09/16/2021
Drinking from the Lord’s Cup Can Be Dangerous
The Hebrew word for “cup” is כּוֹס (kôs). If people associate the Lord’s cup with any verse in the Old Testament, it’s usually Psalm 23:5, “My cup runneth over.” Of course, this is a positive image.
In the majority of Old Testament verses about the Lord’s cup, however, drinking from it was not something you wanted to do. Indeed, often it meant you were swallowing judgment, wrath, and death.
Consider this sampling of verses (there are many more):
• Psalm 11:6, “Let him rain coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.”
• Psalm 75:8, “For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.”
• Isaiah 51:17, “Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering.”
• Jeremiah 25:15, “Thus the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them.”
• Habakkuk 2:16, “You will have your fill of shame instead of glory. Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision! The cup in the LORD’s right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory!
Knowing this OT background is crucial for understanding our Lord’s words in the Garden of Gethsemane when he prays, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matt. 26:39). Or when Jesus tells James and John, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” (Mark 10:38).
The cup which Jesus drained was the cup of the Lord’s wrath and judgment. The cross was a chalice, filled to the brim, which Jesus placed to his lips and emptied, down to the last drop.
That is why “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). The cup has been emptied.
But the cup has also been filled—filled with the Lord’s blessings of peace, justification, life, forgiveness, and healing. This is the cup which we bless and drink from at every celebration of the Lord’s Supper. The cup which Jesus, quite fittingly, told us is his blood. The very blood shed on the cross—when Jesus drained the cup of wrath—now fills the cup with blessings.
“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Psalm 34:8).
