Jesus was near the end of His ministry. He had shared with His disciples(for the third time), that He was going to be “delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death…they will mock Him, spit on Him, flog Him and kill Him. And after three days He will rise.” (Mark 10:33, 34)
Right after Jesus shared this, James and John, the brothers, asked Jesus if they could sit at His right hand and left hand in Glory. Jesus responded by asking, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the bitter cup I drink, or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” They assured Him they could, but, like many today, they didn’t understand the depth of the bitter cup.
Jesus was hated and killed for declaring Himself to be God. Truth, in the face of lies, brings violence. He knew it would, yet, He still declared it, because He knew it brought Life to those that believe. Missionaries, and Believers world-wide today, are dying daily for declaring this same truth.
He declared that there “is only One way to the Father, and that is through Him.” (John 14:6) This teaching was despised in that day as much as it is now. People like to believe they can decide their own path to Heaven. This “narrow-minded” ideology drives them into attack-mode against anyone who speaks against their belief.
Friends, we have a moral obligation as Children of God to speak truth to a hostile world. Jesus is returning soon, and we want to be able to stand before Him in Heaven and say that we, “shared in the fellowship of His suffering.” That as difficult as it was, we shared about Jesus and His gift of salvation, and though some hated us for it, some listened…
James, was thrown off a pinnacle of the temple, then clubbed to death. (That is still being done in that part of the world). John was put in boiling oil then left to die on the island of Patmos, where he recovered (miraculously) and went on to write the book of Revelation. They both drank of the depths of the bitter cup, and we will taste of it too, to some degree, in our own lives. It’s all part of following Christ.
At the last supper, Jesus reminded them all of a precious truth. He passed the cup and said, “This is My blood of the covenant poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s Kingdom.” (Matthew 26:28, 29)
Dear ones, soon, we will trade the bitter cup of this world for the sweet cup of victory, shared at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. How precious is the thought that He’s waiting with great anticipation for us to share in this celebration TOGETHER. There, “He will make us drink of the River of His pleasures.”(Psalm 36:8)
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