And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.
All Commentaries on Matthew 10:42 Go To Matthew 10
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Do you see what mighty persuasions He used, and how He opened to them the houses of the whole world? Yea, He signified that men are their debtors: first, by saying, The workman is worthy of his hire; secondly, by sending them forth having nothing; thirdly, by giving them up to wars and fightings in behalf of them that receive them; fourthly, by committing to them miracles also; fifthly, in that He did by their lips introduce peace, the cause of all blessings, into the houses of such as receive them; sixthly, by threatening things more grievous than Sodom to such as receive them not: seventhly, by signifying that as many as welcome them are receiving both Himself and the Father; eighthly, by promising both a prophet's and a righteous man's reward: ninthly, by undertaking that the recompenses shall be great, even for a cup of cold water. Now each one of these things, even by itself, were enough to attract them. For who, tell me, when a leader of armies wounded in innumerable places, and dyed in blood, came in sight, returning after many trophies from war and conflict, would not receive him, throwing open every door in his house?
But who now is like this? One may say. Therefore He added, In the name of a disciple, and of a prophet, and of a righteous man; to instruct you that not for the worthiness of the visitor, but for the purpose of him that gives welcome, is His reward appointed. For though here He speak of prophets, and righteous men, and disciples, yet elsewhere He bids men receive the veriest outcasts, and punishes such as fail to do so. For, Inasmuch as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me; Matthew 25:45 and the converse again He affirms with respect to the same persons.
Since though he may be doing no such great work, he is a man, inhabiting the same world with you, beholding the same sun having the same soul, the same Lord, a partaker with you of the same mysteries, called to the same heaven with you; having a strong claim, his poverty, and his want of necessary food. But now they that waken you with flutes and pipes in the winter season, and disturb you without purpose or fruit, depart from you receiving many gifts. And they that carry about swallows, and smut themselves over, and abuse every one, receive a reward for this their conjuration. But if there come to you a poor man wanting bread, there is no end of revilings, and reproaches, and charges of idleness, and upbraidings, and insults, and jeers; and you consider not with yourself, that you too art idle, and yet God gives you His gifts. For tell me not this, that you too art doing somewhat, but point me out this rather, if it be anything really needful that you do, and art busy about. But if you tell one of money-getting, and of traffic, and of the care and increase of your goods, I also would say unto you, Not these, but alms, and prayers, and the protection of the injured, and all such things, are truly works, with respect to which we live in thorough idleness. Yet God never told us, Because you are idle, I light not up the sun for you; because you do nothing of real consequence, I quench the moon, I paralyze the womb of the earth, I restrain the lakes, the fountains, the rivers, I blot out the atmosphere: I withhold the annual rains: but He gives us all abundantly. And to some that are not merely idle, but even doing evil, He freely gives the benefit of these things.
When therefore you see a poor man, and say, It stops my breath that this fellow, young as he is and healthy, having nothing, would rather be fed in idleness; he is surely some slave and runaway, and has deserted his proper master: I bid you speak these same words to yourself; or rather, permit him freely to speak them to you, and he will say with more justice, It stops my breath that you, being healthy, are idle, and practice none of the things which God has commanded, but having run away from the commandments of your Lord, goes about dwelling in wickedness, as in a strange land, in drunkenness, in gluttony, in theft, in extortion, in subverting other men's houses. And you indeed impute idleness, but I evil works; in your plotting, in your swearing, in your lying, in your spoiling, in your doing innumerable such things.
And this I say, not as making a law in favor of idleness, far from it; but rather very earnestly wishing all to be employed; for sloth is the teacher of all wickedness: but I beseech you not to be unmerciful, nor cruel. Since Paul also, having made infinite complaints, and said, If any will not work, neither let him eat, stopped not at this, but added, But you, be not weary in well doing. Nay, but these things are contradictory. For if you have commanded them not to eat, how do you exhort us to give? I do so, says He, for I have also commanded to avoid them, and to have no company with them; and again I said, Count them not as enemies, but admonish them; 2 Thessalonians 3:14-15 not making contradictory laws, but such as are quite in unison with each other. Because, if you are prompt to mercy, both he, the poor man, will soon be rid of his idleness, and you of your cruelty.
But he has many lies and inventions, you reply. Well, hence again is he pitiable, for that he has fallen into such distress, as to be hardened even in such doings. But we, so far from pitying, add even those cruel words, Have you not received once and again? so we talk. What then? Because he was once fed, has he no need to be fed again? Why do you not make these laws for your own belly also, and say to it likewise, You were filled yesterday, and the day before, seek it not now? But while you fill that beyond measure, even to bursting, from him you turn away, when he asks but what is moderate; whereas you ought therefore to pity him, because he is constrained to come to you every day. Yea, if nought else incline you to him, you should pity him because of this; for by the constraint of his poverty he is forced on these things, and does them. And you do not pity him, because, being so spoken to, he feels no shame: the reason being, that his want is too strong for him.
Nay, instead of pitying, you even make a show of him; and whereas God has commanded to give secretly, you stand exposing publicly him that has accosted you, and upbraiding him, for what ought to move your pity. Why, if you are not minded to give, to what end add reproach, and bruise that weary and wretched soul? He came as into a harbor, seeking help at your hands; why stir up waves, and make the storm more grievous? Why do you condemn him of meanness? What? Had he thought to hear such things, would he have come to you? Or if he actually came foreseeing this, good cause therefore both to pity him, and to shudder at your own cruelty, that not even so, when you see an inexorable necessity laid upon him, do you become more gentle, nor judge him to have a sufficient excuse for his importunity in the dread of hunger, but accuse him of impudence: and yet have you often yourself practised greater impudence, yea in respect of grievous matters. For while here the very impudence brings with it ground of pardon, we, often doing things punishable, brazen it out: and when we ought to bear all that in mind, and be humble, we even trample on those miserable men, and when they ask medicines, we add to their wounds. I say, if you will not give, why do you strike? If you will not be bounteous, why be insolent?
But he submits not to be put off in any other way. Well then, as that wise man commanded, Sirach 4:8 so do. Answer him peaceable words with meekness. For not of his own accord, surely, is he so very importunate. For there is not, there cannot be, any man desiring to be put to shame for its own sake. How much soever any may contend, I cannot yield ever to be convinced that a man who was living in plenty would choose to beg.
Let no man then beguile us with arguments. But although Paul says, If any will not work, neither let him eat, 2 Thessalonians 3:10 to them he says it; but to us he says not this, but, on the contrary, Be not weary in well doing. 2 Thessalonians 3:13 Even thus do we at home; when any two are striving with each other, we take each apart, and give them the opposite advice. This did God also, and Moses. For while to God he said, If you will forgive them their sin, forgive it; else blot me out also; them on the contrary he commanded to slay one another, and all that pertained to them. Yet these things are contrary; nevertheless, both looked to one end.
Again, God said to Moses in the hearing of the Jews, Let me alone, that I may consume the people, Exodus 32:10 (for though they were not present when God was saying this, yet they were to hear it afterwards): but privately He gives him directions of the opposite tenor. And this, Moses upon constraint revealed afterwards, thus saying, What? Did I conceive them, that you say to me, Carry them, as a nurse would carry the sucking child in her bosom?
These things are done also in houses, and often a father while he blames the tutor in private for having used his child reproachfully, saying, Be not rough, nor hard, to the youth speaks in the contrary way, Though thou be reproached unjustly, bear it; out of those opposites making up some one wholesome result. Thus also Paul said to such as are in health and beg, If any man will not work, neither let him eat, that he may urge them into employment: but to such as can show mercy, You, for your part, be not weary in well doing: that he may lead them to give alms.
So also, when he was admonishing those of the Gentiles, in his Epistle to the Romans, not to be highminded against the Jews, he brought forward also the wild olive, and he seems to be saying one thing to these, another to those. Romans 11:17
Let us not therefore fall away into cruelty, but let us listen to Paul, saying, Be not weary in well doing; let us listen to the Lord, who says, Give to every man that asks of you, Luke 6:30 and, Be merciful as your Father. Luke 6:36 And though He has spoken of many things, He has nowhere used this expression, but with regard to our deeds of mercy only. For nothing so equals us with God, as doing good.
But nothing is more shameless, says one, than a poor man. Why, I pray you? Because he runs up, and cries out after you? Will you then let me point out, how we are more importunate than they, and very shameless? Remember, I say, now at the season of the fast, how often, when your table was spread at eventide, and you had called your ministering servant; on his moving rather leisurely, you have overset everything, kicking, insulting, reviling, merely about a little delay; although fully assured, that if not immediately, yet a little after you shall enjoy your victuals. Upon which thou dost not call yourself impudent, changed as you are into a wild beast for nothing; but the poor man, alarmed and trembling about his greater interests (for not about delay, but about famine, is all his fear), him do you call audacious, and shameless, and impudent, and all the most opprobrious names? Nay, how is this anything but extreme impudence.
But these things we do not consider: therefore we account such men troublesome: since if we at all searched into our own doings, and compared them with theirs, we should not have thought them intolerable.
Be not then a severe judge. Why, if you were clear of all sins, not even then would the law of God permit you to be strict in searching out other men's sins. And if the Pharisee perished on this account, what defense are we to find? If He suffer not such as have done well to be bitter in searching out other men's doings, much less them that have offended.
Let us not then be savage, nor cruel, not without natural feeling, not implacable, not worse than wild beasts. For I know many to have gone even so far in brutishness, as for a little trouble to slight famishing persons, and to say these words: I have no servant now with me; we are far from home; there is no money-changer that I know. Oh cruelty! Did you promise the greater, and do you not fulfill the less? To save your walking a little way, does he perish with hunger? Oh insolence! Oh pride! Why, if it were ten furlongs to be walked, ought thou to be backward? Does it not even come into your mind that so your reward is made greater? For whereas, when you give, you receive reward for the gift only: when you yourself also go, for this again is appointed you a recompense.
Yea, the patriarch himself we admire for this, that in his own person he ran to the herd, and snatched up the calf, Genesis 18:7 and that, when he had three hundred and eighteen servants born in his house. But now some are filled with so much pride, as to do these things by servants, and not to be ashamed. But do you require me to do these things myself? one may say. How then shall I not seem to be vainglorious? Nay, but as it is, you are led by another kind of vainglory to do this, being ashamed to be seen talking with a poor man.
But I am in no respect strict about this; only give, whether by yourself or by another you are minded to do so; and do not accuse, do not smite, do not revile. For medicines, not wounds, does he need who comes unto you; mercy, not a sword. For tell me, if any one who had been smitten with a stone, and had received a wound in his head, were to let go all others, and run unto your knees, drenched in his blood; would you indeed smite him with another stone, and add unto him another wound? I, for my part, think not; but even as it was, you would endeavor to cure it. Why then doest thou the contrary with respect to the poor? Do you not know how much power a word has, both to raise up, and to cast down? For a word, it is said, is better than a gift. Sirach 18:16
Do you not consider that you are thrusting the sword into yourself, and art receiving a more grievous wound, when he, being reviled, silently withdraws, with groans and many tears? Since indeed of God he is sent unto you. Consider then, in insulting him, upon whom you are causing the insult to pass; when God indeed sends him unto you, and commands you to give, but thou, so far from giving, dost even insult him on his coming.
And if you are not aware how exceedingly amiss this is, look at it as among men, and then you will fully know the greatness of the sin. As thus: if a servant of yours had been commanded by you to go to another servant, who had money of yours, to receive it, and were to come back not only with empty hands, but also with despiteful usage; what would you not do to him that had wrought the insult? What penalty would you not exact, as though, after this, it were yourself that had been ill used?
This reckoning do thou make in regard of God also; for truly it is He that sends the poor to us, and of His we give, if indeed we do give. But if, besides not giving, we also send them away insulted, consider how many bolts, how many thunders, that which we are doing deserves.
Duly considering then all these things, let us both bridle our tongue, and put away inhumanity, and let us stretch forth the hand to give alms, and not with money only, but with words also, let us relieve such as are in need; that we may both escape the punishment for reviling, and may inherit the kingdom which is for blessing and almsgiving, by the grace and love towards man of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and might forever and ever. Amen.
