Jesus Drank of “This Cup” of Our Father for Each One of Us - Morning by Morning, April 17, 2025

“Coming out, (Jesus) went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him. When He came to the place, He said to them, ‘Pray that you may not enter into temptation.’

“And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, ‘Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.’ Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

“When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. Then He said to them, ‘Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation’” (Luke 22:39-46).

Written and sent out from the morning prayer time of Tommy Hays each day.

God bless you and may you have a great day!
—Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries

http://messiah-ministries.org

Transcript

Morning by Morning, April 17, 2025 - Jesus Drank of “This Cup” of Our Father for Each One of Us

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Holy are You and worthy is Your name. I thank You for Your journey to the Cross, that I can know the power and love Your Resurrection. ...

“Coming out, (Jesus) went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him. When He came to the place, He said to them, ‘Pray that you may not enter into temptation.’

“And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, ‘Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.’ Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

“When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. Then He said to them, ‘Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation’” (Luke 22:39-46).

“This cup” of Your sufferings, “this cup” of the Father, was the cup of our salvation. “This cup” was the offering of Your body and Your blood as Your eternal Sacrifice in complete trust and total surrender to the will and purposes of God our Father. And in Your prayer of surrender, You willingly chose to drink of “this cup” for us—that we could be forgiven and free, healed and whole, restored and redeemed to live forever with You in deeply personal relationship with God our Father through Your choice of mercy and love.

“This cup” was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, declared almost eight hundred years before, speaking with astonishing accuracy and complete fulfillment of the suffering Servant of God, of the Messiah, who would suffer and die for us, in humble obedience and faithful surrender to the will of God:

“Who has believed our report?
 And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
 And as a root out of dry ground.
 He has no form or comeliness;
 And when we see Him,
 There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
 He is despised and rejected by men,
 A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
 And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
 He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

“Surely He has borne our griefs
 And carried our sorrows;
 Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
 Smitten by God, and afflicted.
 But He was wounded for our transgressions,
 He was bruised for our iniquities;
 The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
 And by His stripes we are healed.
 All we like sheep have gone astray;
 We have turned, every one, to his own way;
 And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

“He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
And they made His grave with the wicked—
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.

“Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;
 He has put Him to grief.
 When You make His soul an offering for sin,
 He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
 And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
 By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
 For He shall bear their iniquities.
 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,
 And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,
 Because He poured out His soul unto death,
 And He was numbered with the transgressors,
 And He bore the sin of many,
 And made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:1-12).

“This cup” cost You more than we can comprehend. Literally all the sin of the world would be laid upon You (John 1:29). He “who knew no sin” was made “to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). In that world-changing, life-changing moment to come at the end of Your suffering on the Cross, the Father would have to turn His face away in that gut-wrenching, hell-shaking instant, as You become sin for us and took the penalty, the chastisement, the judgment of our sin upon Yourself.

That’s the moment You cried out from the Cross: “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? ... “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34)

With all the sin of the world upon You, with all its consequence of sin and death, sickness and disease, and all that was less than the will of God in our world laid upon You, Your suffering was complete, as You drank of the Father’s cup.

Forgive us for ever taking this for granted. Forgive us for ever turning our face away from what You have done for us. More than we may ever know; costing You more than we may every imagine.

But Your choice of obedience, despite this unspeakable suffering to come, was determined in the Garden of Gethsemane, there on the Mount of Olives, as You wrestled with God the Father in agonizing prayer, even to the point of sweating “great drops of blood.” Despite all that was come, all that You would endure, You chose the path of obedience, the path of the faithful Servant—“Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.”

And in choosing to drink of “this cup,” You were also showing us the way—the way of humility, obedience, surrender, and trust. Your prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane prepared the way of the Lord for Your victory on the Cross at Calvary and Resurrection from the Empty Tomb.

On this day of Holy Week, on a day we remember the Passover and Your journey to the Cross, as we remember so much of what happened that holy day long ago—the Last Supper of the Passover Meal, the washing of Your disciples' feet, Your betrayal by Judas, Your arrest by the soldiers—we remember Your prayer of complete surrender and total trust in the perfect will and purposes of God. 

As You prepared the way of the Lord for us, in humility, obedience, surrender, and trust, may Your Holy Spirit prepare the way of the Lord in us. You showed us the way, for You are “the Way and the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6). May we pray as You prayed—“Nevertheless, not my will, but Yours, be done.” In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.