The Cups

Recently my wife mentioned to me that there must be a connection between the “bitter cup” that the Savior endured and the cup of the Sacrament that we take each week.  As I looked at Luke’s account of that fateful night when the Savior suffered, I found that in the same chapter we indeed read of both of these cups.  During the Last Supper the apostles ate with the Savior and then He shared the first Sacrament with them.  After he blessed and gave the bread to them, “likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22:20).  Only a few hours later the Savior was suffering in the garden, praying to the Father, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:40).  The Savior did partake of His cup, and because of that we have the opportunity to partake of the physical Sacrament cup.  In the end we must choose to partake of that cup worthily with all that it entails or to partake of a different cup that awaits those who reject Christ. 

                The Savior testified in two places of how he partook of the bitter cup from His Father.  Shortly after His resurrection, He told the Nephites, “I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me” (3 Nephi 11:11).  In our dispensation He revealed these words through the prophet Joseph: “Which suffering caused myself… to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook” (D&C 19:18-19).  The scary part for us is that we must also choose to symbolically drink from a cup like the Savior.  He asked His apostles who wanted a place at His side: “Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of?... Ye shall drink indeed of my cup” (Matt. 20:22-23).  Elder Holland made this comment about this exchange, “He was not mocking them by offering the cup of his suffering rather than a throne in his kingdom. No, he had never been more serious. The cup and the throne were inextricably linked and could not be given separately” (see here).  To fully follow Christ we must be able to drink of the bitter cups that may come to disciples as they seek to be faithful.  If we don’t, we get another kind of cup that is saved for those who reject Christ.  The people of King Benjamin prayed, “That we may not drink out of the cup of the wrath of God” for the angel had spoken of the “wicked who have drunk out of the cup of the wrath of God, which justice could no more deny unto them than it could deny that Adam should fall because of his partaking of the forbidden fruit” (Mosiah 3:26, 5:5).  Certainly this is a cup that we want to avoid at all costs, otherwise it may one day be said of us, “For they are unclean, and no unclean thing can inherit the kingdom of God; but they are cast out, and consigned to partake of the fruits of their labors or their works, which have been evil; and they drink the dregs of a bitter cup” (Alma 40:26).  Our task is to choose the cup the Savior has to give, even if it comes with its own sacrifices and suffering, for it is far better than the alternative cup that awaits the wicked. 

                Paul told the Corinthians, “Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils” (1 Corinthians 10:21).  We must choose between the two cups: the cup of discipleship or the cup left for those who ultimately reject the atonement.  As we partake physically of the cup of the Sacrament each week we can remember that it is the cup of Christ that we have committed to drink.