Christian Living

The Willing

by Thomas Kirkpatrick
07/12/21
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“But Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” They said to Him, “We are able.” (Matthew 20:22)

Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem for His final time. He was going there to complete His work according to the will of His Father in Heaven. His three-year ministry of teaching the Word of God and the truths of the Kingdom of God are near finished. The training of His Disciples was nearly complete, and they soon would be commissioned as Apostles. Now He was on His way to Jerusalem to face crucifixion, to lay down His life as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. Jesus is the Lamb of God, the only one who could carry the burden of our salvation.

The disciples and their entourage had yet to fully comprehend and understand the events that would soon unfold before them. They still had the belief that Jesus would enter Jerusalem and overthrow the Roman government’s control over the Jewish nation. Jesus would retake the throne of David and rule with an iron scepter and establish a Jewish state that the world would envy. Judas’ greatest motivation may have been that he would sit upon a throne and rule with great power. How disappointed he must have been when later he heard the words of Jesus. “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.” (John 12:27)

Along the way, the wife of Zebedee the mother of James and John, wanted to secure a position for her sons and approached Jesus. She asked Jesus if her two sons James and John, could be seated, one on the right and the other on the left of His throne when He established His Kingdom. Jesus answered with our text, saying that she did not know what she was asking. Then He turned to James and John and asked them if they could drink the cup set before Him. They answered that they were able.

“We are able.” I wonder if they truly knew what they were saying and if they knew what cup they were to drink. Did they fancy themselves as sitting upon thrones and ruling over a tribe of Israel? It is what Jesus had told them would be one of their rewards. “And Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Matthew 19:28) They will, but did they think that this would happen now that they were going to Jerusalem? Sitting upon a throne ruling over a nation is nothing to be overly anxious for but what laid ahead of the disciples was far harder to accept. Each of them, except for John, was martyred. Peter was crucified as Jesus was only he chose to be crucified upside down because he felt unworthy to be crucified as His Lord. And John, who was spared a martyr’s death, was boiled in oil but survived.

“We are able.” They may have based that statement on what they believed to happen rather than what Jesus knew would happen to each of them. They may have made that statement not fully understanding the cup that Jesus would have to drink. I cannot help but wonder what they would have said if they had known. Rather they knew or not; history has proven that they were able and did drink the cup, all of it. When I look at the word “able,” I realize many things that I can do, but the question is, am I willing.

I am willing, and I am willing to live a Christ-like life according to the will of the Heavenly Father. According to His plan and purpose for my life. I was created for a purpose, it may not be the purpose I thought, but it works when I abide in His purpose for my life. I lived most of my life in defeat to prove that point to myself. God has a more excellent plan for my life. A plan that leads to victory through Christ. His plan is laid out before me and prepared even before I was willing, and all I need to do is walk in His plan. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

The short answer is that we are called to plant the seed of His Word in every heart that will receive it. It is God who causes the seed of His truth to flourish. Just that calling alone can and will lead to suffering in our life. That is because we live in a world that is fractured by sin. The hope before us is that if we are willing and endure for His sake, then we will reign with Him in His glory. “If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us.” (2 Timothy 2:12)

Jesus knows the suffering that we must endure, and He will lead us through it to the greater victory that is just ahead of us. Men can afflict great pain to the mortal body, cause tremendous stress to the mental turmoil of the mind, but men are powerless to destroy the eternal spirit that the Holy Spirit empowers. “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9) We must take comfort in the truth that this world is temporary and what we must endure is temporary. We strive for eternal life, where death is no longer a troubling thought, and love has conquered all. “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18)

There is nothing we can face here that Jesus has not already overcome. On the eve of His crucifixion, Jesus prayed to the Father the cup He was about to drink be removed. A prayer that is not an unreasonable request for us to make. But Jesus concluded the prayer by saying that it be not His will, but the Father’s will be done. “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” (Luke 22:42) Jesus knew that this was His purpose, that you and I would be lost if He did not accomplish it. Therefore He was willing. “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.” (John 12:27)

The cup that Jesus drank is the cup that we, as followers of Him, must be willing and able to drink. It is something that all can do, and few will. If you desire to walk the streets of gold in the Kingdom of God, if you desire that your family and loved ones walk with you there, if your neighbor is welcome to walk holding your hand, then be willing to drink the cup that Jesus drank. If we are to desire as James and John to sit to His right or left, then we must be willing and able to suffer with Him. “And raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:6)

Thomas N Kirkpatrick

First Baptist Church of Durant, December 27, 2017