FACING THE CUP

FACING THE CUP by Howard Vanderwell

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” Luke 22:42

Would you have wanted to be with Jesus when he spent his evening out in the Garden of Gethsemane? It apparently was a quiet, pleasant, beautiful place. It was a place someone could go to find peace and serenity.

But not tonight. This was the night for a “cup” in the garden; the cup of sorrow and suffering. Jesus had just identified Judas as his betrayer, warned Peter about his denials, instituted a new covenant, and given the disciples all the instructions they could handle for the night. Now it was time to be alone, alone with his Father, alone to face the cup of suffering that would soon come.
Jesus knew that once the suffering of that cup began to pour out, he would be arrested, taken to trial, beaten, condemned, and crucified. He faced the cup willingly, yet he recoiled from it. He asked for it to be taken from him. But he wanted the Father’s will to be done more than his own. So he accepted the cup that no one else would or could ever want to drink.

Were you there when he faced that cup? Yes, you certainly were. If you trust him as your divine Savior, you were in his mind at that very moment. He was willing to face the cup and experience its suffering for your and my salvation. He knew that our salvation from sin required the payment that only his suffering and death could provide.

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, how I thank you this day for being willing to endure the agony and suffering for my sin! Thank you for making me a child of God. In your name, I pray, Jesus. Amen.