Pass the Cup

Like the kitchen cupboard next to the sink, Scripture contains many cups.

There’s the cup that Benjamin found in his sack of grain, or the “outside of the cup” that the Pharisees anxiously kept clean. “Cup” has a symbolic meaning too, standing for the basic quality of your life. In Psalm 16:5, David rejoices to say that the LORD is his portion and his cup, for God sustains his life.

One of these symbolic cups that nobody wants is what Scripture calls the “cup of wrath.” God speaks of giving this cup to his enemies. Because of their evil deeds they must take this cup and drink it all the way down: the cup of God’s anger and justice.

We don’t mind if his cup gets handed to God’s enemies. But there’s another cup, filled to the brim. Isaiah 51 says it’s been handed to God’s own people: “Awake, awake! Stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; you have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling” (v. 17).

From those words it’s clear that Judah has received this cup already. Their cup had been filled with the wine of God’s wrath, and they’ve had to drain it to the bottom. They’ve even become drunk on it, and they’ve walked away, staggering and trembling.

Is that a good picture for divine wrath? If we had to suffer punishment that was like a little drunkenness, that wouldn’t be too bad, compared to the terrors of the sword, famine, and plague. But it’s a serious image of God’s judgment.

Think of it: when someone brings us a cup—maybe a glass of lemonade on a hot day, or a mug of coffee—we’re expecting something good. We assume that we’re taking this cup from a generous host. But what if there’s poison in that cup? What if we find something disgusting at the bottom? We’ve swallowed it down and now we have to deal with the results.

This is what God will do to sinners: He gives them the cup filled with his fury, then watches as they drink, as they lose control and become utterly confused. The results of drinking God’s cup are terrible: not just a hangover, but the stupor of drunkenness in which there is shame, misery, even death.

We deserve it. This cup has our name on it. Overwhelmed with God’s fury, we ought to stagger our way towards condemnation. And humanly speaking, there’s never relief from this drunkenness. You won’t be able to sleep it off. With our fill of punishment, bloated and overwhelmed, we should collapse and not rise again. It’s the cup of cursing.

But there’s a gospel here, because from our trembling hands God removes the cup!

We are holding that fatal chalice to our lips, ready to swallow and die, but God takes it away: “See, I have taken out of your hand the cup of trembling, the dregs of the cup of my fury; you shall no longer drink it” (Isa 51:22).

“You shall no longer drink it!” Though Judah will go into exile, God will forgive their sins and bring them home. That’s astoundingly good news for us too. You and I can be exempt from the cup of God’s wrath, because Christ has drunk it already. The Father took the cup out of our hands and passed it on, even to his one and only Son. That’s why our Saviour came to earth: to drink down the full measure of the punishment of sinners.

Jesus prayed when He wrestled with God’s will, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me” (Matt 26:39). He asked that the cup be removed from his hand. Because already now He could taste its bitterness. Already now its deadliness made his stomach churn. Even in the Garden, not yet at the cross, He felt the terror of God’s anger against our sin.

Christ was the only one who didn’t deserve to drink this terrible cup. Yet still He chose to take the cup. In love for his Father, in love for us, Jesus surrenders to his suffering. Jesus will drink it, right to the bottom. He takes onto himself—into himself—the Father’s holy wrath.

This is how Christ takes from our hand the cup of fury. And now God says to us, “You’ll never drink it again!” It’s been removed and emptied, and in its place is a new cup: the cup of blessing.

At the Last Supper, this is what Jesus did: “He took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to his disciples, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, poured out for many, for the forgiveness of sins’” (Matt 26:27-28). Drink from the cup of life! The cup that Christ gave so long ago is still being passed around.

It’s the same cup of blessing, yet always new and always full.

How can you thank God for his cup of blessing? The Bible says true thankfulness always begins with keeping God’s commandments: fleeing evil and pursuing good. If you are grateful for Christ, then don’t fill your cup with sin. Don’t fill your cup with things that dull your senses, that poison your heart or pollute your mind. If someone looked into your cup, right to the murky bottom, what would they find?

But fill your cup with the good things of God! Thirst for Christ, even as a deer longs for streams of water. Worship God with your family, your friends, and on your own. Delight in the great things that God has done and is still doing.

When you have living fellowship with God, the cup of blessing is always full—in Christ, our cup overflows!