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THE CUP: WHAT WAS JESUS ASKING? I heard an evangelist bring up the subject of what exactly was Jesus asking of the Father when he prayed, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." (Mat. 26:39) The evangelist preached a fine sermon, but also spoke rather dogmatically on his opinion that Jesus was praying that Satan wouldn't get to kill him before he could get to Calvary and complete his atoning work. His main text for this was Hebrews 5:7: "Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared." Hebrews 5:7 comment that the Father "was able to save him from death" refers to the death that he would have suffered on THAT NIGHT, thus being unable to proceed to Calvary and complete his work of redemption on the cross. That is, according to this view, Jesus was basically praying, "Father, don't let Satan kill me tonight. Let this cup of death pass from me so that I can fulfill your will tomorrow on the cross." The "proof" that this view is correct is the fact that the verse (Heb. 5:7) says that Jesus "was heard," supposedly meaning that he DIDN'T die that night, but went on to Calvary the next morning. I believe this to be a very simplistic view that overlooks a few things. Please consider . . . 1.) If Satan knew all about Calvary in advance and failed in his attempt to kill Jesus the night before, then why did he go ahead and kill him on the cross? If Satan fully knew what Christ would accomplish on the cross, then why did he kill him on the cross? To the contrary, why didn't he give the order to keep Christ alive at all cost? 2. I Corinthians 2:8 says that those who crucified Jesus did NOT realize what they were doing: "Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." Are we to believe that Satan DID know it, but his children didn't and that they acted against his will in killing Jesus? Satan was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44), and his first murder was when he killed a TYPE of Christ (Gen. 4:8; Mat. 23:35). Satan WANTED Christ on the cross and he wanted him dead. He just didn't realize the mystery of how it would all play out and seal his own defeat. Like Haman, he pretty much hung himself. 3.) The first thing that Judas did after SATAN entered into him was betray Jesus to those who would crucify him! Luke 22:3-4: "Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him unto them." Why would Satan lead Judas to do this, if he didn't want Jesus going to the cross? Are we to believe that Satan wanted to kill Jesus so that he COULDN'T go to the cross and then only the next day he wanted to kill him ON the cross? Makes no sense. 4.) One of the key words in the Matthew 26:39 prayer is the word "cup." Jesus prayed, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." Thankfully, this is not the only time that Jesus uses this word. In John 18:11, he said to Peter, ". . . Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" So, this cup was a certain KIND of death to be given to Jesus by the Father AT Calvary, not merely dying the night before Calvary. 5.) Jesus knew it to be the Father's will for him to drink of Calvary's cup (John 18:11), so why would he allow that it might be the Father's will for him to NOT drink it due to being killed by Satan the previous night? He said the night before, when praying, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless NOT AS I WILL, BUT AS THOU WILT." (Mat. 26:39; emphasis added). Why suggest that it might be the Father's will for Satan to kill him before he can go to the cross when he knows it to be the Father's will for him to die on the cross? Both cannot be the Father's will, so it must be that the cup of Matthew 26:39 refers to the cross, not to possibly dying the night before. 6.) The argument is made that Jesus' words "this" cup must refer to the possibility of Jesus dying on that night, otherwise he would have said "that" cup, meaning the cup at Calvary the following day. No way. The term "this cup" simply refers to the fact that the end of his earthly life was at hand and that the events were now unfolding that would lead to him suffering and dying on the cross. It would not be another year or another decade. THIS is the night for his betrayal, THIS is the time for it all to unfold. A similar term is the term "this hour," as Jesus used in John 12:27, clearly a reference to his suffering and dying on the cross, yet none of the literal six hours on the cross had yet arrived: "Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour." The crucifixion DAY had not yet dawned, much less the HOUR, yet he used the term in reference to the short time period at hand that would culminate with his death, burial and resurrection. A similar usage is found in Revelation 17:12, 14:7, 3:10 and John 17:1. 7.) Jesus had already prophesied his crucifixion (Mat. 20:19; 26:2), knowing that nothing would stop him from going to the cross, so it makes no sense that he would fear being killed the night before. He was enduring part of the cup already, being tremendously burdened with all that was upon him, so speaking of it all as "this cup" is most fitting. That's why he said in John 17:1, "Father, the hour is come . . .", meaning that the TIME has come. He would no longer be preaching to the multitudes, calming storms or healing the sick. The time had now come to complete his work of redemption, and it WOULD be completed over the next few days. Hence: THIS cup. 8.) One previous usage of the "cup" is found in Matthew 20:22: "But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able." Then the next verse says, "And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father." This particular cup, in scripture, speaks not only of death, which all men must face, but bitterness, suffering and wrath as well. Isaiah 51:17 says, "Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out." Then Psalm 75:8 says, "For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them." This particular cup is the cup of God's wrath to be poured out on sinners, much like the vials of wrath are poured out in Revelation 16. But, in the case with Jesus, it was HE who would drink the cup in the place of sinners. God's wrath on sin was to be poured out on Jesus. In fact, II Corinthians 5:21 even says, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." According to that verse, on the cross Jesus BECAME SIN! Galatians 3:13 even says he became a CURSE: "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." Yes, his suffering and death was a "cup," just as that of the disciples would be (Mat. 20:23), but his cup was far more than suffering and death. It was BECOMING SIN in such a way that the Father would "forsake" him as he hung dying on the cross: "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Mat. 27:46) David dipped into this very thing in Psalm 22 when he said, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? . . . But thou art holy . . . But I am a worm . . ." (vss. 1, 3, 6) Christ not only died; he endured the wrath of a holy God on sin. That is the cup of Matthew 26:39, and that is the cup that all believers identify with when the imputed righteousness of Christ is placed on them and their sins are placed on him. This is also called a baptism in Matthew 20:22-23 and in I Corinthians 12:13. Galatians 2:20 even says, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." 9.) Hebrews 5:7 does say that Jesus offered up prayers and supplications "unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard," but it does NOT say that he PRAYED for God to save him from death or that the answer to his prayer was that he didn't die that night. It could well be that God being "able" to "save him from death" refers to God the Father being able to keep Jesus from dying at all, at Calvary or at any other time. But he knew it to be the Father's will for him to die, so the answer to his prayer was not that he didn't die that night, but rather that he found the grace and strength to continue onward and fully complete the Father's will. 10.) Some who oppose this view (the cup was Calvary and Jesus becoming sin) claim that we believe Jesus was praying to get out of going to the cross. Not at all. It would be more fair to say that he was praying to avoid becoming sin and enduring God's wrath on sin, IF there was any other way to settle the sin issue. Of course, there was no other way, and Jesus knew it, but as the son of man in the flesh, he had to endure sufferings and temptations as a man, and even "learned obedience" as a man (Heb. 5:8), so he prayed as a man would pray. If I'm wrong, then I'm wrong, and it's nothing to fight about anyway. But it seems to this preacher that this view digs a bit deeper and brings more honor and glory to our Lord.