CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST
May 2, 2010
25424 Aldine-Westfield, Spring, TX. 77373
www.blakehart.com/cypresswoodbulletin.htm
PRAISE AND PRAYERS:
God’s will for our congregation Various friends, relatives, and co-workers
Our nation, military and leaders The persecuted church
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: Jason King (2nd), Nona King (2nd), Jolene Figueroa (7th), Rusty Hudson (18th), Shalaina Cru thirds (23rd)
THE CUP OF WRATH
“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: ‘Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it” (Jeremiah 25:15).
From the time of Moses to the days of Jesus, the Passover had added features to enhance the story. Four cups were added during the meal explaining Exodus 6:5-8 and God’s deliverance (1). Each cup had a meaning. The first was that of sanctification, the second of deliverance, the third was that of redemption and the fourth that of protection. Jesus used cup number two in Luke and cup number three in explaining the blood of the new covenant that was coming. For us, this introduces what we now call the Lord’s Supper with the bread and the wine. We focus on the aspect of the blood and covenant with the cup of wine. Yet in scripture, the cup is an interesting metaphor.
One of the most famous is that of a cup overflowing from Psalm 23:5 which expresses a blessed life. More often though, it is used as a metaphor for judgment as in Jeremiah 25. In the context of Jeremiah, the nation was falling because of its wickedness and sins, which is a far cry from David’s days of blessings. Isaiah also has a warning concerning God’s judgment, expressed in the idea of a cup of wrath (51:17-22). Ezekiel speaks of it as a cup of ruin and destruction. Revelation likewise speaks of a cup of wrath in the conflict between good and evil, or historically between Rome and Christians (see 14:10; 16:19; 17:4; 18:6). It is a powerful metaphor in speaking of God’s wrath.
Jesus also uses the metaphor of a cup. When asked by the mother of James and John if they could sit at His right and left hand in the kingdom, Jesus responded with a question. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink” (Matthew 20:20-22)? In the Garden scene before being arrested, Jesus ask if it was the Father’s will, to remove “this cup from me” (Matthew 26:29; Mark 14:36; Luke 22:42; John 18:11). What is the cup He is referring to?
Certainly the cross is in view here. Would it be His sufferings? Jay Guin states that Jesus did not take the fourth cup of the Passover, that of protection, based on Jesus statement that He would not drink it until He is together with them in the Father’s kingdom. I hadn’t thought about it that way, but it does make sense in the context of the first century Passover meal. That brings us to the cup Jesus mentions in the Garden. He is facing the cross and death and asks for the cup to be taken away if it is God’s will. It wasn’t and Jesus proceeds into the darkness to be arrested, tried, and crucified.
It appears that in Jewish contexts, this is the cup of wrath as expressed in the above Old Testament texts. It is also known as Elijah’s cup coming from MalachI 4:5 in which he speaks of “the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.” It came with Jesus. Still, it does not answer the question, what does this cup mean? How is it connected to God’s wrath?
Understanding God’s wrath and what it means and how to apply it in relationship to the cross has become a debatable subject among theologians as they discuss the atonement. One aspect of many is that of propitiation, or as some modern translations state, “an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (see 1 John 4:10 for one text). Explaining and understanding the wrath of God and Jesus can be difficult, and if we are not careful, we might be saying things that do not reflect well on our God.
One way we can look at the wrath of God against sin is that it is expressed by those who tried and crucified Jesus. The cup of wrath is that sin carries out its most horrendous crime at the cross, crucifying the innocent Jesus. By that He carried or bore our sins into the darkness like that of the scapegoat of Leviticus 16. If you remember, when the people saw what had happened after Jesus died, they left in shame. God used humans to express His wrath at the cross and thereby brought about redemption. But is this a sufficient explanation?
Another view is that God poured out His wrath on Jesus through the crucifixion. He was in some sense punishing Jesus for our sins following Isaiah 53:5. The word punishment however can be misleading. Since Jesus was innocent, why would He be punished by God? Isn’t that some form of abuse (2)? In the eyes of the Jews Jesus was being punished for His claims but is that true in the eyes of God? I don’t think so. Yet He drank the cup of God’s wrath.
Lets look at it another way. He took our place and bore our punishment in His death. Now I do not know how all that works, and even the best theologians have difficulty with it. When He went to the cross, innocent as He was, He willing bore the punishment of God’s wrath to pay the price as the sin offering for our sins (see 2 Corinthians 5:21), thereby reconciling us to God. In essence, He drank the cup of God’s wrath.
Let me say this. We must be careful how we express this. To say that He was punished for our sins is misleading without defining words and explaining ideas. It implies that God punished an innocent Person and that certainly isn’t the case. Jim McGuiggan illustrates this by saying that if a person is robbed and the robber gets away, we do not slap a child who is near because we could not catch the thief. The child had nothing to do with the robbery.
There is yet another aspect of the cup of wrath. God’s wrath has to be appeased. Just read through the Old Testament and see what happens when God become angry because of sin. Noah, the period of the Judges and the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians are just a few examples. How then is God’s wrath appeased? While this isn’t the best illustration, coming from pagan ideas, it does illustrate what is in view. In order to appease the volcano god, the virgin is cast into the volcano to save the people. It’s not a great illustration but for now the only one I have. Sin must be dealt with before God, otherwise we will all perish. Jesus is the One who is innocent, who, as a sacrifice, offers up Himself to appease God’s wrath (3).
When Jesus drank the cup of wrath, all the nations would be involved. In a sense, this could have in view the spread of the good news that they would not have to drink that cup of wrath. It has already been done for them.
This is something to think about and work through.
George B. Mearns
(1) See Jay Guin, Faith Lessons by Ray Vander Laan: The Fifth Cup, copied 2/7/2010 at http://oneinjesus.com
(2) See Jim McGuiggan, Reflections on Punishment (1), copied 3/7/2010 at www.jimmcguiggan.com A number of books on the atonement debate have been released over the last decade that discuss what is called penal substitution atonement. This view has been considered the classical view for years but has come into question of late.
(3) This is probably the idea in part behind the second or new Adam in Romans and other texts.