Cup of Wrath

In the Garden of Gethsemane, the night before Jesus' crucifixion, Jesus prayed, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me."  Was Jesus dreading the physical pain that he would experience on the cross?  As excruciating as that would be, the cup to which Jesus was referring was more than the physical pain of the scourging, beatings, or having nails driven through his body.  Christ even instructed his disciples not to fear those who can kill the body, then added "but I will show you whom you should fear:  Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you fear Him!" (Luke 12:4-5)

John MacArthur writes:

"Clearly, what Christ dreaded most about the cross -- the cup from which He asks to be deliver if possible -- was the outpouring of divine wrath He would have to endure from His holy Father.  The cup was a well-known Old Testament symbol of divine wrath against sin. (Isaiah 51:17). . .There the cup symbolizes a judgment that God forces the wicked to drink.  They drink until they become drunk, and physically ill, and they vomit.  It is as if God says to the sinner, 'You like sin? Fine.  Drink your fill.'  And He makes them keep drinking of the consequences of their own sin, so that the very thing they sought after becomes the judgment He force-feeds them; the thing they loved becomes something that makes them sick and ultimately destroys them."  

MacArthur continues:

"So when Christ prayed that if possible the cup might pass from Him, He spoke of drinking the cup of divine judgement.  Do not imagine for a moment that Christ feared the earthly pain of crucifixion.  He would not have trembled at the prospect of what men could do to Him.  There was not one ounce of the fear of man in Him.  But the next day He would 'bear the sins of many' (Hebrews 9:28)--and the fullness of divine wrath would fall on Him. In some mysterious way that our human minds could never fathom, God the Father would turn His face from Christ the Son, and Christ would bear the full brunt of the divine fury against sin."

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

Quotations taken from The Murder of Jesus by John MacArthur