Can I confess something to you? I want to be brutally honest here. I’m a Christian, but Good Friday feels like just another day to me. The only “good” I see in it comes from its inauguration of the weekend. Don’t get me wrong – I’ll try to reflect some today on what Good Friday truly represents, but if the past is any indicator, my reflection will be minimal and the day will end with me unchanged and unmoved. Good Friday, bad Christian.
This shouldn’t be, though.
If you can relate, I hope this brief post will encourage us both to really drink in the goodness of Good Friday. Speaking of drinking, isn’t that what Good Friday is all about? Not the drinking we would normally think about, of course, but a different kind of drinking.
Let me explain.
A Cup for Us All
Think back for a second to the night preceding the crucifixion. Most of you are familiar with the story of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. That scene is famous for many reasons, but we primarily associate it with the night that Jesus sweat drops of blood. Do you remember what caused Him to sweat drops of blood, though? Do you remember what He prayed when He asked His Father for another way?
Facing the imminence of His death on the cross, Jesus became sorrowful to the point of death, sweating drops of blood, and His words were, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” The picture in this scene is almost startling to the Christian mind. What could cause Jesus – King of kings and Lord of lords – so much sorrow and troubling that He would act this way? That He would not only sweat drops of blood, but that He would look at the cup He was about to drink and ask God to remove it from Him? Exactly what was in that cup?
Psalm 75:8 gives us a hint, as it tells us, “For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked from the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.” Jeremiah 25:15 refers to the same cup as the “cup of the wine of wrath.” So we see that there’s a cup filled with God’s wrath and it’s intended for the wicked, for the sinner. But Jesus was without sin, right? He was the furthest thing from wicked. Was God’s wrath really what Jesus saw when He looked at the cup that night in the garden?
Jesus Drank Our Cup
We know the answer to that question, for this is why we celebrate Good Friday. God’s wrath is exactly what Jesus saw, and it’s exactly what He drank on the cross the next day. This is why it should never be the case that Good Friday pass by with our hearts unmoved and unchanged. You see, placed before each and everyone of us is a very real, very horrible cup. It’s a cup that’s filled to the brim with God’s wrath, a wrath we all deserve, and there’s not one single thing we can do to get rid of the cup. Its contents must be drank.
But thanks be to God that Jesus drank the cup for us. Not only did he drink it, but he drained it down to the dregs, consuming every last drop, so that not one single drop remains for those who believe. And placed before us instead will be a very different cup, a cup filled to the brim with everlasting life.
Good Friday, indeed. Even the drops owing to my failure as a Christian today were consumed.
I pray this beautiful truth affect us deeply this Good Friday. May we together take a moment to reflect on, and be thankful for what Jesus did for us on the cross, for the exchange that He made for us – our cup of wrath for His cup of life and joy. May we drink deeply from His cup today and truly thirst no more.
Muse in the Morning 