The Cup

 "Abba, Father," He said. "everything is possible for You. Please take this cup of suffering away from Me. Yet I want Your will, not mine." Mark 14:36.....Jesus commanded Peter, "Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?" John 18:11......"What's the cup we've been given to drink? Will we drink it? Can we cry "Abba, Father," as we do? Unknown

Christ knew the reason for His Father sending Him into this world. He would be the sacrifice, the atonement for the sin of the human race. On the cross He would take upon Himself the judgement that our sin deserves. All of God's wrath against sin would fall upon Him. He knew as well the suffering He would undergo as He carried out His Father's will. The physical pain and suffering of the crucifixion was only a part of that, and a small part of it. The greatest part would be the separation from His Father that He would undergo as He took the sin of the world upon Himself. In that moment, His Father could not look upon Him, and He would suffer separation from His Father, a separation He had never experienced before. This was His deepest suffering, separation from a Father with whom He'd had nothing but oneness with forever. Chris Tiegreen says, "The cross tells us what the Father thinks about our sin." Such is His hate for it that He was willing, in His love, to undergo, along with Jesus, the ultimate suffering, separation from His "only Son." As Tiegreen writes, "He was forsaken so we wouldn't be."

Yet, it isn't about the cross and His suffering that I write today. It's about the cup. Christ's cup. As He tells Peter, it was given to Him by His Father. He took it knowing the terrible consequences of doing so. He took it willingly, and in love, for He knew what all who would believe upon Him and yield to Him would be saved from, eternal darkness and death, and what they would gain in their believing upon Him; eternal Light and Life. So He willingly took the cup.

So many modern preachers like to talk about all that we gain in coming to Christ. The focus is upon all the blessing to be had. When I came to Christ more than 4 decades ago, a regular part of the invitation was that we would come to know "the wonderful plan He had for our lives." We're offered abundant life, and the emphasis is on the abundance. Few mention the cup. We never really believe that the cup He offered the Lord Jesus would be the cup He would also offer us. Even when in Scripture, in response to James and John's request to be seated beside Him in the Kingdom, He asked if they could drink the cup that He Himself would be given. They said they could, and He said they would indeed drink it. They did, and all the suffering that went with it. Somehow, we never believe that such a cup would be given to us in this life. Why? Why do we always think that we, His followers, are above what our Lord Himself walked through? Why do we always think the cross was for Him, but never for us?

The reality for the true disciple of Jesus is the carrying of His cross. To truly follow Him means to walk as He walked where He walked, and that will always lead to our own Calvary. It will mean our taking the cup, in whatever form He gives it to us. It will mean that we will know pain and suffering in the following. It will not be because He desires it for us, but because He will use it to make us more like Christ, and bring us more deeply into Him as we drink that cup. As Sarah Adams wrote in her beautiful hymn, "Nearer my God to Thee, nearer to Thee. Even though it be a cross that raises me." Everything He does with us and in us in this life is always with eternity in view. The cup(s) that He gives us are used of Him to shape us towards that purpose. To refine us, and bring us forth as gold. We come to Him a dross filled people, full of impurities. The cup is used of Him to purify us, but also to accomplish His purposes for and through us in this life, and into eternity beyond. He asks us, as He did James and John, "Will you drink the cup that I have been given?" Will we? Will you, and will I?

I am not seeking to paint a picture of a life that knows nothing but pain, but for the follower of Christ, pain will be a real companion in the following. Following Him will require giving all of ourselves, and that alone will be painful, because to give ourselves to Him means to let go of all that is not Him. We find that out in the drinking of the cup.

If we will follow HIm, we too will be offered a cup. Only He knows what it will be. Jesus knew His before He was given it. He had already yielded Himself up to it's drinking. We must do the same. Have we decided to drink His cup even before He gives it? Or, do we linger in the choosing? If we do, very likely, we'll never drink it. If Christ had not accepted His, what would have been lost? What will be lost if we refuse ours?

Blessings,

Pastor O