Sermon - Good Friday 2025

Illustration from The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ Written by the Four Evangelists, 1853

Jesus Drinks the Cup of God’s Wrath

1. God’s wrath is a cup that must be drunk

2. Jesus drinks the cup and is satisfied

3. We receive the overflowing cup of blessing

From the cross Jesus uttered, “I thirst.” Moments later a sponge full of sour wine on a hyssop branch was offered to our Lord and He drank, finally declaring “It is finished,” “and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” Isn’t it strange that our Lord would mention His thirst, especially when He had previously been offered wine mixed with gall and He refused it. Is our Lord simply picky about His beverage of choice, or is there more going on here than meets the eye? 

Regarding these different drinks offered to Jesus, both of these drinks were readily available among Roman soldiers, but for different purposes. The wine mixed with gall or myrrh was a type of strong drink, often offered to those being crucified as a type of mercy, in order to deaden their consciousness and pain. The soldiers would also drink this because crucifying a man was miserable and sickening, so it would dull them after they’ve done that dirty work. This drink Jesus refuses, because His work of being crucified requires His mind to be clear, not foggy. He takes the suffering like a man. He meets death head-on in all its fierceness, conquering it by suffering to the fullest extent, since He offers up His own life for us, and no one takes it from Him.

The sour wine, or vinegar, was treated like a type of energy drink of sorts. It did not deaden the mind or ease pain, but it was meant to freshen the body and mind, giving a new sort of clarity. Soldiers would drink this rough or weak wine in battle and when working to keep their energy. Likewise, after the soldiers had labored in crucifying these men, nailing them, lifting their crosses, they would have also drank to refresh themselves. When this is offered to Christ, He drinks it, so that He meets death with increased freshness and vigor. He does not die with His senses dulled by either strong drink or physical weakness, but with the utmost clarity.

With those drinks explained, there is still more going on here in this scene, with Jesus thirsting, drinking, and being satisfied. For the cup that Jesus drinks is more than the sour wine; in fact, it’s the cup of God’s wrath. Right before the Triumphal Entry, Jesus foretold His death, and then James and John asked to sit at Jesus’ right and left hand in His kingdom. Jesus replied: “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?”  Later, in Gethsemane, Jesus prayed: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.” Then, at Jesus’ arrest, Peter cuts of Malchus’ right ear, and Jesus rebukes Peter, saying: “Put your sword in its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given Me?” This cup is the cup foretold by the prophets: “Take from My hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send You drink it.” The Psalmist sings: “In the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and He pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.” 

Sin deserves God’s wrath. This earth, corrupted by our sin, must drink God’s wrath and be utterly consumed by it. A foretaste of this wrath was poured out on the earth at the time of the flood, drowning nearly everyone and everything upon the face of the earth. The only ones preserved amidst the flood of God’s wrath were those aboard the ark.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the ark. For He has come to drink the cup of God’s wrath. He thirsted for righteousness. He is the Righteous One who makes many to be accounted righteous when He bears their iniquities. His thirst for righteousness is only quenched when He is crushed for our iniquities, when His soul is poured out in death like a drink offering poured at the base of the altar, when the cup of foaming wine is held to His mouth and He drinks the cup of wrath. Then, “out of the anguish of His soul He is fully satisfied.” His thirst for righteousness is satisfied to the full. Our atonement is complete because God’s wrath has been drunk to the full by Jesus, and He declares: “It is finished,” before He bows His head, gives up His spirit, and dies.

The cup of wrath which ought to drunk by us, is drunk by Christ, and His life is poured out at the altar of the cross when the soldier pierced His side with a spear, “and at once there came out blood and water.” From the pierced side of Jesus flows forth a crimson flood, filling not a cup of wrath, but a cup of blessing. “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” This is important: the cup of God’s wrath is poured out on Christ, and if we are to be spared God’s wrath and drink the cup of blessing, we must be part of Jesus’ body, the church.

Remember, Jesus is like an ark which keeps His Christians safe from the flood of wrath, but those not inside of the ark, those not inside of Christ and the church, are drowned. The final judgment is worse than the first! For on the final day when Christ returns, He will bring His saints to paradise, and He will also come as the Judge. Not only is He an ark, but a funnel, and the cup of God’s wrath shall be funneled through Him upon the earth, and the unbelieving world, Babylon the great, will drain the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath and perish forever.

Therefore, flee to Christ, my friends! Look upon Him whom we have pierced with our sins! See in His blessed wounds His love and His mercy. Find in Him a refuge from sin and death. Come speedily to the altar of God where His fills the cup of blessing with His blood, and His blessings for you overflow in abundance. Eat, drink, and be fully satisfied with this abundant cup of God’s grace poured out for you.