THE CUP OF SUFFERING

Then Simon Peter drew a sword and slashed off the right ear of Malchus, the high priest's servant. But Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword back into its sheath. Shall I not drink from the cup the Father has given me?" ??“ John 18:10-11 (NLT)

            Peter chose to defend Jesus when the soldiers came to arrest Him. Always the one to act on the spur of the moment, Peter pulls his sword, aims at the servant??™s head, but being a fisherman and not a swordsmen, misses his target and cuts off the man??™s ear instead. Jesus??™ response clearly shows us that rather than desiring relief from suffering, suffering is what He must face. Jesus does not want Peter to save him from the cup the Father has given Him.

            It was the custom at a royal banquet for the king to hand the cup to his guests. The cup became a metaphor for the life and experience that God handed to men and women. "In the hand of the Lord there is a cup," said the Psalmist (75:8) when he was thinking of the fate in store for the wicked and disobedient. The Prophet Isaiah, thinking of the disasters that had come upon the people of Israel, describes them as having drunk, "at the hand of the Lord and the cup of His fury" (Isa. 51:17). The cup speaks of an experience allotted to men and women by God. Here Jesus clearly looks forward to the cup of suffering that was His to drink, offered to Him by the Heavenly Father. It was a cup that Jesus would willingly drink for you and for me. It was a cup for which we must be eternally grateful.

PRAYER THOUGHT: Lord, the cup of suffering has become the cup of my salvation. I praise You for not turning from it.