Drinking the Cup

Background Scripture: Mark 10; Matthew 26:36-56; John 18:1-12
Lesson Scripture: Mark 10:36-39; Matthew 26:38-44; John 18:11

Introduction

A cup set before a person and filled with a beverage is likened in this lesson to a person receiving what life holds for them. Like many things, meaning is attached here beyond a cup’s physical purpose. The contents of the cup symbolize the future and uncertain course of events, good or bad.

When we are offered a drink, usually we have the liberty to refuse it. There are consequences to a refusal, though. Refusing to accept this cup because of what it contains—because the path ahead looks difficult or painful—means rejecting the one who orders it. Hardship is sometimes necessary, and enduring suffering or illness is not pleasant. Sometimes the medicine is bitter and the side effects unpleasant, but accepting God’s will is ultimately the best choice.

Today we consider what drinking the cup meant to Jesus and what it means to us as we follow Him.

Key Verse

And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name (Acts 5:41).

Lesson Scripture

Studying the Lesson

These three scripture passages take place in the last year of Jesus’s ministry. Indeed, the passages from Matthew and John are on the night of his betrayal in Gethsemane.

This Passover Feast is known as the Last Supper. God’s plan of redemption was about to be completed. Passover followed an order, with prayers, hand washing, questions, food, and drink. This was to remind the Jewish people of their bondage and deliverance from Egypt. The food prescribed was simple, including bitter herbs that reminded them of the miserable times of captivity. Salt water to dip the unleavened bread into represented their tears in slavery. Cups of wine were drunk at prescribed times before, during, and after the meal. These cups symbolized four promises God made to Israel in Exod. 6:6-7. These are known as the four “I wills”:

Sanctification (“I will bring you out.”)

Deliverance (“I will rid you out of their bondage.”)

Redemption (“I will redeem you with a stretched out arm.”)

Praise and acceptance (“I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God.”)

Redemption, the third cup of wine, was after the Passover meal. As Jesus passed this cup to his disciples, He told them, “This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22:20). Redemption, the act of buying back, is the purpose Jesus came to fulfill at a terrible cost. He became “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8). It was not just physical death but the agony of separation from the Father.

“The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezek. 18:4). The requirement of God’s righteousness is that sin must be punished, and the love that provided a way to fulfill that requirement while saving mankind required a perfect sacrifice. Our Savior asked if there was any other way, but He was resigned and willing to fulfill what was necessary. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus took the full measure of wrath for our sake. It was a difficult, sorrowful thing for him to anticipate.

Jesus taught, healed, and prepared those around him for the kingdom of God. It was commonly thought and anticipated that the Messiah would come as a conqueror, setting everything in order, expelling the Romans, and reestablishing David’s throne in Jerusalem. Even the disciples, who repeatedly heard about suffering, misunderstood how the kingdom would come to them. It would be established with Jesus’s sacrifice. “But now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb. 9:26).

Practical Truths for Today

As we contemplate drinking the figurative cup, what is our response? We wonder what is in the cup. Are there good things—joy, friendship, times of wonder, and contentment? Are there burdens, sorrows, bitterness, and misunderstanding? Likely it will contain good and bad, sweet and bitter. Though our Savior knew what was in his cup—the cost of our sin—still He drank the bitter cup. We may have our ideas of what may be in the cup, but we do not really know. It is our part to accept the cup offered. The example Jesus left was to drink the cup given by the Father.

Drinking the cup will permeate our whole being. Just as liquid taken from a physical cup affects the whole body, the willingness to accept both the pleasant and unpleasant things of life allows our spirit to be changed and shaped by God. Who knows what purpose God has for allowing suffering, sickness, or false accusation? Like Jesus, we may be asked to accomplish something for others at great cost to our own plans, possessions, reputation, or health. We may have to live apart from our family either in service in a foreign place, or because our loved ones are opposed to God’s church and its doctrines. Illness may limit what we can accomplish for ourselves, our friends, and for God. Serving God amid suffering and showing kindness and patience to those we meet speaks more than many sermons.

Who has charge of dispersing the contents of the cup? A loving Father will offer bread, not a stone (Matt. 7:9). He will also help us become righteous like Him. We learn to do better by recieving feedback, criticism, and reproof. Having our faults pointed out and corrected are not pleasant things, but children must be taught, and we must become as little children (Heb. 12:5-6).

The way of the world is to resist, demand to be treated fairly, and argue against unfair accusations. Jesus told Peter to become nonresistant. The weapons must return to their resting place where they can do no harm. Now is the time to use a mightier weapon. Love is the redeeming power of the gospel, providing the “stretched out arm” (Exod. 6:6) of deliverance. Love moves a believer to lay down his life; it is part of the Christian’s cup. The Savior went to Calvary and stretched out his hands on the cross. His hand now holds the cup of salvation. If we take it we accept wherever He chooses to lead us. The servant is not greater than his Master; can we expect to escape without a trial? Daniel had a lion’s den; Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had a fiery furnace; Paul had perils of shipwrecks, imprisonments, and beatings, but “[we] have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin” (Heb. 12:4). Will we take the cup and drink it as the Savior did?

Questions

1. When life unfolds differently than anticipated, how are we to resign ourselves to the difference?
2. If my cup seems more bitter than another’s, what should be done?
3. Should hard times be welcomed, or should they be avoided if possible?
4. Jesus asked that the cup pass from Him but wanted his Father’s will. Can we ask for the cup to pass, too, if we ask as He asked?

Source: COGICM Daily Bible Readings (Daily Bible Readings, PO Box 124, Glenn, CA 95943).