Drink This Cup

Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Him with her sons kneeling down and asking something from Him. And He said to her, “What do you wish?” She said to Him, “Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom.” But Jesus answered and said “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to Him, “We are able.” So He said to them, “You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am with; but to sit on My right hand of My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by My Father.” Matthew 20:20-23

Often one will hear the phrase “drink this cup,” yet many do not realize the true meaning behind this saying. When it comes to Scripture, the phrase “drink this cup” deals with sorrow. The joys of life also come with the pains of sorrow. Of course it’s not an actual physical cup, but it’s a spiritual cup; a cup we can’t see but can really feel. Not only did Jesus die for our sins, He also took within Himself your and my present-day sorrow and anguish. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was under so much agony and stress, the Bible describes him as “his sweat was as it were great drops of blood…(Luke 22:44)”

I remember seeing, when I was young, my mother making herself a cup of coffee. She used an old percolator, into which she would hand-spoon the coffee. For several minutes, I would sit there and watch as the percolator slowly began to work. I would watch the water pop-up through the glass piece on the top. Soon, I noticed that the water turned brown, then black -- the normal color for coffee. Somehow mom knew when to remove the percolator from the stove. I watched her pour the coffee into her cup, adding milk and sugar.

After years had passed, I would learn how to fix my own cup of percolated coffee. I would add sugar and milk until it tasted the way I loved it -- sweet. Yet I always noticed that in the bottom of every cup, bitter tasting grounds would collect. No matter how sweet the coffee, the grounds were always bitter. That’s how the cup we drink with Jesus is. It’s full of goodness (sweetness) and sorrow (bitterness), all within the same cup. We drink His cup by accepting Him into our life. He drank our cup by going to the cross.

He felt our sorrow and anguish back in Gethsemane. Today He still feels it whenever you and I experience grief, anger, sorrow, loss, etc. When we feel grief, He feels grief. When we feel depressed, He feels depressed. When we feel stressed, He feels stressed. He feels these things with us because He drank the cup for us…and with us. He totally understands how you feel at the moment, because He feels what you are feeling at this moment also. He understands, because He is feeling it with you. It’s a supernatural thing.

During those times, we’re to approach Jesus and ask Him for His help. He then joins us and walks alongside us through the stress, anger, and depression that confront us. Whenever you experience these feelings, remember that Jesus felt them first; and He is feeling them again with you-here and now.

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