Tag Archives: Seven Last Words of Jesus

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The Offering of Self

The Offering of Self

“Father into your hands I commit/commend my Spirit.” The verse is translated in different versions using both words. They are both instructive.

The Oxford Dictionary defines commit as “to bind (a person or an organization) to a certain course…,” and it defines commend as “to entrust someone or something to.”

Whenever we have a funeral service at the church followed by the interment of the body at the graveside or in the memorial garden, we go through two liturgical acts: the Commendation and the Committal. The Commendation is where we entrust our loved one and our grieving hearts to the Lord. The Committal is where we bind our loved one’s body to its final resting place in the ground or some other resting place.

The action of commendation and committal are both taking place on the Cross in Jesus’ prayer. In absolute faith, Jesus is entrusting Himself to the Father’s good hands. By entrusting Himself, He is also committing or binding Himself in mystical reunion with the Father. In commending Himself, He is committing himself.

Jesus’ dead, fleshly body would be committed to a stone-cold tomb.

Now there was a man named Joseph, from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He was a member of the council, a good and righteous man, who had not consented to their decision and action; and he was looking for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid. –Luke 23:50-53

But, in His prayer Jesus is not speaking of the commitment of His Body to a grave as we do in the funeral service. The focus of Jesus is on the continuance of His Life! He is committing His Spirit to reunion with the Father. The body of Jesus is mortal, but His spirit is not.

The same is true of us. Our bodies are mortal. No matter how committed we are to proper stewardship of the body, to keeping them healthy, strong and alive, they are finite, limited in use and doomed to fail us. However, we are more than mere bodies. We have a spiritual nature, given to us by God.

The care and stewardship of our spirit is of much greater importance than the care of our physical well being. Our spirits are made for eternal life! This is why Paul writes to his young protégé Timothy:

…for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. –1 Timothy 4:8

Soul care begins with a commitment. Have you made the first commitment of completely and totally entrusting your spirit to the good hands of the Father and His covenantal love? Total surrender is difficult.

Trust comes hard for human beings, especially for those who have been hardened by the sufferings of this world. Total trust of the Father will then require your total commitment to union with Him, His Holy Spirit united in purpose and character with your Spirit. Today ask the Lord to renovate your heart beginning with commending and committing your life to God.

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Hope on the Cross

Father, into your hands I commit My Spirit!

It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.

Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.

Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things. –Luke 23:44-49

Hope on the Cross

Jesus sixth saying from the Cross is a prayer of surrender and trust. Jesus prayed:

Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit

His cry is found in Psalm 31:5: “Into your hands I commit my spirit, for you have redeemed me, O Lord, Faithful God.” Out of a place of deep distress of body and soul, the Psalmist prays in lament and petition: “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also.” (Psalm 31:9) Out of the anguish of the Dark Night of the Soul, Psalmist’s Spirit is liberated to be completely and totally surrendered to steadfast Love of God.

Make your face shine on your servant;
save me in your steadfast love! –Psalm 31:16

Out of the depths of Spiritual Abandonment, God brings the soul of the believer to a place of surrender and Divine Reunion. The word translated in our English versions as “steadfast love” is the Hebrew word Chesed, (pronounced with a hard “h” from the back of the throat: khesed, or ẖesed). Teachers of the Old Testament have long recognized this as the primary posture of God toward humans, and the essential virtue to be emulated in our lives. The Jewish Rabbi Simlai expounded: “The Torah begins and ends with chesed.”

God is absolutely faithful and steadfast in His covenantal love toward His people. As Paul reflects on Divine Love in 1 Corinthians 13:7-8:

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

Out of the deep anguish of His soul, Jesus arrives at a place of absolute confidence in the Father’s steadfast love for Him. He places His total trust in a posture of surrender and absolute trust. Through the Cross, Jesus understood God to be imminently trustworthy and good—worthy of trust.

Though you may be going through a time of evil and difficulty, God remains steadfast in His love for you. The very sufferings that you are going through can and will be used by God to pour out His abundant love on you. This is why Paul encourages us to rejoice in our sufferings knowing the ultimate outcome for us in them:

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. –Romans 5:3-8

The ultimate act of chesed, covenantal steadfast love, is in Jesus’ surrender unto death for you. Christ died for you. He absolutely surrendered His Spirit to His Father for your sake, so that you would absolutely surrender your Spirit for His sake.

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The Dark Night of the Soul

The Dark Night of the Soul

As Jesus hangs there on the Cross the text tells us that darkness covered the land for three hours–that would be the hours of noon to 3:00 pm–the sixth to the ninth hour.

The significance of the darkness could be none other than that of judgment. The Day of the Lord had come. In Amos 8:9 we read:

“On that day, says the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will bring sackcloth on all loins and baldness on every head. I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.”

The darkness that had covered the land had come. The judgment of God against that age would all be leveled upon the Son of God, utterly forsaken. As Jesus bore the pain of the cross, we hear the cry of distress in His fleshly nature with “I thirst.” But when he cries,

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

we hear the cry of abandonment in His spiritual nature. Christian Mystics have long recognized the reality of both physical and spiritual deprivation in human journey toward full union with God.

The 16th Century Spanish, Roman Catholic poet and mystic St. John of the Cross wrote a poem entitled, “The Dark Night of the Soul”. From his prologue, he describes the content of the poem as“describing the method followed by the soul in its journey upon the spiritual road to the attainment of the perfect union of love with God, to the extent that is possible in this life.” The poem is divided into two books: the first book addresses the distress of the senses; the second speaks to abandonment of the spirit.

The Dark Night of physical distress has the sanctifying effect of helping the soul detach from its dependency to the world by purifying the senses from the controlling effects of pride, avarice, luxury, gluttony, anger, envy and laziness. The physical and spiritual manifestations of these are hindrances and blocks to union with the Lord. As the Scripture teaches, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” God transfers the longing of the flesh and the senses to the Spirit. The thirst for earthly water is transfigured into a thirst for Living Water.

The Dark Night of spiritual abandonment has another sanctifying purpose in our lives: to liberate from the troublesome states that beguile the soul, such as depression, anxiety, grief and other forms of despondency. One way to think about it is the necessary step in early childhood of working through separation anxiety. Though a parent physically leaves a child’s presence, the child must learn to trust and be secure in the parent’s love despite the absence.

The same is true of the maturing relationship with God. The soul of fallen man must learn to trust and obey the Lord even during times of the spiritual absence of God’s presence. Times of physical distress can actually be rich times of spiritual feeling and experience. Mature faith is steadfast in times of spiritual distress—when there are no feelings of God’s presence or experience of His love.

St. John of the Cross describes the Spiritual Dark Night:

But what the sorrowful soul feels most in this condition is its clear perception, as it thinks, that God has abandoned it, and, in His abhorrence of it, has flung it into darkness; it is a grave and piteous grief for it to believe that God has forsaken it.

Jesus underwent both the physical and the spiritual Dark Night of the Soul. The experience of the sorrowful soul can drive the faithful to deeper longing and surrender in preparation for full union with the pure flame of Divine love. All dross of attachment to the “old man,” both physical and spiritual, must be burned off and refined in order that the New Creation might emerge.

It is meet, then, that the soul be first of all brought into emptiness and poverty of spirit and purged from all help, consolation and natural apprehension with respect to all things, both above and below. In this way, being empty, it is able indeed to be poor in spirit and freed from the old man, in order to live that new and blessed life which is attained by means of this night, and which is the state of union with God.

The prophet Isaiah promised the Messiah that through the spiritual suffering new light of true life would break forth from the darkness—that “out of the anguish of his soul he shall see the light of life and be satisfied.” (Isaiah 53:11) Those who would be followers of Jesus and walk in the Way of the Cross daily will find themselves in the sensual and spiritual Dark Night of the Soul. The experience of the Night is painful, excruciatingly so at times, but it produces in us its desired effect—glorious resurrection life powered by the pure love of God. St. John called it the Happy Night.

Perhaps you have been through a Dark Night of the Soul, perhaps you are in one now. The Lord works his greatest acts of redemption and renewal in the valley of the Shadow of Death. St. John described the process of Spiritual Growth through the formation of the Dark Night as a mystic ladder of Divine Love. He gives ten steps on the ladder. One might consider them as a growth process that reorients the soul of the faithful Christian as it is formed by periods of Distress and Abandonment.

Ten Steps of the Mystic Ladder of Divine Love

The first step of love causes the soul to languish, and this to its advantage.

The second step causes the soul to seek God without ceasing.

The third step of the ladder of love is that which causes the soul to work and gives it fervor so that it fails not.

The fourth step of this ladder of love is that whereby there is caused in the soul an habitual suffering because of the Beloved, yet without weariness.

The fifth step of this ladder of love makes the soul to desire and long for God impatiently.

On the sixth step the soul runs swiftly to God and touches Him again and again; and it runs without fainting by reason of its hope.

The seventh step of this ladder makes the soul to become vehement in its boldness.

The eighth step of love causes the soul to seize Him and hold Him fast without letting Him go, even as the Bride says, after this manner: ‘I found Him Whom my heart and soul love; I held Him and I will not let Him go.’

The ninth step of love makes the soul to burn with sweetness.

The tenth and last step of this secret ladder of love causes the soul to become wholly assimilated to God, by reason of the clear and immediate1vision of God which it then possesses; when, having ascended in this life to the ninth step, it goes forth from the flesh.

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The “Why” Question

The “Why” Question

Strangely, when Jesus asks the same question so often in our heart’s cry, there is a divine answer in reply.

It is not an answer to the question of why evil was allowed in the first. Rather in this climactic moment of Satan’s seeming victory over the Son of God, evil is resoundingly defeated. Why? In that very moment the power of Evil is once and for all thwarted and striped of its hold on humanity through the power of law, sin and the consequential fear of the grave.

In C.S. Lewis’s “Chronicles of Narnia”, Aslan the Lion who is a type for Jesus is put to death on a stone table of sacrifice by the evil White Witch. The darkest moment of the story is in Aslan’s death:

“At that moment they heard from behind them a loud noise—a great cracking, deafening noise as if a giant had broken a giant’s plate… The Stone Table was broken into two pieces by a great crack that ran down it from end to end; and there was no Aslan.”

…and there was no Aslan. In the moment where Satan seemingly wins, evil resoundingly loses. The risen Aslan explains what his death means:

“It means,” said Aslan, “that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.”

Somehow, as Jesus was utterly forsaken by the Father on the cross in dying abandonment, the archenemy of God and humanity was suffering a withering defeat—magic deeper still. With the crucifixion of the Son of God , death itself would start working backward.

Now, every time the Good News is preached we hear the answer to Jesus “Why” question uttered on the Cross. We can know with certainty and clarity the reason why God the Father utterly forsook His Son, Jesus.

God has removed Evil’s powerful reign over humanity.

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.  He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. –Colossians 2:14-15

Are you struggling with the problem of evil in your own life? Have you ever wondered if God has abandoned you? You may never receive the answer you are seeking related to the personal “Why” questions in the midst of suffering and pain. The Good News is that you can know why Jesus suffered abandonment.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

John 3:16 answers why: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Why was Jesus God forsaken? Because, God so loved you. Mysteriously, that makes all the difference with our questions.

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The Folly of the Cross

The Folly of the Cross

Mohammad, the founder of Islam, had intellectual trouble with the cross of Jesus. Yet he wanted to hold onto the fact that Jesus was sent from God—to claim that Jesus was a great prophet, even the Messiah.

So what to do with the Cross? In Mohammad’s logic, prophets of God were not killed with such a horrific death. So in the Quran, Mohammad wrote: “They said in boast we killed Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah, but they killed Him not nor crucified Him. But so it was made to appear to them and those who differ therein are full of doubts. With no certain knowledge, but only conjecture to follow for of a surety they killed Him not. Nay, Allah raised Him up unto Himself.” (Quran, an-Nisa` 4:157-8)

Islam cannot have a prophet die such a horrific death on the Cross. So it is taught that Jesus was in the appearance of one who died on the Cross, or that another person died who was made to look like Jesus. But rather, according to Mohammed, Jesus was beamed up like Elijah; that is, taken directly into Heaven, ascending unto God without tasting death. The Encyclopedia of Islam writes:

“The denial [of the Crucifixion of Jesus], furthermore, is in perfect agreement with the logic of the Qur’an. The Biblical stories reproduced in it (e.g., Job, Moses, Joseph etc.) and the episodes relating to the history of the beginning of Islam demonstrate that it is “God’s practice” (sunnat Allah) to make faith triumph finally over the forces of evil and adversity. “So truly with hardship comes ease”, (XCIV, 5, 6). For Jesus to die on the cross would have meant the triumph of his executioners; but the Quran asserts that they undoubtedly failed: “Assuredly God will defend those who believe”; (EI, XXII, 49). He confounds the plots of the enemies of Christ.” (EI, III, 54)

The New Testament teaches something quite different: Jesus did die on the cross. His executioners did triumph over Him from a worldly perspective. Indeed, in the Crucifixion it appears that even Satan has won and evil has triumphed. Why did God not defend his Christ and confound the plots of the enemies?

Here is God’s Son, the Messiah, the Anointed of God, the One on whom the Holy Spirit descended like a dove from Heaven, of whom God the Father said clearly: “This is My Son whom I love with Him I am well pleased.” And yet, Jesus cried out on the Cross,

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And then He died, breathing His last, His Spirit was given up. Indeed, it does seem that God had forsaken His Anointed. Islam cannot have such a Messiah—indeed the World cannot have such a Messiah. But God demands one.

In what ways do you see the Cross of Christ rejected as folly by our society and others?

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Elijah, the Rescuer of the Righteous

Elijah, the Rescuer of the Righteous

The four Gospels were originally written in the common language of the Roman Empire, Greek. However, Jesus would have spoken the common language used in Israel at the time, Aramaic. While we typically have Jesus words translated to us, in the case of this cry from the Cross we have the original. He said:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

In the Gospel of Matthew, the original Aramaic is also quoted “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?”

At least one of the reasons the Gospels provide the saying of Jesus without translation is because when people heard those first words, Eli, Eli, they thought “Oh, He’s calling out to Elijah”. Eli, Eli, sounds like Elijah, Elijah.

When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”

Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”
–Matthew 27:47-49

Indeed, Elijah was the one who was known as the rescuer of the righteous. Elijah was one of the last remaining righteous prophets of God in a season when all of Israel had become corrupt. Not unlike during the days of Jesus, the very administration of the Temple and the Jewish government were all conspiring against the Anointed One of God. Elijah lamented to the Lord:

“I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” –1 Kings 19:14

The kings of Israel were sending their soldiers against the prophet of God. Elijah, though – this is very interesting – Elijah never died.

Elijah was one of the two people we find in Scripture – Enoch being the other one – who was literally transported into the heavenly realms by the chariot Throne of God. In the presence and sight of his successor Elisha, the Lord took him right up into the heavenly realms without death.

Some people who were there underneath the Cross thought that by calling out to Elijah, Jesus was asking God to swoop down with His chariots and rescue Him off the Cross if He truly was a prophet like Elijah.

The people of this world are often looking for some dramatic sign of God’s power and reality before placing faith in him. Yet God chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. In some of the most difficult and dark moments, God does amazing and powerful things. While a dramatic rescue by Elijah would have been a sight to see, it would have completely nullified the victory being won by the Cross.

Paul writes of the Jewish insistence on signs from God through mighty acts of intervention:

For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.  Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. –1 Corinthians 1:21-25

Satan once accused Job only believing in the LORD because of the Lord’s blessing. However, the faithful like Job have continually shown throughout history that they will glorify God even in the midst of the most difficult of circumstances.

Here is the true spirit of Elijah. Elijah never forsook God even when all others had rebelled and worshiped the false god, Baal, and abandoned the Lord and His prophet. Yet, God revealed to Elijah that He always has His faithful people. The Lord said to Elijah, “Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.” (1 Kings 19:18)

God’s strength is made perfect through your weakness. In the times of seeming abandonment, God is doing His most profound soul work in your life. The very difficulties of the fallen world are all worked into His plan of restoration and redemption. Nothing will be wasted, not even your worst experiences. God is working all things for your good. (Romans 8:28) Even the darkest sufferings caused by your enemies, evil and death, even their worst attacks on you, you will be redeemed to create the character of Christ in you.

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The Lonely Garden of the Father’s Will

The Lonely Garden of the Father’s Will

When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed to His Heavenly Father: “If there be any other way, make it possible.” And yet, Jesus submitted obediently to His Father’s will and took the cup that the Father would have for Him. As Jesus wrestled with the most agonizing submission of His life, all of his disciples failed to support Him. Three times he asked them for support through intercessory prayer.

“My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” 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.”

And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again.

Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. –Matthew 26:38-45

Three times his closest friends and confidantes failed Him because of their own weakness and flesh. He desperately pleaded with them to sit with Him, to watch and pray with Him. But, they were overcome by sleep.

At His most desperate hour, Jesus was left to wrestle in agony with the will of His Father—all alone. The feelings of abandonment would be compounded on the Cross when he asked:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

The will of God can be a lonely personal fulfillment. There are times where we may even question whether God is with us. If Jesus asked that, so might we. At the end of the Apostle Paul’s life, he was facing the certain moment of his own martyrdom for the sake of the Gospel and the Name of Jesus. Paul discovered the lonely garden of the Father’s will:

At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! –2 Timothy 4:16

Notice the word “all”—“all deserted me.” Faithfulness to God’s call is often a lonely, lonely business. However, Paul lived faithfully on this side of the Cross of his Lord. While his human confidantes and friends abandoned him in his time of need, Paul knew that because of Jesus sufferings of abandonment, He would never abandon His people in their darkest hour. That is why Paul goes on to write:

But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. –2 Timothy 4:17-18

Because Jesus was God forsaken on our behalf, God says to you “I will never leave or forsake you.” Even though we may feel times of distance from the Lord, or moments where the experience of His presence is lacking, He is always with his faithful people. The Cross guarantees this reality. No one put this truth more beautifully than the Apostle Paul:

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus your Lord. Nothing!

The Cross proves it!

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Thirsty for Living Water

Thirsty for Living Water

In the Gospel of John, we see the idea of thirsting way before Jesus utters those words –that word– “I thirst.”

When Jesus went to a well that is called Jacob’s well, a Samaritan woman was there. The text tells us that He sat down by the well and that He was tired as one would imagine. He was also thirsty because He asked a woman for a cup of water. When the Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”

The disciples had gone into town to buy food; that is not what he wanted. He wanted something to drink. When they came with the food, He told them: “I don’t need that, because I have food to eat that you don’t know about.” They wondered: who brought Him the food?

No, what Jesus wanted was something to drink. He asked the Samaritan woman for this drink and she was surprised by it. She said, “You’re a Jew and I’m a Samaritan woman? How can you ask me for a drink?” For she knew that Jews did not associate with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and Who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.”

The woman said: “Sir, you have to nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank from it himself as did his sons and flocks and herds?”

And Jesus answered:

“Look, I’m not talking about the water that’s in this well. I’m talking about another kind of water. Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.”

The question that I want to ask you is whether you thirst? What are you thirsty for? Do you thirst for more out of life than what this world has to offer? Do you thirst in the midst of its struggles?

Jesus shared our earthly thirsts for the water from the wells of this world. The One who got tired and needed a drink of water from the Samaritan woman has a drink to offer us that is not a cup of wrath, but a cup of mercy and grace and eternal life.

It is a cup which, if we will thirst for it and long for it, Jesus promises that we will never thirst again It is Living Water. A little bit further on in John 6:35, we find Jesus picking up the theme of Living Water again. He says, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” Never be thirsty! Do you believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins on the Cross? Have you put your faith in Him as your Lord? Have you confessed with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that He raised you from the dead?

Jesus promises that whoever believes in Him will never thirst. A little bit further on, He picks up the theme one more time. In John 7:37, on the last and greatest day of the Feast of Preparation He announces with a loud voice: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” Whoever believes in Him as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within Him. Jesus clarifies His words: by this He meant the Spirit Whom those who believed in Him were to receive. “Whoever is thirsty, let him come to me.”

“I thirst.” Do you know what? I thirst. I thirst for what God is promising here. I thirst for it for our church, I thirst for it for my family. I want it personally. I want eternal life. I want to be filled up, so full that it overflows from my life out to other people’s lives. Do you thirst like that? Do you say “I thirst?” Say it out loud to the Lord in a prayer from distress, or longing:

I thirst. I thirst. I thirst for you Jesus. The Sacred Scriptures speak about thirsting for righteousness, thirsting for His holiness, thirsting to know Him, thirsting and desiring with all of our being to be like Him, to be faithful to Him, to somehow obtain eternal life. “I thirst.”

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Take this Cup

Take this Cup

On the night before Jesus passion, Jesus entered into the Garden of Gethsemane located on the Mount of Olives overlooking the city of Jerusalem and the Temple of the Lord. A “gethsemane” was a massive stone press used to crush the olives harvested on the hillside in order to extract olive oil. So, the Garden of Gethsemane was a place of crushing, only that night it would be the Son of God who would be crushed under the pressure. Jesus entered into a time of deep prayer and interaction with God the Father. Here is how the scene is described in Luke’s gospel:

And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. 40 And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”  And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. –Luke 22:39-44

“Father, if you are willing remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” What is the cup of which Jesus is praying? It is none other than the cup of divine judgment.

He thirsted not for it; and yet from this point He surrendered to fulfilling the Father’s will.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; 
he has put him to grief
–Isaiah 53:10

In distress and grief, Jesus cries:

I thirst.

From the Cross, Jesus thirsts for a cup to drink. The cup that completes the Father’s will. He thirsted for His own death, for only in His death would the sins of the world be forgiven. The Lord’s will for His Son was to bear the judgment for the sins of the world on His body and in His flesh.

…when his soul makes an offering for guilt –Isaiah 53:11

In drinking the cup of judgment, Jesus’ soul makes an offering for guilt, redemption accomplished. In drinking the cup of God’s wrath, He drank it to its dregs. He drank it till it was dry. In this moment, He thirsted for God’s wrath and His judgment to be borne on His body, so that we would not have to drink the cup of God’s judgment and wrath. Think about that. He drained the cup–empty–on the Cross so that we would not have to drink it.

More than that, though, Jesus thirsted not only for His death and to finish the work of the Cross, but He thirsted for the life that God had in front of Him. God the Father promised that though His soul was to suffer death in a crushing judgment for the sin of humanity, that though He must die, He would be raised from the dead; He would see the light of life:




…he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; 
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong… –Isaiah 53:10-12

The prophet Isaiah revealed over four hundred years before the coming of the Messiah that even though the Messiah would suffer death, on the other side of that “crushing” would be life, victory and divided spoils. The writer of Hebrews again says it was for the joy that was set before Him that He endured the Cross. Jesus thirsted for the three days that would come after this, the empty tomb, the resurrected life. He longed to see it.

He yearned and thirsted for resurrected life as He was agonizing in death on the Cross.

It was for the joy and abundance of life that was set before Him that He endured the scorn of the Cross all the way to its bitter end. That’s why the writer of Hebrews encourages us to thirst for the resurrection so that we too might endure suffering and temptation – no matter what.

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, 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.

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
—Hebrews 12:1-4

Whatever suffering is brought before us, whatever trials, whatever tribulations, we must thirst for the joy that is set before us in the resurrected and eternal life so that we can persevere in faith and in faithfulness all the way to the end.

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Can you drink this Cup?

Can you drink this Cup?

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” –Matthew 20:20-22

Jesus said to them “You don’t know what you’re asking. Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?”

Now, what cup do James and John have in mind? Why, the cup of victory, the cup of reward, the cup of prestige, power and position; basically, the cup that says: vindication in this life. Our enemies will be vanquished! The Messiah will triumph over them. We will put Him up on top. Yes, Jesus, we can drink that cup of victory! Absolutely, we can drink that cup!

Jesus said to them, “You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” –Matthew 20:23

Who in fact drank the cup alongside Jesus on His right and left? Two bandits were crucified with Him on His right and His left. As Jesus indicated later on in their lives James and John would also suffer for the Gospel. Indeed, they would share in the cup of Jesus Christ through their death as martyrs for the faith, but that is not the way that they first envisioned.

The Apostles originally believed that they would be drinking the cup of victory, but the significance of Jesus’ death means that there will be no earthly vindication and no victory in this life. This age has been judged by God, the Father.

Those who would set themselves up as conquering kings in this age will be brought low and humbled in the Kingdom of God. Faithful Christians have been continually surprised when the powers and governments of this world let them down by corruption. Even the institutions of the Church become corrupted as people seek position, power and prestige as methods for propagating their own worldly agendas.

No, this age and all its governances and institutions must incur the judgment and wrath of God. That is the cup which Jesus is asking God the Father “…if it be possible for it to be passed from me, not my will, but Yours.” – the cup of judgment. Jesus would go on to teach James and John:

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” –Matthew 20:25-28

The people of this world look to authority, law and power to solve the problems of the day. They fight for prominence and position. Even those who claim the name of Christ can often be no different than James and John. The world says, “It’s push come to shove!”, “It’s who you know!” and “Claw your way to the top!” Jesus taught the Way of the Kingdom; God’s Kingdom subversively transforms society through humility, love and self-sacrificial service.

Jesus’ way to greatness is paradoxical and true: the first will be last, and the last will be first. Consider that the greatest leaders our world has ever known have more often than not been the most humble. Humble does not mean wishy-washy, it is true to the character of Christ. The most powerful people to shape the world for good are the tireless and selfless servants of others.

Who are the people in your life that inspire you the most? Have you been seeking the world’s path to greatness or the kingdom of God’s path? How can you emulate the humility of Jesus in your daily life today by serving rather than seeking to be served?

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