The Cup

Lord, forgive us for the times we have read about Gethsemane with dry eyes-Frederick S. Leahy

Before anything existed, there was God.

-In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.  Genesis 1:1

The Godhead of the Trinity.

-For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.  1 John 5:7

God already knew that man would sin.  A plan was prepared even before Creation.  The Answer?

God in flesh.

-In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  John 1:1

-And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.  John 1:14

References to 'the cup' in Matthew 26:39,42, Mark 14:36, and Luke 22:42, have been debated for as long as I can remember.  Can I tell you without any doubt what the 'cup' is?  No; but I can tell you what it is not:  Jesus never asked not to die.

How do I know that?  Because the Bible tells us that that is the very reason Jesus came:  He was born to die.

For my sin and for yours.

-And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

1 John 2:2

-Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  1 John 4:10

-Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; Romans 3:24,25

"To this end was I born."  Jesus speaking to Pilate in John 18:37

In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed the most agonizing, personal prayer ever recorded in Scripture.  In the hours to come, Jesus already knew what lay ahead:  Mocking, beatings, scourging, the Cross and death.  He began to sweat drops of blood as He prayed for this cup to be removed.  Again, I do not know what that cup was, the secret things belong to God alone, (Deuteronomy 29:29) but, perhaps, it was knowing that He, the Sinless Son of Man was about to become Sin.  Not His sin, because He had no sin of His own, but my sin and your sin.  Jesus knew the Oneness with His Father would be severed. God the Father would turn His face away from Jesus as He became sin for us. 

-For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.  2 Corinthians 5:6

Jesus would pay the price for our sins alone.

When Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, He surrendered His will and submitted Himself to the Father's will.

And victory was won!

May I never forget the price the Lord paid to save me!

    But that's just me!

-Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Hebrews 12:2

The Bible is the story of two gardens.  Eden and Gethsemane.  In the first, Adam took a fall.  In the second, Jesus took a stand-Max Lucado