THE LORD’S CUP
By Pastor Jim May
Matthew 26:36-46, "Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, 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 saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding 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: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy. And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going: behold, he is at hand that doth betray me."
The Last Supper in the Upper Room had ended. Jesus had instituted the Communion Service as an ordinance of the church. Judas Iscariot had fled from the room in shame and embarrassment after Jesus exposed his diabolical plot. After Judas left, the other disciples joined in with Jesus and they sang a hymn. The hymn that they sang was not just any song, but it was traditional song that was supposed to be sang on the night every Passover Feast. It was a time honored tradition that the song would ever be combined with the Passover.
The hymn was known as the Hallel and it was a song of praise unto God consisting of six passages from the Book of Psalms; the 113th, 114th, 115th, 116th, 117th, and 118th. It was not sung all at once but in courses or parts. Just before the drinking of the second cup and eating of the lamb, they sung the first part of it, which contained the 113th and 114th Psalms. When they were preparing the last cup of the Passover feast, the fourth cup, then they would complete the "Hallell", by singing the rest of the Psalms, beginning with the 115th Psalm, and ending with the 118th. After the song was completed then there would be a prayer of blessing of the song. Then they might mix a fifth cup, but that they were not obliged to sing a third part of the "great Hallell", or "hymn", which was the 136th Psalm. The last part of the "Hallell" wasn’t sang until the very close of supper because there were many things in it pertaining to Jesus himself. The Jews say that "the sorrows of the Messiah" are contained in this part. It is widely accepted and taught that this “Hallell” would have been the song they sang since all the disciples knew it. Jesus usually conformed to the rites and rituals of the Jewish nation. The final part of the “Hallell” can be completed anywhere, and at any time, but Jesus waited until it was completed and then he and the disciples rose from the table and left the Upper Room.
From the Upper Room Jesus walked to the Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives. This was a place were the oil was pressed from the olives to provide for cooking and lighting. It was no mere coincidence that Jesus came to this Garden. Here he was to begin to feel the pressure of the crushing that was to come. Before the anointing oil of the Holy Ghost could be released to flow like a river into the hearts of men there had to be a time of crushing.
I remember visiting a re-creation of the Garden of Gethsemane at the Great Passion Play in Eureka Springs, Arkansas some years ago. There were olive presses on display. One in particular that I remember was nothing more than a rock base with a funnel coming out of it where the oil would flow into a container. The olives were bundled in a cloth and placed on the rock. Then a long pole would be extended past the point where the pressing would occur and a large rock would be tied to the pole and another would be placed on top of the bundled olives. As the weight of the rock pulled down on the end of the pole, the stone would crush the olives and cause the oil to flow. I can still remember that sight because I thought of the crushing weight of the sin of man that Jesus bore that day. I thought of how he shed his blood crushed under the weight of sin that he carried for the whole world, much as the olive oil is forced from the olives by a very heavy weight ever pressing it harder until all the oil has been forced out.
Jesus was already feeling this weight in his spirit as the time for his crucifixion was drawing ever nearer. He had only a few more hours to go now and God’s plan would be complete.
The crushing weight that Jesus felt wasn’t easy to bear. He needed the help and support of the Father in Heaven, and so it was necessary for him to go aside a little way and to begin to pray.
He took Peter, James and John aside from the other disciples. These had always been a part of an inner circle. These three disciples were the closest friends that Jesus had in this life and now he needed their strength for the ordeal ahead. All he asked them to do was to stay awake and pray with him for the will of God to be done.
Have you ever felt the pressures of life crushing you down? Sometimes God has to turn up the heat under your feet or push down a little harder on your head so that you will finally come to the place where you recognize your need of God. Peter, James and John didn’t feel the pressure. They weren’t the ones who would pay the price. Jesus was carrying this burden all alone, and he would be the only one who could carry it all the way to Calvary.
In the upper room, we saw Jesus lift up the “cup”. It was the cup that would forever represent the blood that he shed for the sins of man. But not there was another cup that he would have to bear. As he looked into that cup and saw what was there, Jesus began to grieve, for he saw the suffering that he must endure. His soul was sorrowful and a great spirit of heaviness came over him like a death pall. He prayed harder than ever before because the weight of the world that was crushing him was more than a mortal man can bear.
That’s when he went back to see Peter, James and John and found them sleeping. It wasn’t any surprise that they were asleep. After all they had traveled all during the day, then stayed up late with Jesus, eaten a big dinner and had a good time. Now they were sleepy. How many of you can relate to that?
That’s one of the hardest things about working on a sermon on Sunday afternoon. With the work schedule that I keep, I am required to stay at the church almost every Sunday afternoon to prepare the message for Sunday night. After eating lunch, it’s sometimes a major struggle just to stay awake, much less write a sermon. I can certainly identify with the sleeping disciples.
Come on Peter, come on James, come on John – can’t you just pray for one hour? I need your prayers. You need your prayers. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
Jesus prayed for the cup to pass from him but realized that it could not. There would never be another chance for a Savior. This was God’s one chance to bring salvation to humanity. There could be no turning back now.
Jesus began to sweat as it were great drops of blood – a condition that most medical doctors say only happens when a person is under extremely stressful conditions mixed with extreme grief. Jesus knew the price had to be paid and the Spirit of God in him wanted to pay the price, but the body of flesh that he had didn’t want to suffer any more than you or I would want to. Through all the grief and suffering Jesus kept on course, determined to see the will of the Father go forth at all costs. The die had been cast, the decision was made, now in only a few hours, it would all be over. But what terrible hours those next few hours would be!
Three times Jesus prayed for the cup to pass from him, and all three times the answer was no! The price had to be paid and Jesus was the only one who could ever pay it.
What did Jesus see in that cup? What was it that made him grieve so? What was it that brought such heaviness to his soul?
1) He saw the debt of sin that mankind owed to God but could never pay. What a debt that was. Because of Adam’s fall, every human being on the face of the earth, was guilty of sin and deserved death. Not one man could ever buy his way out. Not one man could ever serve his way out. There was just no possibility of escaping the judgment to come to all who were in sin. Jesus knew that he had to take on that load all alone.
I can’t begin to imagine what it must have felt like to have to carry every sin, that every man alive had, or would ever, commit and to carry that guilt and shame all at once. Jesus was not guilty of sin. There was no shame in his life. But he took all of ours upon himself and carried it all the way to the cross where it was crucified with Christ, once and for all.
2) He saw the pain of suffering of souls in hell and he knew that the only way for any of us to escape those flames was to pay the price of our redemption. Oh how heavy that burden, that pain, that load of sin and that grief for the lost souls of men, must have been.
I have a hard enough time bearing the load for my own faults, my own sin. I can’t imagine the pain and the load that Jesus bore for the whole world. There’s no doubt that it was a crushing and terrible sorrow that Jesus felt. His deep sobs and deep distress, through the veil of the flesh, was almost enough to kill him where he knelt and prayed, but that was not to be. His life couldn’t be taken from him, he had to give it willingly, so he determined in his own mind to continue to walk on toward Calvary’s cross.
3) He saw the great gulf that separated God and the Heavenly realms from the pits of hell and knew that he had to bridge the gap. On one end he knew, and perhaps even felt the pangs of death as Satan was doing his best to destroy him. But on the other hand, Jesus also knew the glories of Heaven and that his plan would never fail. He would surely give up the ghost and his body would lie in a grave for 3 days, but his soul would never die and through his sacrifice no man would ever have to die again. Man would never have to experience that great gulf of separation from everything that is good and holy. Jesus was determined to bridge the gap for the sake of all mankind.
4) He saw the pain and suffering of all mankind in all manner of sickness and diseases. Jesus knew that unless he was to complete the plan of God, going all the way to the cross, that mankind would suffer far more than was necessary because the devil has no limits. He would have to bear the stripes in Pilate’s Hall for the healing of the nations. No one could pay that price but Jesus.
5) He saw the dark clouds of separation that would come between the Son of God and the Father in Heaven for even one brief moment as the sin of the world was placed upon him at the cross. The Father could not stop the execution of his own Son because the world needed a Savior and Jesus was our only chance. Not for one moment, in all the eons of eternity past had The Father and Son not communed together. Father, Son and Holy Ghost were inseparable, always agreeing, always as One for they are One. But now there would be a time of separation. Jesus knew the time would come when he would cry out, “My God, My God, Why hast thou forsaken me”? For a moment that eternal tie would be broken as the debt of sin was paid in blood.
Jesus saw all of these things in his cup and it was all of those things that caused him to want the cup to pass from him, but he knew it could not and so the pressure increased as he prayed until finally, when the prayer had ended, the matter had been forever settled. There was no turning back now. His next step was up the hill to Golgotha and he knew it was about time to go.
At the entrance to the Garden below, beyond where the disciples were resting in a deep sleep, Jesus could see the torches of the Temple Guard and Judas as they came ever nearer. He didn’t turn and run. He didn’t blink and eye. He stood there, as Peter and others began to wake up to the noise of the approaching crowd.
The flesh may have been weak, but Spirit was Stronger than ever. Jesus was steeled for the road again. His face was set like flint toward Calvary and the cross where he would die for you and I.
As the guards came near and asked for Jesus – with a word from his mouth we see the power of Almighty God in a small manner. When he spoke, all the guards fell backward. With one word of his mouth he could have driven them far away. With one word of his mouth, the Heavenly host of angels would have come to his side, but with one word of his mouth, Jesus surrendered his will to the Father and started for Calvary.
Lord, help us to set our course in stone and set our face like flint to do the will of God. Help us to not allow the grief and pressures of life to change our mind and change our course.
Paul said in Philippians 3:10-11, "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead."
We all want to know him in the resurrection. We want to experience that great power of life that Jesus has and that he has given to all those who trust and believe in Him.
We don’t even mind the part about being made conformable unto his death, for we know that there is no escaping the inevitable death that waits for all of us. We reason that death is only one short step from eternal glory and so we face it without fear knowing that Jesus is waiting on the other side.
But what we don’t want to know is the fellowship of his sufferings. How many of us want to suffer for Christ?
Oh we call it suffering if the air-conditioning goes out on a hot summer day, or the heater doesn’t work on a cold winter night. We call it suffering if we have to do without some of the world’s goods. But that’s not suffering for Christ!
Knowing Jesus in the fellowship of his sufferings is to look into that same cup that Jesus saw. Identifying with the suffering Savior means that we must have a love for the lost, and a love for being close to God, and that we must grieve for those who don’t have those things. We must grieve over the sin of this world and seek the face of God continually for his will to be done in us.
Most of us are willing to accept the Lord’s blessings and the great salvation that he has purchased for us, but how many are willing to accept the Lord’s Cup?
Lord, help us to pray, help us to wait with you, help us to care, help us to bear the burdens you bore for lost humanity. Help us to draw ever closer to you. AMEN!
