospitality is not just a nice touch.

It is a necessary act of reconciliation.

Hospitality resists the divisions that sin creates:

• fear

• exclusion

• racism

• indifference

• separation

• judgment

It dares to keep walking up and down the hill if that means helping create a place where everyone feels they belong, where everyone matters, where there is refuge from the storm.

Every act of hospitality pushes back against brokenness and the beasts of this world.

Every cup of cold water becomes a quiet act of reconciliation.

And in a world shaped by indifference and even rejection, Jesus looks at us and says: Whoever welcomes others welcomes me. And we are called, in acts big and small, to be hospitable to everyone.

The Power of the Few

The call to hospitality can feel concerning, just like other things Jesus says in Matthew 10.

We may think we need to be powerful to practice hospitality. We may think we need resources, influence, or perfect timing. But every disciple is called to welcome.

Every one of us is called to keep watch for Jesus, because we may have the chance to receive him without even knowing it.

Sherry Deets, in her sermon “Even a Cup of Cold Water,” notes that the one giving the cup of water is not necessarily a disciple. This person may simply be someone honoring the disciples’ teaching through a small act of kindness.

She writes:

“The divine mission is as much about the unnamed people who provide a thirsty servant a cold drink of water as the familiar names that dot the pages of church history.”

In other words, hospitality does not always look heroic. Even offering a cold cup of water counts.

Remember: a prince was given the opportunity to offer refuge to an old woman in need. Even a small act of kindness—even a cup of water—could have changed everything. But he thought he knew the stranger before him. He failed to recognize the call before him: the call to generosity, to love, and to grace.

And I believe every day someone stands at our collective doors with the same call.

A stranger.

A newcomer.

Someone thirsty.

And through every interruption, every need, every knock at the door, Jesus still asks: Will you welcome them?

Remember always that in welcoming the stranger, we may discover we are welcoming Christ himself.

And in doing so… we will get to know him better. Amen.