Remove this cup from me, yet I thirst.

Introduction: What is a mosaic? If you aren’t familiar, a mosaic is a style of art that creates an image by incorporating regular or irregular pieces of colored glass, stone, or ceramics into a larger picture. It is held together by some sort of binding agent, plaster, or mortar that the pieces are set upon and the gaps filled with. By using these small pieces of material, the artist can depict a larger image by beautifully crafting and working the pieces together into their intended patterns. The small pieces are beautiful in their own right, but when placed together in this fashion, you can see something even greater that the individual pieces could not do on their own.

Scripture is no different. This sermon has a lot of material that I will illustrate into a beautiful mosaic from distinct passages. The law of jealousy, bitter suffering, divorce, the death and resurrection of Jesus, and his bride are the pieces I will be working with. In the end, I hope you can see the beauty I see once I finish the piece.

Proposition: Jesus embodied the cup of butter suffering, all the way down to the physical nature of the curse. He did this so that you and I can be delivered free and clear to him as a spotless bride.

Interrogative: What is the cup of bitter suffering Jesus mentions in Luke 22:42? How does the divorce of Israel play into Jesus’ death and resurrection?

Transition: The law of the jealous husband lays a heavy penalty on the accused wife.

1. Numbers 5:11-31 – The law of the jealous husband

a. If he suspects his wife of infidelity, bring her before the priest (v. 11-15)

b. The priest prepares the water of bitterness that brings a curse (v. 16-18)

c. The priest makes her swear an oath, binding her to a curse if she is found to be guilty (v. 19-21)

d. The curse would cause her womb to swell and her thigh to fall away (v. 22)

e. If she is guilty, the curse is valid. If she is not guilty, she is free to stay married and bear children to her husband (v. 23-28)

f. The husband is free from iniquity, but the wife shall bear her iniquity (v. 31)

2. Deuteronomy 24:1-4 – Certificate of Divorce, no sloppy seconds

a. A man find indecency in his wife and sends her packing (v. 1)

b. She becomes another man’s wife, but he hates her too (v. 2-3)

c. The first husband may not take her back since she has been defiled by another. This is an abomination to God (v. 4)

3. Jer. 3:6-10 – God breaks up with his people, issues a certificate of divorce to Israel.

a. Israel playing the part of the whore (v. 6)

b. Judah said, “hold my grape juice” (v. 7)

c. Judah saw Israel being divorced and didn’t seem to care that much (v. 8-9)

d. Judah came back, but not with her whole heart, in pretense only (v. 10)

i. Pretense defined: an inadequate or insincere attempt to attain a certain condition or quality

Transition: Your word is your credibility, your thigh signified your word/oath

1. Gen. 24:2-9 – Place your hand under my thigh and swear to me…

a. The servant puts his hand under Abraham’s thigh to swear an oath (v. 2-4)

i. This was how you bonded yourself to your word

b. What if she doesn’t want to come? (v. 5-6)

c. If she won’t go, the oath is invalid. Just don’t take my son back there (v. 7-8)

d. He swore to Abraham concerning this matter, hand under thigh (v. 9)

2. Genesis 47:29-31 – Israel asks Joseph to swear an oath, hand under thigh

a. Joe, come swear an oath my man! (v. 29)

b. Bury me with my people when you leave here, get me outta Egypt (v. 30)

c. Swear to me! (v. 31)

Transition: Jesus’ womb swells, and his thighs waste away

1. John 18:19-21 – Jesus being grilled by Annas

a. We’ve got some questions for you about your teachings (v. 19)

b. I’ve always taught in the open, never in secret (v. 20)

c. Don’t just ask me, ask those who heard me (v. 21)

i. Nobody came forward to help him, only uncorroborated accounts of false testimonies and accusations

1. Mark 14 53-65 – Jesus remains silent to their accusations

d. With nobody to establish/verify His word, his credibility was lost to men.

2. Matthew 27:39-44 – Jesus is mocked and derided on the cross, further diminishing his credibility among men.

a. Oh you’re big stuff up there on that cross, save yourself! (v. 39-40)

b. Can’t even save yourself, though you claimed to save others (v. 41-42)

c. Let’s see if God will deliver him…oh look, he didn’t (v. 43-44)

d. Mocked by the synagogue leaders and people of Jerusalem, his word meant nothing to them in their own eyes. His thighs wasted away.

3. Physical toll of Jesus’ body while hanging on the cross.

a. When hanging on a cross, you die from suffocation due to the extreme strain placed on your diaphragm.

b. This process was usually sped up by breaking the victim’s legs, forcing your respiratory system to work without the support of the firm foundation your legs provided. (Jesus’ bones were not broken)

c. Trying to breath from this position forces your body to take the path of least resistance when you are trying to breath.

i. Since the lungs are surrounded by rigid bones, your diaphragm would push downward since a natural rise and fall of the chest was not possible, due to the abnormal hanging position)

d. Extrapolate this into Christ’s suffering and you’ll see that heavy, labored breathing while hanging from a cross would force the stomach to push drastically outward and swell.

e. John 19:28-30 – Jesus drinks the bitter waters

i. I thirst (v. 28)

ii. The cup of bitter waters that brings the curse (v. 29)

iii. It is finished (v. 30)

f. Jesus became the cup of bitter suffering, drank from it, and bore the curse of not being able to be free from the law’s decree until death.

Transition: Redemption draws nigh, redemption for you and I.

1. Rom. 7:1-4 – Our obligation to the law, ‘till death do us part

a. As long as you’re alive, you are bound to the law (v. 1)

b. Marriage is binding until the husband dies, then the woman is free from the law of marriage (v. 2)

i. The body of Christ is often referred to as His bride for a reason

ii. Eph. 5:25-27 – Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the word, so that he might present himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

c. If she lives with another man while her husband yet lives, she is an adulteress. But if he dies, she’s free to marry another (v. 3)

d. You have died to this law through the death of Jesus, so that you may marry another, HE WHO HAS BEEN RAISED FROM THE DEAD!!! (V. 4)

2. Col 2:13-14 – Nailing it to the cross

a. We who were dead in our trespasses, God made alive again (v. 13)

b. Our debts were cancelled, the legal demands were neutralized and NAILED TO THE CROSS!

Conclusion

1. We learned about the law of the jealous husband and what the punishment was for the guilty wife, how God gave divorce options, how God subsequently divorced Israel, and how all of this is intertwined with the mission of Jesus.

2. Jesus became the cup of bitter suffering and bore our cursed punishment so that we didn’t have to. He bore our whoredom upon himself, even though we deserved to bear it alone.

3. He did this so that we, and He, could be free from the obligation of the law. By him dying on the cross, we were released from the binding of that law and were free to marry.

4. His resurrection ensured that we could be married to Him once again, without the stain of a curse, free from all sins of the past.