Drinking the Cup

Notes for the Ekklesia Meeting
Sundays @ 10:00 a.m. Info: (651) 283-0568 Discipleship Training Ministries, Inc www.dtminc.org Today’s Date: May 21, 2006

Drinking the Cup
by Dan Trygg

"And taking with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, He began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then He said to them, ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with Me.’ 39 And going a little farther He fell on his face and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.’ 40 And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And He said to Peter, ‘So, could you not watch with me one hour? 41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ 42 Again, for the second time, He went away and prayed, ‘My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, Your will be done.’" Matthew 26:37-42

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted." Hebrews 12:1-3

Often, in our desire to honor and magnify Jesus, we lose sight of a critical aspect of His story. He became human. The writer to the Hebrews explains the rationale for the necessity of Jesus’ humanness in 2:9-18. He partook of flesh and blood so that, through His death, He might render Satan powerless. In this way, He might deliver us who, by virtue of our fear of death, have been held in captivity and slavery to the devil all of our lives. Therefore, the writer says, He was obligated to be made like us in every way, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest before God, to make a satisfactory atoning sacrifice for our sins (to pay the legal price for our sins). AND, since He was tempted in the things He suffered, He is able to come to our help when we are tempted.

A key ingredient of what we are told here is that Jesus came to deliver us from the fear of death, so that we would no longer be held captive or be enslaved by the devil. It is not by coincidence that, when Satan and his demonic host were thrown down from heaven in Rev. 12, the voice from heaven declared that those who get victory over him do so because of the blood of the Lamb (legal price paid by Jesus) and because of the word of their testimony (their affirmation that they have personally become a Christ-follower) and because they did not love their life even to death (they preferred to follow Christ no matter what). Victory over the enemy comes in no other way. We need to personally be redeemed and protected by the blood of Christ, and we must choose to put aside any obstacle to obedience, no matter what the cost.

Remember what Jesus said? "He who loves his or her natural-self-life ruins it; but the one who hates (disregards) his or her self-life in this world will protect it for eternal life" (Jn. 12:25). In this context, Jesus is explaining a foundational principle of how the power of the kingdom of God is released in this world. Using the example of a grain of wheat, Jesus pointed out that unless the seed went through death and burial, it would remain alone; but if it dies, it will bear much fruit. Jesus was speaking not only of the impact of His life, laid down on our behalf, but also concerning the impact of our own lives. If we are willing to lay down our self-agenda (our fear of death) to follow God, others will come to life as a result. The problem for us is that God’s ways are often counter intuitive. They go against our natural desire to protect self-interest. We must die to self, to experience resurrection life from God.

This brings us right back to Jesus’ struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane. The very name of the place was a word picture of what was happening within its enclosure. "Gethsemane" means "oil press", a place where olives were broken, crushed and pressed in order that the precious oil within could be released and gathered up. Jesus was experiencing a pressing and crushing process, emotionally and spiritually, …the beginning of the agony which would bring our deliverance from death and the release of the life of the Spirit on our behalf.

The inner turmoil had actually come upon Him at times before. He had been speaking to His disciples about His suffering and death at the hands of the authorities for nearly a year, since the time of Peter’s confession at Caesarea Philippi (Matt. 16:21). As the time approached, this inner struggle increased. On Palm Sunday, He told His disciples, "Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour?’ But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name" (Jn. 12:27,28). Again, at the last supper, He "became troubled in spirit", as He told His followers that one of them would betray Him (Jn. 13:21).

Now, as they entered the "oil press", the weight of His agony began to come upon Him in fuller measure. He left eight disciples by the entry and retreated further into the garden with Peter, James and John in order to pray. At that point, He began to become very sorrowful and uncomfortable. He told them that His soul (natural-self) was deeply grieved (the word implies "encompassed or surrounded by grief or sorrow"), to the very point of death. This agitation and grief increased so much that Luke records that He actually began to sweat blood, with great clots of it falling from His body along with His sweat. This condition has been documented as occurring under extreme duress.

This is recorded for us so that we would know the level of deep struggle and discomfort He endured.

Why is this so important? Because we must know and be assured that He went through something that was even greater than our worst trials or nightmares. Why do we need to know this? Because He is to be our example and guide when we are facing difficulty and inner struggle.

Did you ever face something where you felt like you would just die if you didn’t give in to your desire to deliver yourself? Do you know that agitation of soul when trying to hold out against temptation? Have you experienced incapacitating fear or dread at facing some kind of difficult circumstance? Ever feel like you want to turn around and run the other way? Ever felt like you would "die a thousand deaths" if you had to go through some embarrassing circumstance, or own up to some disappointing failure in your life?

Jesus was facing all of that, and more. He was going to die the deaths of several billion people, so they wouldn’t have to. In fact, He was going to take the punishment of hell for them. The Bible says that the punishment that was due them was laid upon Him (Isa. 53:4-6), including yours and mine. He who knew no sin was about to become sin on our behalf (II Cor. 5:21). He was going to feel slimed, dirty, …and be treated with wrath by the Father. He was going to be rejected and abandoned by both God and people.

Just in the natural alone, He knew full well what was awaiting him. He was going to be beaten, abused, spit upon, stripped and hung naked, exposed and helpless before hundreds of passersby. He was going to be mocked and jeered at by His enemies. He was going to experience the most horrendous shame and the most excruciating death imaginable.

This was the "cup" He was asked to drink. He had to choose it voluntarily.

Take note of Jesus’ very human struggle in the garden. "Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from Me…" He did not want to go through with this. He did not want to experience the pain, or endure the shame, that awaited Him. Now, I said that Jesus was to be our guide and example.

What did He do when He faced His deepest struggle?

(1.) He shared His burden with others, and asked them to pray. We also need to get others into the loop for support and accountability.

(2.) Then, He brought the matter to God Himself, because it can only be settled there with Him. He asked for prayer support, but then He got alone with God to hear from Him directly. He couldn’t afford to rely simply on the opinions of others. That was already evident from past experience (Matt. 16:21-23; cf. Acts 20:22,23; 21:10-14).

Jesus did more than pray once, however. He advocated two other things:

(3.) Watchfulness and

(4.) Perseverance in prayer. "Stay alert and continue to pray that you may not enter into temptation…" (Matt. 26:41). Jesus saw the need for ongoing alertness and ongoing prayer to avoid being caught up into temptation. By His example, it is also what you must do to weather the test. We must not be naïve, as though the prayer will keep us from being tested. Rather, the prayer will ready us to discern and deal with temptation when it comes.

(5.) Avoid the temptation, if possible. How many times did Jesus do that? Jesus’ often left the scene in order to avoid being pulled into conflict (e.g., Jn. 4:1-3). Notice what He says, "Watch and pray in order that you might not enter into the test." Tests will come, but we should turn away from them, not allow ourselves to be teased by them, or be worn down by allowing negative thoughts or people to continue to pummel us. Don’t go in into the temptation.

In fact, we are to do exactly the opposite, we are to (6.) look for the way out. The apostle Paul tells us that God will provide a way out, an egress, so that we might be able to bear up under it" (I Cor. 10:13). The word used by Paul is not the normal word for endurance ("remain under"). This word is from a root word meaning to "lift, bear, lead or carry away" with a prefix "under". The idea is that we might bear up under and carry the weight until we can get out of the situation, …not that we would remain in the test.

(7.) Know your limitations. Our abilities are limited. "…for on the one hand the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Jesus knew that our inner person wishes to do right, but we get drawn away by the weaknesses of the flesh. This was Jesus’ dilemma here in the garden. His spirit wanted to do the Father’s will, but His flesh drew back in fear and dread. Don’t depend on self-will alone to carry you through, because your sinful heart is deceitful (Jer. 17:9). If you are having difficulty, take steps to get help or get out of the situation, if possible. At least, get a break.

(8.) Submit to God. How do we do that? Go to the Father and verbalize to Him that you want to do His will. "Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will." Jesus verbalized His submission to the Father three times on this occasion (Matt. 26:39,42; Mk. 14:39). Doing the will of God is of premier importance. We will never lose if we obey Him. He will never cheat us. Satan will. He is a thief and a con man who wants to steal from us, kill us and ruin our lives. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who has shown us that the heart of God is to love us, bless us and lead us in ways that are good (Jn. 10:10,11; Psa. 23).

(9.) Pray through to victory. Jesus exemplifies the experience to which many others have also testified. At times, it is possible to pray through to victory. Jesus came to the place of total submission, of death to self-will and a resolve to serve His Father no matter what.

(10.) Press through to a vision of the blessings of obedience. The text from Hebrews tells us that He rose from prayer with joy in His heart. He was able to see with God’s viewpoint. Thus, the shame and abuse He faced were put into the perspective of eternity, where they paled into insignificance (Rom. 8:18; II Cor. 4:16-18).