John 18:11 Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath. Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?”

In ancient times, many were sentenced to die by drinking a cup of poison, and so cup came to mean wrath.  “Thus the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: ‘Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.’” (Jeremiah 25:15)

The cup Jesus is referring to is the cup of God’s wrath.  But by saying it is the cup the Father has given Him, Jesus is invoking this image of a loving and affectionate Father.  By putting these two things together, Jesus is telling us that God can be both an angry, wrathful God, and a loving God, all at the same time.

On the cross, Jesus drank from the Father’s cup.  He was a substitute for each one of us, and He drank the cup of God’s wrath which we deserved.

And what cup do we drink from?  “Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it.  ‘This is the blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many.’”  (Mark 14:23-24)

Father God, by Your Son’s blood, we have been given this cup which establishes a new agreement with You.  And when we eat the bread of the body and drink the cup of His blood shed for us, we are retelling the message of Christ’s death, that He died for us.  Let that sink deep into our hearts.  Move us to be broken and shed for others, as we remember Jesus was broken and shed for us.  Amen. (Based on 1 Corinthians 11:25-26)