Complimentary Story
“And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when He will return from the wedding; that when He cometh and knocketh, they may open unto Him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that He shall gird Himself, and make them sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.”Being ready is being one with our Father, making it a priority to know His purpose and His plans. And in His absence a faithful servant is always busy about the Father’s business! Growing in knowledge and strength of spirit: filled with the wisdom and grace of our Father.
And when He returns He will gird Himself and serve us. Those unprepared will be left out! Blessed are those servants which he finds faithful. To be ready is to know, believe, trust, and obey the Fathers will. Jesus said in John 14:15, “If ye love Me keep My commandments.” That is what a faithful servant does.
Jesus was asked by the mother of James and John in Matthew 20;20-28; if He would let her two sons sit one on the right and one on the left in his kingdom. “But Jesus answered (them) and said, ‘Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ They said unto Him, ‘We are able.’” Did they really understand what Jesus just asked?
“And He said unto them, ‘Ye shall drink indeed of My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.’”
Several questions arise. First; What is in the cup that Jesus would drink, and that they shall indeed also drink? Second; What is the baptism which Jesus was already baptized with, that they shall indeed be baptized with. Third; What determines who sits where, the least to the greatest, in heaven?
The Cup
The next mention of this cup is in Luke 22 at the last Passover and Jesus with His disciples. With a more detailed account found in Matthew 26:17-35. Verses 27, 28; “And He took the cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink ye all of it; for this is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission (forgiveness) of sins.’” This cup obviously is only a symbol of the cup He is to later agonize over. The emphasis is not placed on the contents of the cup, but what it represents, just as it is similarly used many times in the Old Testament.
In the Psalms, they use the term as the cup of devastation, the cup of our inheritance, my cup of provisions that runneth over, the cup of salvation, the cup of God’s fury, the cup of trembling, the cup of consolation, and the cup of punishment.
The prophets also used this term as the cup of astonishment, the cup of shame, the cup of indignation, the cup of the fierceness of God’s wrath, and the cup of abomination and filthiness.
So when Jesus took the cup in Matthew 26:28, it represented the blood of the Passover Lamb of God. It is representative of what Jesus and the Father knew He had to drink even before creation for Him to be the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
The Baptism
The baptism by which He was baptized, and the cup that He came to this earth as the Son of man to drink, is described by the Apostle Paul in Philippians 2:6-8. “While being (totally) God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,” gave up that right, and became a total servant to His Father. As Jesus said in John 8:28, 29, “I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father hath taught Me, I speak those things. And He that sent He (as his representative) is with Me: the Father hath not left Me alone; for I do always those things that please Him.”
Philippians 2:7, 8, “And was made in the likeness of a man: and being found in fashion as a man.” The Greek words for likeness and fashion both imply an image, His physical appearance, all that is intrinsic with sustaining a physical body, was all man. But He himself, what one might refer to as His soul was all God. But for a time while He walked among man, He gave up that right to be equal to the Father, and lived as a man totally dependant on the Father and the Holy Spirit. Surrendered, and baptized by the Holy Spirit, He lived totally obedient to the Father’s will. He “humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
The cup of the Father’s wrath of which we are all deserving, and which will also be poured out upon those described in Revelation 14:10.
Those who worship the beast and his image, “The same shall drink the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture (unadulterated wrath) into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.”
Again in Revelation 16:19, “The great Babylon came in rememberance before God, to give unto her the cup of wine of the fierceness of his wrath.” And this woman, (Revelation 17:4, 5) “Having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication.” With her name written upon her forehead; “Mystery, Babylon the Great, The Mother of Harlots and Abomination of the Earth.”
Yes, the wages of sin is death by the wrath of God. For all have sinned falling very short of His glory, and without hope! Except the Son of God drink the cup of the Fathers wrath, He would be absolutely unjust to forgive anyone. But in so doing, He has paid the ransom giving Him the right and the authority to forgive and set us free.
The cup is not something Jesus welcomed. Matthew 26:36-39 described His apprehension as He gets closer to the time He is to drink of the cup of wrath. He asks the disciples to “Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then He said unto them, ‘My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death, tarry ye here, and watch with Me.’ And He went a little further, and fell on His face, and prayed saying, ‘O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.’”
Luke also makes this observation of Jesus as He prayed, “And being an agony He prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Jesus, continuing His prayer in Matthew 26: 39, “Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”
Matthew 26:42, “He went away again the second time (from His disciples after finding them all sleeping) and prayed, saying, ‘O My Father, if this cup may not pass from Me, except I drink it, Thy will be done.”
John writes this statement made by Jesus (John 18, 11) after being arrested with Peter cutting off the ear of Malchus. “Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which My Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” And drink it He did, out of obedience as total servant to the Father.
He humbled Himself surrendering even to the death of the cross. This is the baptism which Jesus was baptized with and the cup that He would drink. What, then is the baptism, they and we eventually are to be baptized with? And what is the cup which they and we eventually are to drink the contents thereof?
What of this statement by Jesus? “But to sit on My right hand, and on My left, is not Mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.” What, then, determines who is the greatest to sit on his right or left in his kingdom?
To be Continued
