25 July 2013 - drinking problem

25 July 2013 - drinking problem

Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?”
They said to him, “We can.”

Of course, they are quick to respond because they don't know what chalice about which Jesus is speaking.  It isn't just some royal chalice to be used at a palace table.  The misunderstanding of James and John stems from their misunderstanding about what leadership in the kingdom truly is.  They want these positions for selfish reasons.  Jesus contrasts this with his motivation.

Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served
but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

The chalice Jesus drinks is diametrically opposed to the one James and John imagine.  It is a chalice of suffering and self-giving. Because Jesus it he empowers his followers to drink it as well.

“My chalice you will indeed drink,

James and John still imagine Jesus is building a mere earthly kingdom.  They just want the comfort that royal life offers.  But Jesus doesn't take up the chalice for it's own sake.  He doesn't establish his kingdom for any benefit to himself.  He drinks the chalice of the cross for James, for John, and for all of us.

The love which Jesus has for us when we are still selfish sinners has the power to wake us up from our own self-involved lives.  With it, all that we were once trying to avoid by building comfortable earthly kingdoms is transformed.

We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained;
perplexed, but not driven to despair;
persecuted, but not abandoned;
struck down, but not destroyed;
always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.

Initially the chalice we drink may taste bitter.  But Jesus transforms the chalice into the gateway to eternal life.

Those who sow in tears shall reap rejoicing.