The Holy Grail


Throughout the ages a lot has been said about the "holy grail" - the cup Jesus used at the last supper.  Movies have been made about it.  Books have been written about it.  Searches parties have been formed for it...

And often, more often than not - the depictions of this cup shows it as a bejeweled gold challis fit for a king.

But that wouldn't have been the case would it?  I mean unless the last supper had been held in the upper room of a palace - which it was not - it was more likely a simple earthenware cup, the type of which was found in every home near Jerusalem at the time.

This morning God has me thinking about that cup, and these thoughts are what are rumbling about in my head..

As Christians many of us often wish that we could have been at that last supper with Jesus; to listen to him preach and to share a meal with him.  But in the Revelation - the apostle John tells us that Jesus says, "Here I am!  I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come and eat with that person, and they with me." (Revelation 3:20)

That means we don't have to have been at that last supper or to search for the holy grail - to drink from a cup with Jesus.  ANY cup in our own homes is a holy if we have opened the door of our lives to Him.

Next - In Matthew 20 the mother of the "sons of Zebedee asks Jesus if her two sons can be at either side of him when he comes into his kingdom.  But Jesus replies, "You don't know what you are asking, can you drink the cup I am going to drink?" (Matthew 20:22)

The brothers respond that they can (and ultimately they do) but the cup Jesus is talking about here is the cup of suffering.  It is the same one that He asks God to take from Him when He is in the garden of Gesthemene.  "Father if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." (Luke 22:42).  

Jesus tells us that as His followers we will know suffering, but that we must "go and make disciples of all nations" - teaching them to obey everything He has commanded. However, we must not be afraid, because Jesus says, "surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Mark 28:19,20)

Finally, Jesus talks about a cup after his apostles come to him complaining about a man who is not one of them, but who is nonetheless driving out demons in Jesus' name.  

Jesus responds, "Do not stop him, for no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us.  Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward." (Mark 9)

We may not hold the actual HOLY GRAIL in our hands - but we do possess the cup of life and salvation - which is the truth of Jesus.  And it is our job to pass that cup of life to all those that we can.


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