What is this cup that Jesus speaks of with such dread? Jesus is referring to something that both Isaiah and Jeremiah alluded to. In ancient times, people struggled with ‘the problem of evil’ just as philosophers do today: “How can a good and all-powerful God observe all the evil in the world without doing anything?” Isaiah and Jeremiah answered this burning question by using the symbol of a cup (Isaiah 51; Jeremiah 25; Cf. Revelation 16). In this cup, they said, all the guilt of the nations was cumulating and one day God would make them drink the consequences of their evil. They described the horrors of this cup and the torment of those who would have to drink it. This is the cup that Jesus is speaking of. He is facing the prospect of taking this cup and drinking it himself so that human beings would not have to suffer the consequences of their actions. We all deserve to reap what we have sown. The root evil of all evils is rejecting God and living autonomously and independently. All other evils stem from this. We have all done that and the consequences are beyond what we can fathom. There is, waiting for each person, a cup that contains the consequences of our rejection of God. But Jesus takes that cup for everyone who will turn back to God and trust him for their salvation. Jesus did this for us. He drained that cup so that on the day of judgement we will find it empty. There will be no judgement to suffer because Jesus drank the cup for us. Who would not accept that gift?
Thank Jesus for what he has done for you.
Read Luke 22:39-46
