Lenten Meditation

Our community holds a series of Lenten lunches hosted by various churches. This past Wednesday was Bethlehem's turn to host; below is what I shared with the congregation:

Are we drinking the cup of Jesus Christ? Am I drinking it? Are you drinking it?

In the Gospels, as Jesus is making His way to Jerusalem, as He approaches Palm Sunday, James and John and their mother come to Jesus, asking that when Jesus comes into His Kingdom that one will sit on Jesus’s right and the other on His left.

Jesus proceeds to give them a lesson in servant-leadership; pointing out that the Son of Man didn’t come to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many – and while to sit or His right or left is not His to give – He does tell them that they will drink of His cup and be baptized with His baptism.

Are we drinking from the cup of Jesus Christ?

This is the time of year when we like to clean things up – after all it’s Easter season, it’s spring, the flowers are up, the trees are blooming, and we want things to be pretty. We want the Cross of Christ to be pretty, and if it must, if it absolutely must, be ugly and horrid on Good Friday, well then, come Easter let’s clean it up and keep it clean until Good Friday of next year.

And while we’ll cleaning the Cross up, let’s clean the cup of Christ up – so that if we must taste it, if we must drink of it – that it not be bitter, that it not contain suffering for others, that it not demand self-denial.

For surely when Jesus says that we are to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him, surely when He teaches that whoever will save His life will lose it and that whoever loses it for His sake will save it – when Jesus says these things – surely He fails to recognize the comforts we are accustomed to – surely He misses the whole point that we are called to live safe and secure and prosperous lives. Whatever in the world is the matter with Jesus?

Are we drinking from the cup of Jesus Christ?

And then there is Christ’s totally misplaced and uninformed command to us that we make disciples of all people groups. Does he really expect us to tell our neighbors and friends and families and coworkers about Him? Doesn’t Jesus understand that religion is a private matter?

Jesus’ death was no private matter. The shame heaped upon Jesus was no private matter. Jesus identification with us – His taking our sin, our death, our corrupt souls, our depraved minds, our filthy hearts upon Himself and into Himself was, in many ways, no private matter. Let us not forget that we were enemies of God.

Paul writes that God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Are we drinking from the cup of Jesus Christ?

How can we enter into Holy Week without carrying our cross and drinking from His cup? How can we contemplate Good Friday, how can we celebrate Easter, how can we live beyond Easter – without being women and men whose distinguishing feature is that they are dying daily so that others might live…drinking the cup of Jesus Christ?

Our God, the Trinitarian God, the One True God – is the God who suffered for us, died for us, rose for us, and comes again to us – He is the God who bears scars for us. Can we see God’s scars today?

George MacDonald wrote, "The Son of God suffered unto the death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like His."

What do our sufferings look like today? Not the general sufferings of humanity and our common condition – but sufferings that are the result of carrying the Cross, of drinking the Cup, of obedience to Jesus Christ?

Jesus says that except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and dies, that it abides alone, but that if it dies that it will bring forth much fruit. Do we see what that looks like in Christ? And if we see it in Christ do we see it in ourselves, in one another, in our churches?

German pastor Detrick Bonhoeffer wrote, “When Jesus calls a man, or woman, he bids him come and die.”

Paul writes to the Philippian church that he wants to know the power of Christ’s resurrection and the fellowship/koinonia of His sufferings. What does this look like in my life, in our life, in your life?

Are we drinking from the cup of Jesus Christ?

Missionary Jim Elliot wrote, He is no fool who loses what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

If we are not dying with Christ then we are not living with Christ. If we are not suffering with Christ for others then we are not following and serving Christ. If we are not laying our lives down for those around us, if we are not living sacrificial lives – as individuals, as families, as churches –

Christ calls us to know Him in His sufferings, He calls us to know the glory of living for Him and others, He calls us to know the joy of bringing others to Him, He calls us to experience His glory and joy when we bear His shame, His rejection, when we drink His cup.

Paul writes that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us.

Who will you talk to about Jesus this week?

Whose hands will you hold as you pray for them?

Who will you share your material resources with?

Who will you interrupt your life for?

How will I obey the Christ of the Cross? How will His Cross work in me?

He is no fool, who loses what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.

Did I mention that this cup is transformative?

For if we will drink it in Gethsemane, and if we will drink it with Christ on the Cross…well then…we’ll also drink it on Easter morning…we’ll drink it in the Resurrection.

What shall we do with the Cup?

What will I do?

What will you do?