The Cup and the Ransom

Matthew 20:17-19, 22 & 25-28 (cf. vv. 17-28)

And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”

Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.”

But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Tom Wright, Matthew for Everyone (Vol. 2)

Jesus’ curious answer to [John and James] opens a very different window: on the biblical roots of the calling which he was following. The Old Testament prophets speak darkly about the “cup of YHWH’s wrath” (Isaiah 51.17, 22; Jeremiah 25.15-29; and several other passages). These passages talk of what happens when the one God, grieving over the awful wickedness of the world, steps in at last to give the violent and bloodthirsty, the arrogant and oppressors, the reward for their ways and deeds. It’s as though God’s holy anger against such people is turned into wine: dark, sour wine which will make them drunk and helpless. They will be forced to “drink the cup,” to drain to the dregs the wrath of the God who loves and vindicates the weak and helpless.

The shock of this passage—and it becomes more shocking as we go forward from here—is that Jesus speaks of drinking this cup himself. . . . Jesus saw his approaching fate as the payment [i.e., the “ransom”] that would that would set free those who were enslaved in sin and wickedness, not least those who were in the grips of the lust for power and position—yes, people like James and John (60-61).