Good Friday
Jn
18:1-19:42
4/3/15
So do you think the St. Louis Blues
will ever drink from the Cup? The Blues
are of course the National Hockey League team in St. Louis. Founded in 1967, they have never won the NHL championship.
They have never won the Stanley Cup.
The Stanley Cup is certainly the
most unique of all of the professional sports league trophies. There are in fact three Stanley Cups. There
is the original bowl of the "Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup", the authenticated
"Presentation Cup", and the "Replica Cup" at the Hall of
Fame. Strangely, while the NHL has control over both the trophy itself and its
associated trademarks, the league does not actually own the trophy, but instead
uses it by agreement with the two Trustees of the Cup.
The current Stanley Cup is topped
with a copy of the original bowl. It is
unique among sports trophies in that a team doesn’t get to keep it. Instead, they possess if for as long as they
are champion. It is also unique in that
the names of the winning players, coaches and club staff are engraved on the
cup. The bottom of the cup has five
bands, each of which can hold the names from thirteen winning teams. Since the practice of adding names would
eventually expand the cup up to a size that is impossible to manage, the bottom
of the cup is limited to five bands, and when all of them are full, the oldest
band is removed and placed in the Hockey Hall of Fame, and a new blank band is
added to the bottom.
Over the years, different traditions
have become attached to the Stanley Cup.
It has become a tradition for each member of the winning team to take a
lap around the rink with the Cup hoisted above his head. Players and staff gather at centre ice after
winning for a picture with the Cup.
However, the oldest tradition is
that of drinking champagne from the Stanley Cup. Since 1896 when the Winnipeg Victorias did
it, the winning team drinks champagne from the top bowl after victory. In hockey, “to drink from the Cup” is the
ultimate sign of victory and success.
Having never won the Stanley Cup, St. Louis Blues fans long for the day
when their team will finally the get chance to do it.
In the Passion of our Lord as it is
found in the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks of his need to “drink the cup.” Yet here, to drink from the cup has
completely different associations – associations that are deeply rooted in the
Old Testament. The fact that Jesus
describes his mission as drinking from the cup that the Father has given him, helps
us understand what Jesus Christ did for us on this day.
The Gospel lesson for Good Friday is
the Passion of our Lord as it is found in the Gospel of John. Tonight we will focus upon two verses which
say: “Then Simon Peter, having a
sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant and cut off his right ear.
(The servant's name was Malchus.) So Jesus said to Peter, ‘Put your sword into
its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”’”
Last night in the First Service of
the Triduum we heard John’s account of the Last Supper in chapter thirteen.
There, Jesus washed his disciples’ feet in a demonstration of humble
service. Chapters fourteen through
seventeen then include what is often called Jesus’ “Farewell Discourse” – a long
discussion by Jesus about his mission.
Our text begins in chapter eighteen as the group arrives at the Garden
of Gethsemane which was located on the other side of the Kidron Valley,
opposite Jerusalem.
Upon arrival, Jesus is confronted by
a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees
who came with lanterns and torches and weapons. They were led by Judas who is
identified as the betrayer. We are told
that he led them there because he knew that Jesus often went there. A garden on the other side of a valley, away
from Jerusalem, and at night – it was the perfect place and time to arrest
Jesus.
Faced with this group that had come
to arrest Jesus and take him away, true to form, Peter sprung into action. We
learn that he had a sword. He drew it and swung to defend Jesus. Yet this fisherman was no soldier and his
blow cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant. In response, Jesus said, “Put your sword into
its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?” Our Lord told Peter to put his sword away as
he asked a question for which the Greek assumes a positive answer.
Jesus describes the moment and what
it is leading to as drinking “the cup that the Father has given to me.” For
anyone who has read the Psalms and the Prophets in the Old Testament, the cup
reference is chilling and clear. For
example, Isaiah writes, “Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem,
you who have drunk
from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the
bowl, the cup of staggering.” Drinking from the cup is a metaphor for receiving
God’s wrath and judgment. As the
Psalmist says, “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 of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.” People and nations must drink all of the cup
– down to the very bottom. The results are not pretty, for as Jeremiah writes,
“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ’Drink, be drunk and vomit,
fall and rise no more, because of the sword that I am sending among you.’”
In the Old Testament it is Yahweh
who gives the cup of wrath for he is the one who executes judgment. He gives it to the nation of Israel when it
is disobedient and unfaithful. He gives
it to the wicked and the pagan nations.
But here, Jesus the Son of God says that the Father has given him the
cup. The Father gives the cup of wrath to the Son.
That is what tonight is about. Jesus goes to the cross in order to drink the
cup of God’s wrath. He goes knowing what
will happen. He goes because this is the
role that the Father has given to him.
In John’s Gospel Jesus is absolutely clear about what is going to happen
and why. Earlier, Jesus said, “For this
reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up
again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have
authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This command
I have received from my Father.”
Jesus had received from the Father the
command to lay down his life. And on the night when was betrayed our Lord made
it clear that his love for the Father was demonstrated by doing the Father’s
will. He said, “but I do as the Father
has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.”
Jesus Christ shows that he loves the
Father by keeping the Father’s command to drink the cup of wrath. And he does
this because often you don’t love the Father.
There are so many things, that at one time or another, you love more. You love money, status, sports, hobbies, and
pleasure more. You can try to
rationalize it in your mind. You can try
to ignore this reality. But that doesn’t
change the fact that it is true.
Jesus Christ shows that he loves the
Father by keeping the Father’s command to drink the cup of wrath. And he does
this because often you don’t keep the Father’s command. In his first epistle John wrote, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he
is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love
God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves
God must also love his brother.” You
talk a good game about loving God, but loving your brother is a different
matter altogether. You would rather put
yourself first and you brother second. You would rather speak about things that
put your brother in a bad light, than to speak up for your brother.
This is the sin present in your
life. It is the sin that merits the cup
of Gods’s wrath. You deserve to drink that
cup down to its dregs. But because the
Father loves you, in his unfathomable love he sent his Son into world as the
Word became flesh and dwelt among us. He
sent Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world by his death
in your place.
As Jesus spoke with Nicodemus in
chapter three he said, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have
eternal life.” Jesus was lifted up on
the cross on Good Friday in order to receive God’s wrath against your sin. He drank the cup of God’s wrath against sin
for your sake.
John says that God loved the world –
loved you – in this way “that whoever believes in him should not perish
but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn
the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” God sent the Son into the world in order to
condemn the Son, not the world. He sent the
Son into the world in order to condemn the Son, not you. And so now as you believe in Jesus Christ you
are saved – you have eternal life.
Tonight we hear Jesus cry “It is
finished!” as he is about to die on the cross.
He declares that he has kept the Father’s commandment. The cup
has been emptied. God’s wrath against
sin no longer brings you judgment.
Instead you are forgiven. You
have been saved through him. You
have life because “It is finished” is not the end. Drinking the cup was not the Father’s only
command to the Son, for Jesus said of his life, “I have authority to lay it
down, and I have authority to take it up again. This command I have received
from my Father.”
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