Lent Midweek 2 – March 19, 2025Psalm 25; Esther 13:9-11, 15-17St. Matthew 20:17-28
In the Name of the Father, and of the +
Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
After His third and most detailed
Passion prediction, the mother of James and John approaches Christ with a
request. She wants her sons to be seated at Christ’s left and right hands when
He comes into His kingdom. What mother wouldn’t want such positions of honor
and authority for her sons? The problem is that her question reveals that the
mother of the Sons of Thunder, like the rest of the disciples, doesn’t
understand what it means for Christ to come into His kingdom, what His
coronation will look like. This is an even more serious problem because Christ
just revealed to His disciples, for the third time, what that coronation would
be – His betrayal, flagellation, and death.
Rather than sharply rebuke the woman
and her sons for their lack of understanding, Christ asks if the boys are able
to drink the cup that He will drink and be baptized with the baptism that He is
baptized with. They boldly answer, “Yes!” Their response isn’t strictly
prideful. They are making a confession of their allegiance to Christ. They are
declaring their unwavering faith in His teachings and declaring they are ready
for such positions of high honor.
But of course, they do not understand
what they ask nor what they are saying in response to His question. To be fair
to these apostles, it would be very difficult to understand our Lord’s words in
their position. But standing on this side of the Resurrection, it is plain to
see that Christ is speaking of two distinct cups and two distinct baptisms.
When Christ poses the question to James
and John, He is referring to the cup of wrath and the baptism of death. The cup
of wrath is an Old Testament image of God’s anger and punishment of sin. It
appears 14 times in the Old Testament. Sometimes, the wicked can’t get enough
of the cup of wrath. God pours little into their mouths and they seem to
delight in their judgment.[1]
They become drunk on the wrath of God and intoxicated with the punishment of
their sins. This is reflected in the world when those who delight in sin want
to claim their temporal punishment is a badge of honor. Think of sexually
transmitted diseases and how those who endure are considered heroes, or at
least their struggle is to be admired.
Other times, the image of the cup of God’s wrath focuses on the image of intoxication itself.[2] A drunk staggers, and his perception of the world is distorted. So too, the wicked stagger and stumble against God’s created order and see the world through their own wickedness. These are not just the result of biological processes but are God’s wrath beginning to be poured out on the wicked. The inability to rightly see the world around you should be a wake-up call that something about you is wrong, but the prideful heart of man seeks to convince the soul that such distortion is good, even godly.
Such is what is going on when Christ
asks if James and John are able to drink the cup that He drinks. He is speaking
of this cup of wrath. He is speaking of drinking to the dregs, the very bottom,
of the cup of the Father’s wrath. He will drink from the cup of God’s wrath on
behalf of humanity. As He bears the sins of the world, He will take onto
Himself the just punishment that is due for those sins. He will not taste of
the cup. He will not sip of it. He will swallow it whole, consuming every drop.
The prideful hearts of the Sons of
Thunder make them think they are also able to drink this cup. Not only do they
think they are able, but they also think they are ready to drink
it. If Jesus can do it, so can they. They do not know what they are saying.
As for the baptism with which Christ is
baptized, it is true that we confess we believe in one baptism for the
forgiveness of sins. Yet we also recognize that Christ was baptized in the
Jordan River. His baptism was not to forgive His sins. He doesn’t have any. Our
usual way of describing Christ’s baptism was that it made our baptism
efficacious. His baptism is what soaks up the sins that our baptism washes
away. It was His anointing, marking Him as the acceptable sacrifice to the
Father.[3]
Although these things are dogmatically
true, I don’t think that is what Christ is talking about in this passage. The
baptism of which He speaks here is, again, His suffering and death. He will be “baptized,”
or washed, in the wrath of the Father. He will be drowned in the fiery waters
of hellish torment on the cross. St. Paul speaks this way when he says we are
baptized into a death like Christ’s.[4]
In this sense, Christ’s death is establishing the new birth of our baptism. He
is baptized into death to take the sting of death away. He descends into the death
of baptism so that He would rise again the third day, establishing the pattern
of our death to sin in Holy Baptism and our rising to a new life as the
baptized.
Christ alone drinks the cup of wrath to
the dregs and is baptized with death on the cross, but He also says that His
disciples will indeed drink His cup and be baptized with His baptism. We can
understand this in two ways. First, we can see the pattern established by
Christ’s cup and baptism. In this, we see Christ speaking of the cup of
affliction and baptism into the yoke of Christ. The cup of affliction is the
cross which all who would follow Christ are called to bear.
We must bear the suffering of sin and persecution. We endure affliction and pain, knowing that it is ultimately for our own good. It is chastisement for sin, not punishment for wickedness.[5] We gladly endure affliction because we look to our Lord, who suffered far more than we can imagine, and see in our suffering that we are being made in the image of Christ. We are made to conform to His holy life, suffering, and death so that we would be remade in the Resurrection, glorious even as He is glorious.[6]
The light yoke of Christ is received in
Holy Baptism.[7]
It is the crosshairs of Satan’s rage. Being marked as the baptized, we are also
marked for pursuit by the devil. He hates the things of God and you, beloved
child of God, are God’s most beloved possession. Therefore, Satan will doggedly
pursue you and seek to tear you away from the Father.
The other way we should understand the
disciples drinking His cup and being baptized with His baptism is exactly the
way that we normally understand these phrases. His cup is the cup of blessing,
the new testament in His blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.[8]
His baptism is the baptism of new birth, the washing of regeneration and renewal
in the Holy Spirit.[9]
These are the Holy Sacraments by which Christ dispenses the forgiveness of
sins. There is nothing left in the cup of wrath for Christ has swallowed it to
the dregs. It is now filled with the blood of the living sacrifice, the lamb
who takes away the sins of the world.[10]
The point to which Christ is driving
throughout this pericope is that He, the Son of Man, came “to give His life as
a ransom for many.”[11]
A ransom is a payment made in exchange for the life of another. Because of our
sin, we owe a great debt to God. Our lives are forfeit. In terms of debt, we
have neither enough to cover our debt nor even the correct currency. Our
righteousness will never be enough to climb out of debt. Transgress the least
of God’s law and you are guilty of it all. Because of original sin, every ounce
of our righteousness is tainted. It isn’t even a currency God will accept in
exchange for our debt to Him. Therefore, it is necessary that God become Man,
keep the Law perfectly in every jot and tittle, then offer His life in exchange
for your life. God alone has righteousness that is of sufficient quantity and
quality to satisfy the debt incurred by your sin.
And when Christ says “a ransom for
many,” He means “all.” He is not drawing a comparison between many and all. He
is drawing a comparison between many and one, Himself. “For if by the one man’s
offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the
one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.”[12]
The sacrifice of Christ filled the ransom debt of every man, from Adam to the
last child born on earth. The least of your sins, and the worst, are covered,
are forgiven, in the blood of Christ.
Why then are not all saved? Because not
all receive this great gift. If I paid your bill at the diner but you refused
the gift and insisted on paying the bill yourself, you wouldn’t benefit from my
charity. The same is true of Christ’s death. The rejection of the unbeliever
doesn’t negate Christ’s sacrifice, but it does exclude him from receiving the
benefit. In fact, by condemning the unbeliever, God is simply giving Him
exactly what he wants. But for you, beloved in the Lord, to you it has been
given to be children of the Father. You not only have been ransomed, but called
and enlightened by the Holy Spirit; washed in the waters of Holy Baptism and
made a new creation, the apple of God’s eye, and an heir of heaven.
In + Jesus’
name. Amen.
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