The Cup of Christ

Scripture text – Mark 10:35-45

Christine Oscar, pastor of St. Mary's Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, tells this story of her four-year-old niece, Alisha:

One day while babysitting, I fixed the [children] their favorite lunch of burritos and apple juice. As I left the room, I heard four-year-old Alisha begin to celebrate communion with her lunch items. She seemed to have memorized the words of institution quite well, except when it came to the cup. She was heard to say, “And Jesus took the cup, and he blessed it, and he gave God thanks for it, and he said, 'Fill it with Folgers and wake 'em up!'”
-Parables, 10 (July 1990) 8, as reported in Homiletics Online.

I guess that from time to time, we all could use some Folgers in our communion!

Read Mark 10:35-39a

And it seems that the disciples could have used some Folgers 2,000 years ago. In this passage, as in the Matthew equivalent, His small band of followers didn’t quite get what He was saying. “Can you drink the same cup that I will drink?” And the brothers answered, and all too quickly I might add, “Yes, we can!” Now, we have to admire their eagerness to follow Christ’s example – “wherever you go, Lord, we will go; whatever you do, we will do; we’re with you all the way, Lord – you can always count on us!”

How many Christians today have this same attitude? Probably more than we think! And I would also guess that they are, for the most part, fairly new to the faith. Anyone who has walked Christ’s path for any length of time will already know that this is a nearly impossible claim to make with any certainty! Just as soon as we think we are up and running as a believer, we stumble over some huge spiritual obstacle and fall flat on our face. Are we truly able to drink from the same cup that Jesus drinks from? The truth is that we can, but only with His help!
Jesus’ cup can be a rather bitter cup if we let it. Consider Paul’s life, before and after he met the risen Christ on the Damascus Road. Before that meeting, what was his life like? It was really something to watch! He was a rising star!

Read Philippians 3:4-6

Paul had a firm grasp on life, and he was on a down hill pull! But then he decided to go to Damascus to ferret out some more of those “Jesus people” and bring them to justice. And how did his encounter with the Risen Christ change his life? Completely!

Read 2 Corinthians 11:23-30

Talk about drinking from Christ’s cup! And this is the same man, who in his letter to the church in Rome, would write “We .. rejoice in our suffering.” (Romans 5:3-5) He would come to see the glories of his former life as worthless and the suffering in his new life as glory and a reason to rejoice.

Can we ever grow to have that kind of faith? Absolutely. But it requires a complete change in our attitudes, our priorities, our focus, our entire life. We have to understand that the insults and attacks and disbelief that will be directed at us are not for us. Remember Jesus’ words to Paul on the road – “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4) It is Jesus who is bearing the brunt of the disbelief in the world, and it is He who is being tormented. Our place is simply as an intermediary – the messenger who is carrying the messages both ways.
And we all will drink from His cup, but the heavenly honors that we may think we deserve may not be what we will receive.

Read Mark 10:39b-44

Why? Because the glory and honors and rewards of heaven are determined in a totally different manner than those of earth, and the exercise of authority on earth is totally different than that in heaven.
- If you want to be great, you must be a servant to those around you. Note that Jesus doesn’t say that we’re to be a servant first! It’s a servant always!
- If we want to be first in His Kingdom, we must be a slave of all in this one. In the world, slaves come in dead last - they have no rights, no honors, no rewards, and they have only one purpose, and that is to do whatever their master decides that they must do.
Is there any wonder that people of this earth are skeptical about becoming a Christian? This entire approach to faith doesn’t make any sense to them, because they try to understand Jesus in worldly terms!

As an example, I understand that the Quakers sometimes allowed one symbol to be displayed in their barren meeting-halls. It was the picture of an ox between an altar and a plow. And underneath were the words: “Prepared for either.” Sacrifice or service. David thought of himself as a servant of God, and no more; Mary thought of herself as a servant of God, and no more; Paul thought of himself as a servant of Christ, and no more. What was in it for them all? Nothing but betrayals, abuse, suffering, death, and, oh yes, the joy of serving the Lord. (Homiletics Online)

Read Mark 10:45

Jesus thought of himself as a servant of God, and no more, and that defines His Cup. Our servanthood to God becomes evident and real through our servanthood to those in need, to those who are lonely, to those who are hungry, to the destitute, the emotionally wounded, the spiritually lost, and to the least of this world. These are the ones who need our servanthood the most, and they are also the ones who will never be able to repay our service to them. These are the ones who Jesus came for, and they are the ones who Jesus is sending us to. And the mere fact that we have extended the hand of Christ to a hurting world should bring us an incredibly joyful sense that the cup of Jesus Christ that has been held in our hand has just been filled to overflowing.

Jimmy Dean, country-music star, co-wrote a song about celebrating life's little blessings called “Drinking From My Saucer”. The key verse is this one:
So, Lord, help me not to gripe
'Bout the tough rows that I've hoed,
I'm drinking from my saucer
'Cause my cup has overflowed.
(From Homiletics Online)

But our cup can never overflow with Christ’s blessings until we empty our cup of all of our own agenda. James and John had their own plans for eternity – they wanted the glories and honors of earth to be given to them in heaven. They both would soon come to understand, as all of Jesus’ followers would, that earthly standards – both the good and the bad – must stay in earth, and that the rewards of heaven will always be in heaven. Paul’s words “Rejoice in our suffering” don’t mean that we should be happy when we suffer – just that while we are suffering in Jesus’ name, we can rejoice that the glory of heaven is getting a little closer with every step we take. We need to empty our cups of earthly desires, so that God can refill them with His!

The cup of Christ – is it too bitter to swallow for you, or is the taste perfect? For Paul, while he once saw it as a poison, would soon begin to swallow it in great gulps. Can’t each of us do the same?