On the eve of Jesus’ crucifixion, while praying in the garden of Gethsemane, all three synoptic gospels report the same: Jesus prayed for a “cup” to be removed from him. This begs a few questions: what is the cup, and why did Jesus want it removed from him?
Here’s the context. Jesus has had the Last Supper with his disciples, and afterward they head to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prays. Now, Jesus knows what is coming for him – his arrest, his trial, his torture, his crucifixion, and his death.
And so, what does our Lord do in that hour? He prays. He prays in passionate desperation. His prayers are so spiritually filled and emotionally laden, they are so heavy on his heart and psyche that his body actually goes through a condition called hematidrosis, a rare but documented condition where under extreme distress, a person’s blood capillaries can burst and come out of a person’s skin, giving the appearance of sweating blood, mostly occurring in the face and forehead, just as it is recorded to have happened for Jesus.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record the same thing. Let’s read each of the verses.
Matthew 26:39
And going a little farther [Jesus] fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
Mark 14:36
And [Jesus] said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
And Luke 22:44 records it like this, “And being in agony [Jesus] prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground…”
Meaning, in the garden, Jesus faced a level of stress that affected his physical body in a very profound and unique way – he suffered hematidrosis and began sweating blood.
But what was Jesus so nervous about? It was not just the crucifixion that he knew was coming; it wasn’t just the cross, it was “this cup.”
What cup would make Jesus so filled with anxiety that he’d sweat blood?
The simple answer is this: It was the cup of God’s wrath.
Jesus knew he was going to face not just the Roman torture of crucifixion, but he was going to drink the cup of the wrath of God, which was to be poured out for the sins of mankind.
While the Gospel of John does not record the same prayer regarding the cup as Matthew, Mark, and Luke, John does record that on that same night, when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, Peter put up a fight to stop the arrest. Jesus rebuked Peter for this and responded in John 18:11, which says, “So Jesus said to Peter, ‘Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?’”
In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus prayed against the cup in the garden. But now, coming out of the garden, John records that Jesus has embraced his fate, and the cup he first prayed against is now the cup he will not be stopped from drinking.
The pouring out of a cup as a symbol of God’s wrath against sin and sinners is woven throughout the Old Testament, from places such as Isaiah 15:17 to Psalms 75:8 to Jeremiah 25:15, where we read this:
“Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: ‘Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.’” Jeremiah 25:15
And this theme is carried into the New Testament. When speaking of the judgment people will endure in the end times for worshipping the beast, Revelation 14:10 says, “he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger…”
To pay and atone for the sins of the world, Jesus was to endure the punishment for those sins, and the punishment for sin was to drink the cup of God’s wrath. Physically, what we see is Jesus’ humiliation, his scourging, his torture, his six hours on the Cross, and his death, but what he endured spiritually is harder for us to see. He suffered the spiritual wrath of God, and it was the anticipation of that, not the Cross, but the cup which caused Jesus to sweat blood.
The Bible says that with a loud cry, Jesus gave up his spirit and died (Matthew 27:50). About this loud cry of Jesus, RC Sproul says, “His scream was the scream of the damned. For us.” Meaning, on the Cross, Jesus suffered the spiritual hell of enduring God’s wrath until it killed him.
Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath against our sin, taking our punishment, but he rose to life on the third day, giving us eternal life. So, place your faith in him, and you will not drink the cup of God’s wrath; rather, you get to drink the cup of God’s covenant, his promise to us, a promise of redemption from sin and a restored relationship with him.
