The Cup of Staggering Luke 22:39-46
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Scripture Introduction:
And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
Sermon Introduction:
So what is happening in this passage? Why does Luke even need to tell us the the disciples can’t keep their eyes open?
It’s because he is doing here what he has been doing through this whole chapter, showing us that Jesus is alone, that Jesus alone can rescue. But let me show you this...
In Jewish thought a “cup” was a way of talking about something that was in store for someone. It’s your lot in life..it’s how things turn out…
It can be good like Psalm 16:5
The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
It can be bad like Jeremiah 49:12
For thus says the Lord: “If those who did not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, will you go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, but you must drink.
And so this cup represents the way things turn out. We can fill it with lots of good intentions…like water...
Begin filling a cup with water.
This water is going to represent all of our good intentions. What are all the things that you long to do for God…maybe even now…or maybe these were dreams of years past. How were you going to be used by God to build his kingdom...
We can use the apostle Peter here to help us....Just a few verses ago Peter told Jesus. “I’m willing to go to prison and even death for you Jesus. I’ll never leave you. I’m dedicated Jesus. I’m all-in.”
I’m going to read my Bible every day. I’m going to study it. I’m going to teach others the Bible. I’m going to love deeply. I’m going to visit the sick and hurting. I’m going to help those with depression. I’m going to minister to kids. I’m going to drive a church van. I’m going to run sound. I’m going to play an instrument. I’m going to pray for people every single day. I’m going to go on mission trips.
Put all the other dreams and intentions in here. Dreams about who you want to be. Things you want to accomplish.
Put weight on the cup. Life happens.
The cup we planned doesn’t hold up. And that makes a mess of things. But that’s not the only image here of a cup.
This isn’t just a picture of a kid being a little overconfident, but still cute in his overconfidence, and then spilling his cup and it making a mess of things…That’s not the only picture.
It’s not only the wreckage of “life happens” but it’s also the wreckage that is caused by our rebellion. The bricks placed upon the cup are often the consequence of our foolish obsession with doing things our own way.
We rebel from God and as such we place ourselves under His wrath. And this is where the Bible talks about the cup of staggering.
We also see in Scripture what is called a cup of staggering. In the Old Testament we can see that this “cup” is the pouring out of God’s wrath. Isaiah 51:17
Wake yourself, wake yourself,
stand up, O Jerusalem,
you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord
the cup of his wrath,
who have drunk to the dregs
the bowl, the cup of staggering.
Again in Psalm 75:8
For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup
with foaming wine, well mixed,
and he pours out from it,
and all the wicked of the earth
shall drain it down to the dregs.
This is the same figure of speech that is used in Revelation of the pouring out the seven bowls of God.
Bring out a cup of Kool-Aid
Warning: This cup will be spilled by the end of the sermon.
And so the picture for humanity is that we’ve not only gotten this broken cup and all this wreckage…we’re exhausted…but there is now this cup.
The cup of God’s wrath. Filled to the brim with his anger and fury against sin. Yes, sin against us. Yes, a cry for justice. But also sin that we have committed. Our sin in bringing about all this wreckage.
You can’t drink another drop, though. And it’s going to be poured out at some point.
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Let’s now enter into Luke 22. Jesus has finished the passover meal with his disciples, he’s told them all that is going to happen, and now he goes out…leaves the upper room…and goes to a common place. A place he often goes…The Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives.
He’s here on earth because he is entering into our wreckage. And he’s here in the Garden because he is going to do what we cannot do...
The “as was his custom” is also to show us that he isn’t hiding from Judas or the others. He’s going to be exactly where Judas knows he’ll be. He isn’t changing anything up. And it’s also showing us how Jesus was a man of prayer.
And so he goes and his disciples are following him and he says. “Pray that you may not enter into temptation”.
Temptation to what?
Probably the same temptations that Jesus experienced a few years ago when he began his ministry and we read that he overcome the devil and he left him for a more opportune time…well, this is his moment.
And so what is the temptation? It’s the temptation to have a crown without the cross. It’s the temptation to not be fathered but to just be fed. It’s the temptation to reject suffering and have glory by any means. It’s the temptation to forget the whole thing.
And the disciples are facing and will face this same temptation. Temptation to deny Jesus—to turn their back on suffering—to leave him alone—to shrink when it’s obvious that the crown doesn’t come without a cross.
Jesus tells them to pray…but look at what happens. There is a contrast here. Jesus is praying in agony…we’ll look at that more in the moment…but the disciples are sleeping.
He’s sweating, their sleeping. What does this tell us? It tells us that they cannot drink this cup. They cannot go another bit. They—like we—are inadequate for the task at hand.
But not Jesus. So, let’s enter in for a moment into his agony.
Or as Jonathan Edwards has said:
Christ was going to be cast into a dreadful furnace of wrath, and it was not proper that he should plunge himself into it blindfold, as not knowing how dreadful the furnace was. Therefore that he might not do so, God first brought him and set him at the mouth of the furnace, that he might look in, and stand and view its fierce and raging flames, and might see where he was going, and might voluntarily enter into it and bear it for sinners, as knowing what it was. This view Christ had in his agony. Then God brought the cup that he was to drink, and set it down before him, that he might have a full view of it, and see what it was before he took it and drank it.
In Mark we read that Jesus was “greatly distressed”. The KJV may actually be closest to the original, when it says, “sorely amazed”. It is terrified surprise. It’s almost as if Jesus begins his prayer time hoping to be comforted by God knowing what it is that awaits Him. Yet, what he meets with is a display of the cup.
As one commentator puts it, “Jesus came to be with the Father for an interlude before his betrayal, but found hell rather than heaven opened before him, and he staggered.” And now the man Jesus more fully knows what the cup will mean for him. He feels in the depth of his being what it will mean to bear the sins of the world.
As Jesus begins to gaze into the cup, he becomes quite sorrowful, even to the point of death. Jesus was about to bear the sins of millions. And he would bear the sin that offends the Holy One. Certainly he would have been repulsed. Certainly, he would have been sorrowful as he peers into the cup.
We are also told that Jesus has become troubled. The word here means extreme anxiety and anguish. And it is in this agony that Luke tells us Jesus began sweating drops of blood. I am not a doctor, so I am certain to butcher the pronunciation and even explanation of this condition. But, we are told that there is a condition known as hematidrosis. It is a rare condition, and for a long time doctors doubted that it ever occurred. Yet, I did find in a really old medical book (courtesy of Google Books) a few explanations of this condition.
One such story read thus: “Hematidrosis is excretion of blood or blood pigment through the sweat glands...It is sometimes a manifestation of highly emotional disturbances, and is associated at times with the bleeding stigmata of hysterical subjects.”
It is possible that at this point Jesus has become almost hysterical. That may be a little inappropriate to say that Jesus was hysterical or frenzied. But, it seems that a similar image is what the biblical authors want to convey to us.
So we see but a glimpse of the agony that Jesus is experiencing. Brian Schwertely notes, “of all the conflicts, battles and tumults in the whole history of the world nothing compared to this conflict. This was the decisive battle on which the fate of the whole world depended. Our Lord stared sin, the curse, death, hell and separation with His precious Father in the face and experienced a fierce conflict in His soul. Although as a perfect sinless man He experienced a hurricane of painful emotions and was dealt a blow near unto death, His resolve to obey His Father’s will never wavered.”
Jesus’ humanity is fully in seen here in the Garden. We see Jesus in his, dare I say, weakest moment. He remains sinless, yet he is now experiencing the fullness of what it truly means to be human. It is here that he will experience our grief. It is here that he will experience stronger temptation than any of us, so that it is fitting to say that He was tempted in every way.
And it is the view into the cup that causes Christ to pray, “if it is possible take this cup from me.” The other gospel writers have him making this plea three times. Luke only has it the once.
Can you hear Jesus’ prayer? Papa, you can do anything. Can you take this cup from me? Is it possible that we can redeem sinners and yet me not suffer estrangement from you? Is it possible to redeem them in any way other than me being the sin-bearer?
He appeals. Silence. He appeals a second time. Silence. He appeals a third time. Silence. Why silence?
Because there is no other way. Now certainly, it would have been possible for God to have not poured out the cup of His wrath on Jesus. He would not have contradicted his nature had he chosen not to send his Son and left sinners to their just reward. But because God had purposed before the foundation of the world to save sinners, this then was not possible.
As John Stott has said,
“God’s purpose of love was to save sinners, and to save them righteously; but this would be impossible without the sin-bearing death of the Savior.”
Jesus must drink this cup. What will Jesus be doing on the cross? He’ll be drinking this cup to the dregs. What does that mean?
What are dregs?
Backwash. He’s drinking it all.
Drink the Kool-Aid
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Pouring out the cup of wrath.
This is what we celebrate in the Lord’s Supper. His broken body is the means of fixing all the broken things…His blood spilled for us is in our place.
Did he drink it for you?