Know What’s In Your Cup

Text: Mark 10:35-45

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

In Christian art one of the most common motifs is the tetramorph. From the Greek tetra (four) and morphe (form or shape), the word applies, in general, to any representation of a set of four elements. But in Christian art, the tetramorph most commonly refers to the most common way to depict the four evangelists. Mathhew, Mark, Luke, and John are accompanied, or represented, by a figure, three of them being animals and only one a human form. They correspond to the vision of the four living beings from Ezekiel. Matthew is associated with the winged man, Mark with the lion, Luke with the ox, and finally John, with the eagle. John, the writer of the Gospel, three epistles, and Revelation, is the same John, the son of Zebedee, that appears in our Gospel reading for today, along with his brother James, asking for a prominent place beside Jesus.

John gets the eagle, but another symbol for St. John is the chalice. “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” Jesus asked James and John. What He’s really asking them is a question that digs much deeper than whether they might be able to share a drinking vessel. He’s really asking them whether they actually know what’s in that cup. And if they did, would they really keep following Him.

The chalice that acts as the depiction of John often has a serpent in it. And Jesus will drink of that cup, the cup that John and James think they want. But they don’t really understand what they’ve asked for. Jesus will drink from the cup of suffering, the cup of death, the cup filled with the sin of the world, not because he thought it would be an exquisite drink, not even because he wanted to, but because it was the will of the Father.

In the garden a few days later, Jesus would pray, “Abba, Father. All things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Today’s account reminds us that Jesus has “set His face toward Jerusalem” and has a great determination about the journey He’s on. What the disciples don’t understand fully is that He’s on a march toward Calvary. It’s a journey that began at Bethlehem, winds its way through Egypt, Nazareth, to the River Jordan, throughout all of Israel, and which won’t be complete until its culmination on a hill outside Jerusalem. It’s in Jerusalem that He’ll be condemned, delivered up to the chief priests and scribes, where He’ll be mocked, spit upon, flogged, and killed. But it’s also where He will rise again. This is the journey the disciples are on with Jesus even though they’re unaware of what it will actually mean for them.

They were unaware mainly because it’s a message the disciples didn’t want to hear. Jesus tried to tell them, but they just couldn’t understand. Because to them, success and glory don’t look like a dead guy on a cross. How can humiliation and death have anything to do with God restoring his kingdom?

James and John—and all the disciples, really—were more interested in whatever presumed earthly glory they were imagining. And the road to get there, in their minds, involved boldness and taking for themselves whatever they could get. Not all that different than a business mindset today. The way to the top is to scratch and claw and shove everyone else out of the way. Since there’s only one right hand and one left hand, James and John figured they’d get there however they needed to. Maybe it was a simple as being the first to ask.

Their tactics certainly didn’t endear them to the other disciples. The others were indignant. They were probably annoyed that they hadn’t asked first! Like all sinners, they craved the attention, the recognition, for their own accomplishments. Like children shoving their brothers and sisters out the way, we want the important people and the world to notice: “Look at me. Look what I’ve done.”

We’re not immune to this. Pastors, congregations, everyone. Our selfish and sinful natures want the glory, the authority, the power that we perceive comes from being the one in charge. Or even if we don’t want to be in charge, we want to have input, and we definitely don’t want to be ignored, treated as if we don’t really matter.

Like the apostles, it’s very easy for us to get caught up in ourselves. We stop looking at our neighbor as someone to serve, and instead look inside and say, “What do I want?” It’s the root of all disruption and divide. It’s how the church becomes fractured, how friendships split, how husbands and wives divorce, and how children and parents stop talking to one another.

But that’s not how God created it to be. “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.”

So, Jesus dismisses their request. It’s not His to grant, he says, but the Father’s. They will drink the cup. They will all suffer for proclaiming Christ crucified for the forgiveness of sins. According to tradition, most of the twelve were martyred. None of them had the easy life they thought Jesus had come to usher in; instead they were hated and reviled, stoned, stabbed, and crucified. James was the first to go—beheaded by Herod Agrippa I, which we hear about in Acts 12. And it’s said that an attempt was made to kill John with poisoned wine, which is why there’s a snake in the chalice as his symbol. He then died in exile for daring to preach Jesus.

“You do not know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”

They said yes, they were. In that moment they weren’t thinking about the hostility with which they’d be received? They couldn’t have known the persecution they’d face. Did you know when you were baptized that there may come a time when you’d be mercilessly ridiculed for your faith? Did you know when you were confirmed, when you stood up and said that you would rather die than to fall away from the faith, that you’d be called narrow-minded and backwards by world that constantly rejects Jesus, and you because of your faith in Him? Did you know that your friends and family might believe differently, that your confession of faith would exclude you from a world of fleshly delight. It’s not easy when the tide of world opinion turns against you, when the shouts of “Hosanna!” turn to “Crucify!” It’s not easy when those around you pit you against “science” or “nature” or “fairness”, or whatever version of “truth” they decide to cling to today.

We certainly have our own cups of suffering to drink from. It’s not easy when our cup is filled with illness and death, and all the disappointment and heartache that can come with this life. It’s hard, but not impossible. Even unbelievers experience suffering in this life. But you have something else. You have a promise. A covenant. The world has its gods of fairness and being nice and living life to its fullest. But all that leads to is death. All the good deeds in the world won’t keep you alive. All the world’s fairness and equality can’t forgive your sins, can’t take away your guilt. You’ll still suffer. You’ll still die.

But Jesus is different. Jesus is life. Jesus offers you the cup of salvation; Jesus baptizes you into his household. Our Father in heaven sent his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

It’s why Jesus marches on to the cross. To serve you and to save you. Jesus enters into Jerusalem in order to be the High Priest who offers up the once-for-all sacrifice for your sins and for the sins of the whole world. Jesus was born into this world to be that sacrifice. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.

It’s the kind of sacrifice that we can’t understand. We can’t fathom the kind of love that loves to the point of suffering God’s wrath for our sin. Where the sins of the whole world are laid on Jesus. It’s totally unfair and yet Jesus takes it all willingly.

Are you able to be baptized into the Baptism with which he is baptized? I hope so. It’s that Baptism that baptizes you into his death, killing your sinful flesh. And that Baptism baptizes you also into his resurrection from the dead, giving you new, bodily life in heaven.

Are you able to drink the cup that he drinks? I hope so. There aren’t any serpents in that cup now. He’s taken away the sin and the punishment from you so that the cup you drink at this altar is only his blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. For your salvation and eternal life.

By grace, he comes to you by these means. And He does it to serve you. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, you are brought to faith and sustained in it—so that you might serve Him and one another.

James and John initially say to Jesus, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” That’s pretty bold. As was their actual request to sit at His right and at His left hands. But Jesus taught them, and us, to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The cup we are given to drink, thankfully is not the cup of wrath Jesus had to endure. It does include suffering, but thanks be to God that His cup that we drink is ultimately the cup of salvation. His baptism with which we are baptized connects us to His life, death, and resurrection. And His cup, prepared on this altar offers us life and salvation and strength for the trials we must endure. That’s what’s in your cup. Know it and rejoice in the fact that He will sustain you and strengthen you as you follow Him, just as the disciples did. Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.