Take This Cup

There are perhaps no words in scripture with a larger gap in understanding and appreciation between your first reading as a new Christian and your later reading as a mature believer and exegete than Jesus’ words in Gethsemane: “Father if you are willing, take this cup from me.”

Martin Luther refers to these as the most astonishing words in the whole bible. ¹ But to a new believer they feel like an uncomfortable intrusion. Like someone tried too hard to provide us a way to identify with Christ by showing that our Lord was also afraid to die. Some (who should know better ) assist the misunderstanding of these words by going into great medical detail about how execution by crucifixion is the most painful death possible. It is not. Not only that, Jesus’ crucifixion, as horrible as it must have been, was evidently less painful than many, given that he succumbed in three hours while accounts show that some languished for four or five days.

And we know of Christian martyrs who faced a death sentence while singing hymns. And of other people who faced painful death stoically. And to top it off, of all who faced imminent death, Jesus is the only one without even a tiny seed of doubt that the life to come is greatly preferred, giving him even less reason to fear.

As a new believer we have these secret thoughts: Was our savior a bit of a coward?

He was not. Jesus did not fear dying. He feared death. Martin Luther (who is, if possible, under appreciated) said “No man ever feared death like this man.” ²  Jesus asked for the cup to be taken away. The cup is used in scripture as a metaphor for God’s wrath and divine punishment. Jesus knew that he was about to experience the aggregated wrath of God. He was about to be treated as if he had committed every sin, past present and future, of every man, woman, and child who belonged to him. 

It is easy for me to say, but I truly believe that the physical pain of the crucifixion was not even on his mind. It was wrath that Jesus feared. It was sin that Jesus feared.

Knowing what he was about to endure (as an innocent!)--a punishment that renders the pain of crucifixion utterly negligible by comparison, we can only conclude that the evidence suggests that Jesus was the most courageous man who ever lived.

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¹ Alexander Whyte, Lord Teach Us To Pray, 1922, p. 70. (Free online copy here.)

² Alas, I cannot find the primary source for that quote, although I can find many instances of it being reported. One of my thousands of readers must know. I’m counting on you.