The Cup

But Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath! Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?”   – John 18:11, NET

I would be like Peter, too.

Quick to defend Jesus, to spare Him from suffering. To slash away discomfort and pain.

But would I be like Jesus, rebuking any thought other than the will of my Father?

“Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?”

It’s one thing to say I’m a child of God, and another to take and drink the dregs of suffering.

But drink Jesus did—even when it burned His throat and stung His eyes. Even when it struck and sliced His heart.

This cup was from me.

This cup was for me.

This cup was for you, too.

“For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him.”  –  John 3:16-17

For God didn’t send Him to condemn, but to save.

Jesus drank the cup to call us home.

The only way to save was through suffering.

The only way.

Because when Jesus poured out His tears facedown in a garden, His shaking lips asked for another way. His sweat swam crimson down His skin, and somehow He was able to utter, “Yet not my will, but Yours.” (Luke 22:42)

The will of the Father was the cup He didn’t want, but Jesus held it in His hands and drank. For you. For me. For us all.

He willingly was led to this cup of suffering, 100% in control and 100% surrendered.

How surrendered am I to the One who swallowed the poison and stepped into the grave and swallowed up death and sin so that cup would never pass my lips?

What does He ask of me, of my heart and my obedience? What keeps me from “Your will be done” in my own life?

For the joy set out for him he endured the cross…” – Hebrews 12:2

For the joy, Jesus drank the Father’s cup. The road to joy was paved with pain. Purpose, yes, but also pain.

Jesus gave Himself—emptied Himself—so I could gain everything.

I would be like Peter, quick to defend. I’d like to be like Jesus, too. God willing, may I release control and surrender in obedience to the Father who made a way for me and the Son who showed me how to get there.