A Bitter Cup

Daniel 9:26
And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing.

“Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani.”  These were some of the last words of Jesus as he hung on the cross. The Aramaic words translated say, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” When Jesus declared these words from  the cross prophecy was being fulfilled. Over 500 years prior Daniel had prophesized that the Son of Man would be cut off.

On the cross, Jesus experienced a first. Until this point, God had never felt the burden of sin. Until this point, God had never tasted the bitter drink of death. But here on the cross, He was experiencing these simultaneously.

Carrying the burden of sin, bleeding, bruised, and struggling to breathe, Jesus hung on the cross, cut off from the creation that He made, and cut off from the presence of the Father. Jesus did what God had never done, die, so that you might find life. It was His love for you that kept Him on the cross as He watched His creation turn their backs on Him. And it was that same great love that kept Him on the cross as He experienced the full wrath of God for our sin.

The bitter cup of death was drunk in its totality by Christ, so that we might proclaim, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55) Christ did what God had never done. He died. Forsaken by man and God, Christ was cut off so that we might be grafted into His eternal kingdom. Praise be to God!

In what ways does the suffering and death of Jesus upon the cross strike you?

Take some time to praise Christ for willing being forsaken by man and God on your behalf.


Dear Lord, we thank you that you endured the cross so that we might be made a part of your kingdom. We thank you for the love that held Christ there as He endured the full weight of sin upon his shoulders. We pray that we would be imitators of that love in our daily lives.