Let this Cup Pass from Me
by Terry Wane Benton
What did Jesus mean when He prayed three times in the Garden of Gethsemane to “Let this cup pass from me?” (Matthew 26:39). It is a metaphor for having to experience something very dreadful. When we experience something bitter and horrible to our senses, we could metaphorically say that we have to drink a repulsive cup. When we lost our son, you could say that we had to drink an awful cup of heartache and grief. It was a cup that we surely wanted to pass from us. Nobody desires to experience such, and so it is a cup of experience we would rather pass from us. Nobody likes the devastation and hardship of war in their area. The famine, misery, disease, and carnage are a cup we would rather pass from us. It is a cup we would rather not have to drink.
There was a cup Jesus dreaded as a man. But as holy God, it had to be repulsive to the core of His being. It was not just the scourging and the nails and the pain of crucifixion, but far more than the physical pain was the dread of taking on sin. Sin is repulsive to God. It is like a putrid disease. Jesus dreads the association of sin with His holy being. To save us, He had to experience the dreaded association of sin and death. The sinless paying for the sinful. The innocent stepped in to pay for the guilty, many of whom He knew wouldn’t care and wouldn’t obey the terms of pardon. Still, nobody could be justly forgiven without this payment. The dread was still real, and a part of Him wanted to avoid it if possible, and the other part of Him resolved to accept the cup so dreaded because He knew it was the divine will over the human will.
A parallel of this metaphor is seen in Ezekiel 23:31-35. Israel (northern ten tribes) had drunk a bitter cup of war and devastation. That cup had passed Judah (southern two tribes) for a number of years. But the time of their war and misery had come because of their own apostasy. God, through Ezekiel, said, “therefore I will put her (Israel’s) cup in your (Judah’s) hand”….. “You will drink your sister’s cup.” He said of this cup that it was “a deep and wide one” and that they would be held in derision, filled with drunkenness and sorrow, and that it would be “the cup of horror and desolation,” and “you shall bear the penalty.” The Babylonians would soon come upon them and bring the penalty of their error upon them. It was a cup very similar to the cup that her sister drank during the Assyrian invasion. Thus, you can see the metaphor of “the cup” being an experience that they should dread.
Jesus was taking the bitter experience of paying the price of death for sin as if He was guilty, though He was not guilty. The chastisement was for our peace (Isaiah 53). It was to satisfy the need for justice and mercy in one fell swoop. Even though it was repulsive and horrifying, the resignation of Jesus to go through with it shows that Jesus passed the test of love over convenience. As Abraham passed the test of his love for God over his son, so God passed the test of love for us over preserving His Son from the horrors of taking on the penalty of sin. He drank the cup because His love was of the highest and purest quality. He drank a bitter cup for you. It is now up to you to show a love that passes the tests of this world for Him. We too have a cup to drink. Will it be your will over God’s will?
