The Cup—The Submission (18:11-14)

The Cup—The Submission (18:11-14)

Peter had a sword in his hand. Our Lord had a cup in His hand. Peter was resisting the will of God, while the Savior was yielding to it. Previously, Jesus had prayed, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt” (Matt. 26:39). The cup symbolized the suffering He would endure, and the separation from the Father He would experience on the cross. He prayed this prayer three times, the evidence that His whole being was sensitive to the cost He would pay for our salvation. When He thought of being made sin, His sacred soul must have been moved to its very depths!

The cup is often used in Scripture as a symbol of the experience of suffering and sorrow. Jerusalem had ‘drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling’ (Isa 51:17) when she fell to Babylon. Jeremiah pictured God’s wrath against the nations as the pouring out of a cup (Jer. 25:15–28). There is, also, the cup of consolation (Jer. 16:7) and the cup of joy overflowing (Ps. 23:5).

Jesus had spoken of His own sufferings in terms of drinking a cup and being baptized (Matt. 20:22–23). In the institution of the supper, He likened the cup to His blood, shed for the remission of sins (Matthew 26:27–28). The picture was one familiar to His disciples and is not an unfamiliar one today. To “drink the cup” means to undergo a challenging experience, and “not my cup of tea” means to reject a particular course of action. The fact that some trophies are shaped like cups suggests the winners have had to “swallow a lot” and endure demanding experiences.

Jesus could take the cup because the Father mixed it and gave it to Him. He did not contend with the will of the Father. He came to do the Father’s will and to finish the work that the Father gave Him to do. "I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart" (Ps. 40:8). Jesus knew that He had nothing to fear, for the Father had measured and mixed the contents of the cup.

This is a valuable lesson to us. We need never fear the cups that the Father puts into our hands. First, our Savior has gone before us, drinking the cup, and we are only following in His steps. We need not fear the cup, for the Father has lovingly prepared it for us. If we ask for bread, He will never give us a stone, and the cup that He prepares will never contain anything harmful to us. We may know pain and heartbreak, but one day He will turn that pain into glory.

Jesus willfully gave Himself over to His enemies. They bound Him and led Him away to Annas' house, which was not far off. Annas had been high priest until deposed by the Romans; now his son-in-law Caiaphas was high priest. God had appointed one man to be high priest for life. It is easy to see that the Jewish religious establishment was in a sad condition. It was generally thought that the high priest’s family controlled the temple “business.” Jesus twice cleansed the temple, and these actions must have roused their anger toward Him.

The “trial” before Annas was more like an informal hearing. It was illegal. It was brutal. Suppose a guard was allowed to hit a prisoner! Imagine a man interrogating a prisoner without an office!

Annas, of course, was seeking some kind of evidence on which to base an accusation that would lead to a verdict of capital punishment. What gospel did Jesus preach? Was it crazy? Jesus told him to ask the people who heard Him because He said nothing secretly. In fact Annas himself could have come and listened!

What about the disciples of our Lord? Were they organized to overthrow the government? Did not one of them use his sword in the garden? Jesus was careful not to say anything about His disciples. Imagine it: while Peter is in the courtyard denying his Lord, Jesus is on trial protecting Peter!
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Jewish law demanded the summoning of witnesses before the interrogation of a prisoner. Annas broke that law, and at last the council got false witnesses. Jesus knew His rights (“bear witness of the evil”—John 18:23), but He did not demand them. When we suffer for no cause of our own, we must remember the example he has left us (1 Pet. 2:19–25; 4:12–19).