Reprinted from Trumpet and Torch Ministries
Thursday, April 17,2025
“Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink,
and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
~ Matthew 20:22b
A cupbearer is “one who gives someone something to drink, especially in a royal household.” In the Bible, a cupbearer was an officer of high rank to a monarch. The cupbearer held an honored position and enjoyed “the unreserved confidence of the king.” After all, the cupbearer was responsible for “taste-testing” the king’s drink to verify that it was not poisoned. Trustworthiness was therefore an essential qualification on a cupbearer’s resume. The Old Testament references a few notable cupbearers, such as the forgetful cupbearer in Joseph’s story (Genesis 40:23) and the praying cupbearer to the king of Persia, Nehemiah (Nehemiah 1). Throughout the Scriptures, the cup is often seen as a symbol of fellowship (1 Corinthians 10:16) or to signify God’s wrath (Jeremiah 25:15; Revelation 16:19). “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39b).
As we journey through this Holy Week and reflect on the last days of our Lord’s Passion with hearts full of gratitude for our Savior’s atoning sacrifice for our sin, let us fix our eyes adoringly upon the only true and trustworthy Cupbearer who sits at the right hand of the throne of God – the gloriously obedient Servant who willingly drank the poisoned cup of the wrath of God and died an excruciating and agonizing death on our behalf (Philippians 2:7-8), so that we could receive His abundant and eternal life. “This is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world” (John 4:42b)!
“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
(John 1:29b)
At the onset of our Lord’s earthly ministry, John the Baptist identified Jesus as the Paschal Lamb – the perfect, spotless lamb given as the substitutionary sacrifice for our sins. In the Old Testament, the Israelites sacrificed lambs at the Passover feast (Exodus 12:21) and offered unblemished lambs as part of the sacrificial system (Leviticus 14:10-25). Jesus Christ is the ultimate sacrificial Lamb, who was provided in our place to pay the price for our sins. “…you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18, 19).
Passover is the first of three annual pilgrimage feasts required in the Law for all Jewish males to appear before the Lord (Exodus 23:14-17; Deuteronomy 16:16). The feast of Passover commemorates the night of the tenth plague in Egypt when the firstborn males of Israel were “passed over” and delivered from death (Exodus 12:13), and points to the ultimate Deliverer and Savior of all people – Jesus Christ. “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast” (1 Corinthians 5:7b, 8a).
The Passover meal is observed with four courses and includes four cups to be drunk during the meal. As our Cupbearer, Jesus became the living embodiment of the cups and courses of the Passover meal. Our Savior not only drank the cup of suffering, which was intended for sinful humanity, but He also became that cup poured out as a drink offering for the world and is the only One who fills our cup with His abundant life (John 10:10). Jesus, our Cupbearer, humbly and powerfully demonstrated for us a life that serves, sacrifices, and satisfies. This is the life He desires to impart to us if we are willing to drink the cup He drank. “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38).
“With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it
until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
(Luke 22:15-16)
THE CUP THAT CLEANSES – “I will bring you out from under the yoke” (Exodus 6:6a)
Scripture Reading: John 13:1-20
As the hour of His suffering and sacrifice was upon Him, Jesus took the opportunity to demonstrate the full extent of His love in a selfless, humble act of service that took His disciples by surprise. “Jesus, knowing the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, and took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded” (vv. 3-5).
The Cup of Sanctification is the first of the four cups of the Passover meal, which describes the redemption story recorded in Exodus 6:6-7. “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). Typically, the drinking of the first cup is followed by a ceremonial washing of the hands; however, Jesus used that opportunity to illustrate the full revelation of the Exodus story as He humbly took the form of a servant and poured out His pure love upon His disciples and their dirty feet. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:5-8). The disciples had been vying for position and power in God’s Kingdom, even arguing who among them was the greatest (Mark 10:37; Luke 22:24), yet with one humble act of servitude by their Master, the tables in their hearts were turned over; except one, whose hardened heart would not be melted even by such an extraordinary display of love and devotion. Even when the Lord declared that the one who would dip his hand in the dish would betray Him, Judas felt no conviction in his heart (Matthew 26:20-25). Like the Israelites, who stood before the waters of the Red Sea with the shackles of slavery behind them and the land of promise before them, realizing that the path they were called to walk required a baptism of faith and trust and a willingness to be purged of the self-life and complete submission to the will of God, we too cannot be saved nor advance in the spiritual life, unless we first let our Cupbearer wash us. May we not be like Peter, who resisted the Lord’s ways, nor like Naaman, who rejected Elisha’s instructions to wash in the Jordan and be healed (2 Kings 5:1-14). “…if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” (v. 13). Let us instead be willing to follow the Lord’s ways, and not our own. To trust the path He has prepared for us and to receive what He has purchased for us by His loving sacrifice (Ephesians 2:8). “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).
There are things that the Lord is working and accomplishing in our lives that we may not understand at the time, but we can always trust that He is working all things for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28). “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). One person who learned the difficult but important lessons of patiently waiting and humbly trusting the Lord was Joseph (Genesis 37). Betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, wrongfully accused and imprisoned, and forgotten by those he served, he had every reason to feel abandoned by God; yet, the divine vision of a future promise given to him in a dream from the Lord gave him glimmers of hope amid all his suffering. Then one day his story took a dramatic turn when a forgetful cupbearer remembered that Joseph’s act of service towards him could be helpful to the king (Genesis 41:9-16). May Joseph’s journey encourage our own and help us to see that the tragic twists and trials in life that seem to hinder or harm us are the very instruments the Lord is using to shape and mold us into the image of His glorious Son. When Joseph took his cup, filled with a lifetime of bitterness and resentment, and planted it in his brother Benjamin’s sack as a test, we see in it an illustration of the wondrous workings of God in how He uses the cup of sanctification to cleanse and purify us. The cup was used to bring Joseph’s brother Judah to a place of complete surrender. His cry for an exchanged life (Genesis 44:33) unleashed a fountain of forgiveness from the heart of Joseph (Genesis 45). The weight of the accusations that had been piled up against his brothers for years had finally become a burden they could no longer bear, they crumbled under the stroke of this final crushing blow (a silver cup in a sack); and the only one who could lift the burden from them was the one whom God had sent ahead of them to save their lives from impending famine and death. “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive” (Genesis 50:20). This is a beautiful picture of what Christ has done for us. May we receive with humble and repentant hearts the cup the Lord has given to us.
“Come! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
and you who have no money, come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for what is not bread,
and your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
and let your soul delight itself in abundance.
Incline your ear, and come to Me,
hear, and your soul shall live.”
(Isaiah 55:1-3)
Let us drink in this first cup our faithful Cupbearer has poured for us. As we feast upon the rich portion of the Word the Lord has prepared for us in Himself today, let us not rush away from the table but instead take the time to drink it all in. Let us linger and meditate on and marinate in the life-giving, soul-satisfying Word and submit to the Holy Spirit as He illuminates our understanding and reveals to us the deeper truths He has purposed for our lives. Let us bow our hearts in humble worship to offer up a prayer of gratitude to our Savior as we soak in the beauty of holiness and rest in the stillness in this Holy Week and receive the cleansing and purifying our hearts so desperately need. “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth” (John 17:17-19).
“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.”
(1 Thessalonians 5:23)
And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them,
“If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”
Then He took a little child and set him in the midst of them.
And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them,
“Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me;
and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me…
For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name,
because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you,
he will by no means lose his reward.”
(Mark 9:35-37, 41)
Trumpet and Torch Ministries
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