<p>10:40&nbsp;<em>He that receives you receives me, and he that receives me receives him that sent me</em>- The Lord is speaking of &lsquo;receiving&rsquo; His preachers and materially supporting them (:13). He&rsquo;s saying that every act of support given to them is done as it were directly to Him. He has the same idea in Mt. 25:35-45- whatever was done to &ldquo;the least of these My brothers&rdquo; was done to Him. His &ldquo;little ones&rdquo;, the disciples / preachers in their immaturity (:42), were all the same His, and whatever was done to them was done to Him and to His Father. We note that Mt. 25 speaks of material support of food, clothing, hospitality to the unknown and visiting in prison- all exactly in the context of the preaching mission He sent His disciples on. Whatever more general reference there may be in Mt. 25:35-45, clearly the primary reference was to the Lord&rsquo;s future judgment of those who claimed to be His (who had accepted John the Baptist&rsquo;s message), in accordance to whether or not they had materially supported the disciples on their preaching mission. Luke&rsquo;s version of this teaching records that the Lord said that &ldquo;He that&nbsp;<em>hears&nbsp;</em>you, hears Me&rdquo; (Lk. 10:16). The &lsquo;receiving&rsquo; was therefore of the message and therefore receiving the disciples personally (10:14 &ldquo;receive you&hellip; hear your words&rdquo;). We are the voice and face of Jesus to people- it&rsquo;s a concept colossal in its implications. Our attitude to receiving or accepting each other is our acceptance or rejection of Jesus personally. Hence Paul tells the Galatians that they had &ldquo;received me&hellip; as Christ Jesus&rdquo; (Gal. 4:14), surely alluding to the Lord&rsquo;s teaching here. We are to &ldquo;receive one another, as Christ also received us&rdquo; (Rom. 15:7).</p>
<p>The idea of&nbsp;<em>shaliach</em>, whereby someone&rsquo;s representative was seen as them, was well known in Judaism; the Lord is almost quoting it here, and He does the same in the next verse. Realizing this is going on is a key to correct interpretation of the next verses.</p>