John 18:11- “The cup which the Father has given Me.”- But a few hours previously Christ had Himself given a cup to His disciples, in the drinking of which they should for all time commemorate His dying love. In the light of this experience, they were be better able to grasp the import of these His words, which interpret all that has hitherto been inexplicable in Him. For His whole life of temptation and toil is as a cup which has been put into His hand by the Father. Hence His willingness to drain it to the dregs. His heroism is entirely explicable in the light of the love which He bore, and by which also He was sustained. He knew nothing of second causes and in consequence staggered not at any experience however seemingly untoward. The last bitter draining of the cup is not to Him as defeat in an unequal contest with the world, but as glorious triumph of love and loyalty. Thus, in devotion to the Father, He “tasted death for every man.” And His cup of death has in an inexplicable way opened for us the fountain of life. In their wilder application to the lives of His disciples, these His words define that attitude of submission and trust which conditions a life of peace and power. Those who seek to live in fellowship with Him are still asked: “Can ye drink of the cup that I drink?”—not that of suffering merely, but of life measured and mixed by the will of God. Only as we accept and drink it, do we find that accession of power for service and sacrifice which makes possible the blessing of other lives through ours. For this is the cup whose draught unfailingly stimulates. It is always possible, however, to turn from love’s cup in favor of the world’s soothing or intoxicating wines, though to do so is to unwittingly drink to our own destruction. – J. Stuart Holden, “The Gospels Opened”
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 10:16:52 +0000
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