Mark 9:41

The Giving Of A Cup Of Cold Water In His Name (9:41).

“For whoever will give you a cup of water to drink ‘because you are Messiah's', truly I tell you he will assuredly not lose his reward.”

This follows on from Mark 9:40 being an example of one who was ‘for us' as shown by his action. The mention of Jesus as Messiah is startling and unexpected and indicates that these words were given in private teaching to the disciples. They had acknowledged His Messiahship and He did want them to know that He was the Messiah but without overemphasising it. We can compare the similar but differing statement in Matthew 10:42 in a different context. There the cup of water was seen as given to them in a ministry during His lifetime because they were disciples of Jesus. Here in Mark it is the giving to them of a cup of water when they engaged in their future ministry of proclaiming Jesus as Messiah. But the idea is the same in both cases.

The action of giving a cup of water is similar to that of the woman who gave her pittance (Mark 12:41). Tiny it may have been but it was vitally important to her. And it was vitally important to God. So small a gift in the eyes of men. So huge in the eyes of God. She was truly great. But note the reason for the giving of the cup of water. It was given by someone who could not do much but wanted  to show their love for Christ, possibly even sometimes in a hostile environment where they could have been severely mishandled for it. What mattered was the size of the love in that person's heart for God which prompted the action, not the size of the gift.

‘Because you are Messiah's.' A rare use of the term by Jesus, Who only ever used it indirectly while on Jewish territory (compare Matthew 23:8. See also Matthew 22:42; Mark 12:35; Luke 20:41, which are parallel sayings to each other). But there is no reason why Jesus should not have used it in such a context when reassuring His disciples indirectly that in spite of all He was saying about His death and resurrection He really was the Messiah. And it acknowledged that one day men would indeed see them as followers of the true Messiah, but not yet. This is the only place in the Gospels and Acts where ‘Christ' is used without the article. It is not here a proper name but indicating Messianic connection.

‘He will assuredly not lose his reward.' Nothing that we do for God passes by unnoticed. In contrast much of what we claim is done for God is done for our own self-gratification. There will be no reward for that (Matthew 6:2; Matthew 6:5).