Can You Drink the Cup?

 Can You Drink the Cup?

Mark 10:32-45[1]

I think we as a people have a hard time with suffering these days. For decades, we have tried to keep suffering “at arm’s length.” And to some extent we’ve tried to remove it from our experience of life altogether. But suffering remains a part of life, and trying to avoid it only makes it worse. Other societies recognize this and accept suffering as a “normal” part of life. When it comes, they grieve as we all do, but they don’t make it into a “catastrophe” that “should” not have happened. In a very real sense, our efforts to distance ourselves from suffering only make it worse when it comes knocking on our door.

There was a time when things were very different. Our ancestors who settled this land lived with hardships that even the strongest of us cannot fathom. My great-grandfather’s family consisted of nine siblings originally. Four of them died as children. That was simply one of the aspects of life for many families in that day. But they were proud to make the sacrifices they did because they knew that they were building a better future for their children and their children’s children. And we used to celebrate the sufferings they endured and honor them for the sacrifices they made. It’s hard to do that when we think that what’s “normal” is to avoid suffering in life.

In our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus tries to tell his disciples for the third time that he is going to undergo great suffering. And for the third time, their response reveals that they really don’t understand at all. This time it’s James and John, two of Jesus’ “inner circle” of disciples. They asked Jesus to do for them “whatever we ask of you” (Mk. 10:35)! Their request is truly astounding. They ask for the privilege of sitting at his right and left hand when he came in his “glory.” James and John, like the rest of the disciples, still thought that Jesus had come to restore the glory of David’s kingdom in all its might, wealth, and prestige. Even though Jesus had just warned them again that he was going to be condemned and beaten and killed, they simply could not hear that.

Jesus answers their request with a question of his own: “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?” (Mk 10:38). He knows that he means the “cup” of suffering that he is soon going to undergo. They rather casually say, “We are able” (Mk 10:39)! In response, Jesus makes a rather ominous statement: “The cup that I drink you will drink”! They don’t realize it, but he’s trying to tell them again that if they want to follow him on the path that will lead him to the cross, they too must expect to suffer. In fact, Mark’s Gospel reminds us later that the ones who wound up on Jesus’ “right and left” were the two “bandits” who were crucified with him (Mk 15: 27)!

Although their request for “places of honor” was inconsistent with Jesus’ life and completely out of place in God’s kingdom, Jesus tries again to teach them. He had already taught them that if they wanted to follow him they must “deny themselves” (Mk. 8:34) and “lose their lives” for his sake (Mk. 8:35). He had also already taught them that “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all” (Mk. 9:35). Now he tries to teach them again that “whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all” (Mk 10:43-44). If they want to follow Jesus, they must be prepared to give themselves away as servants and even “slaves” of all (Mk. 10:44). More than that, they had to be prepared to “drink the cup” of suffering as he would.

And to reinforce the lesson, he once again pointed to his own destiny, that “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mk 10:45). As the scripture lesson from Hebrews reminds us, Jesus “learned obedience through what he suffered” (Heb 5:8), that is, by giving his life on the cross for the sake of us all. Following him would entail no less for them. It would mean giving themselves away for others. It would mean being willing to “drink the cup” by sacrificing themselves and even suffering for the benefit of others.

We used to believe in that in our society. In fact, we had a saying for it: “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required.”[3] There was a time when we believed that the more you had, the more advantages you could count, the more you were expected to serve. The more opportunities you were handed, the more you were expected to give yourself away for the benefit of others. That seems to have gone by the wayside these days. It seems we’re more concerned about what’s in our own best interest rather than making sacrifices for others.

But maybe it’s time we try to recover the commitment to serve others sacrificially, following Jesus’ example.[3] Jesus suffered and died for us, so that we might have new life now, and a hope for a future. And he calls us to drink the same “cup” of suffering and sacrifice that he did. I guess the question we all have to face is “can you drink the cup”? Are we willing to “learn obedience” by what we suffer for the sake of others just as Jesus did? That’s the path Jesus walked, and he calls every one of us to that same path. He calls us all to drink the cup of suffering and sacrifice for the benefit of others. Being willing to do so as Jesus did is what it means to follow him.[4]

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[1] © Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, Ph. D., on 10/17/2021 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Although President John F. Kennedy was famous for quoting this verse, it originated with Jesus (cf. Lk. 12:48)! See Mark Liberman, “The Tangled History of a Mangled Maxim,” http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives /004100.html. 

[3] Henri Nouwen, Here and Now, 101, calls it, “the way of downward mobility, the descending way of Jesus. It is the way toward the poor, the suffering, the marginal, the prisoners, the refugees, the lonely, the hungry, the dying, the tortured, the homeless.” 

[4] Cf. Adela Yarbro Collins, Mark, 498: “servanthood and the cross are linked in the life and death of Jesus” and therefore also in the lives of those who follow him.