Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”
Two disciples have just asked for the seats nearest the throne. The Lord does not refuse them. He asks a question instead — about a cup and a baptism. Both images point to His death. The real issue is whether their road and His road are the same.
The Request They Did Not Understand
The Lord's first words tell them they asked in the dark. Their confident reply proved the point.
William KellyHow often the carnal mind betrays itself in the faithful, even in the area of faith! How weak as yet were those destined to be pillars! How the Master shines even in the presence of the most blessed among His servants! They did not know what they were asking. This was no question to put to the suffering Son of Man on His way to the cross. The real question was this: could they drink what it was His to drink? Could they be baptized with the baptism that was before Him? Sadly, ambition, even in the things of the kingdom, is soon followed by confidence in self: "We are able." What an answer!
What the Cup and the Baptism Mean
The two images are not the same picture twice. One is a cup handed to Him. The other is a death.
Leslie M. GrantThe more important question at that moment was whether they could drink the cup He drank, and go through the baptism He was going through. They did not understand this either. He meant taking the cup of suffering from His Father's hand, and going through the death of crucifixion as His baptism. How great a contrast this was to their desire for glory and honour!
Taken together, the two words leave no kind of suffering out.
William KellyHe took in two different kinds of suffering. The cup is inward suffering. The baptism stands for what we are plunged into on the outside. The two together include every kind of trial, inward and outward.
Baptism as a Figure of Death
The word "baptism" points back to His own baptism in the river Jordan. It also points forward to the cross.
Frederick W GrantThe Jordan, where He was baptized, is truly the river of death. In the death He took, He was confessing sin and what sin deserved. At a later time, He spoke of it under the same figure as here, a baptism with which He was to be baptized (Mark 10:38).
The Cup He Drank Alone
The cup has a depth no follower can enter.
The Bible TreasuryThere was a cup He alone could drink; when it is a question of atonement He is all alone in that. His cup was beyond the power of all created intelligences to share. One only, Himself alone, could drink it. He suffered for sins at the hands of God. He suffered for righteousness at the hands of man. The atoning sufferings of Christ always stand apart. He suffered at the hands of God — not of the Father.
What He Could Give Them Instead
He would not hand out the seats they wanted. What He offered instead was a share in His own suffering.
William KellyChrist's humiliation is so perfect, and His self-abandonment so complete, that He says: I have no place to give in My kingdom. It is not Mine to give, except as My Father may desire. And He is the only One who, by His personal glory, had perfect knowledge of everything and a right to everything. But I have something to give you now: it is suffering. Yes — suffering for and with Him is what Christ gives His servants now. It is a high privilege… The highest honour we can have here is suffering with and for Christ.
The Only Road to the Throne
Their mistake was not wanting glory. It was wanting glory by some other route than the one He was taking.
J. A. TrenchThis was what suited man — not the cross, but the ease and peace and prosperity of the kingdom. Yet the cross was the necessary path to it… It was this He could give: His own portion of rejection and suffering, involving death in this world… The match on earth for that heavenly glory, and for Christ known there, is the cross and rejection — giving up everything here for His sake!
Summary
- Ignorance. They asked for thrones. They did not know what stood between Him and the throne. His reply does not crush their hope; it corrects their route.
- Cup. The cup is suffering handed to Him by His Father. The baptism is the death of the cross — the death His baptism in the Jordan already pictured.
- Alone. The atoning part of that cup He drank by Himself. He suffered from God for sin, and that is His alone. He suffered from men for righteousness, and His servants share that.
- Gift. He would not promise the seats. He promised something else: a share in His rejection now, the highest honour available on earth.
- Order. Cross first, glory after. The path they wanted was the one they were unwilling to walk, and there is no other.