The Fifth Cup
The Passover meal was built around four cups of wine – one for each of the four promises God made to the nation of Israel.
Jesus instituted what we call the Lord’s Supper with the third cup – the Cup of Redemption.
In the book of Matthew, Jesus says, “Mark my words—I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom.” (Matthew 26:29, NLT)
Jesus was referring here to the fourth cup – the Cup of Restoration.
So, Jesus and His disciples finish their meal and leave for the Mount of Olives. His disciples, tired by the late hour and relaxed by the wine, drift off to sleep. Jesus, though, was wide awake with the anguish of what lay before Him.
“[Jesus] went on a little farther and fell to the ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting him might pass him by. “Abba, Father,” he cried out, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” (Mark 14:35-36, NLT)
The Passover meal is over. The four cups have already been taken.
So, what cup is Jesus referring to?
Listen to what the prophet Jeremiah wrote:
This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup filled to the brim with my anger, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink from it. When they drink from it, they will stagger, crazed by the warfare I will send against them.” (Jeremiah 25:15-16, NLT)
The Jewish people of Jesus’ day would pour a fifth cup at Passover – but they wouldn’t drink from it.
This is the Cup of God’s Wrath.
Remember, Jesus didn’t drink from the fourth cup of Passover. That cup, the Cup of Restoration, is also known by another name. It is the Cup of Protection.
In other words, Jesus is readying Himself to drink from the Cup of God’s Wrath without having taken the Cup of Protection.
This fifth cup is the cup Jesus prays will pass.
He is already beginning to experience the torment of the cross ahead – the physical and spiritual anguish – and He begs His Father to let this cup pass.
“Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
The first four cups are cups we don’t deserve. The fifth is the cup we certainly do.
The wrath of God is not irrational fury or reckless anger.
God is a just God. His wrath is an outworking of His justice.
But it is also an expression of His love.
A loving God could not possibly let the sin that has wreaked havoc on our world go unpunished.
The problem is that we, the objects of His love, have also become the objects of His wrath through our sin.
The love of God and the justice of God meet on the cross. Jesus takes the cup we deserve and offers us the four cups that we don’t.
On the cross, after six excruciating hours of drinking from the Cup of God’s Wrath, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” (John 19:28, NLT)
In this moment Jesus asks, “Is there anything else I need to drink, God?”
A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips. When Jesus had tasted it, he said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 19:29:30, NLT)
It is finished.
He drank it all.
Every. Last. Drop.
Take time to read Matthew 26:36-44 and reflect on what Jesus did in drinking the Cup of God’s Wrath on your behalf.