“Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” Matt 20:22
As humans we tend to often become upset with God about our suffering or the suffering we see in the world. Although He did share in our suffering by becoming human and experiencing the sorrows of a human life, we want to know that He shares in our personal suffering. We question Him, wanting to know why He doesn’t care about our suffering more or share in it.
Although, upon asking God this I received an interesting reply. Why don’t you share in My suffering? God has a tendency to answer a question with a question. He did that to Job. Jesus did it with the Pharisees. What’s more, His questions tend to silence anything else you could possibly say in protest. You may come to God with the intention of questioning Him, but He throws it back onto you. If you are like the Pharisees, when this happens you will probably walk away (Matt 21:23-27). The other response of course, is taking it to heart.
We want to share in God’s inheritance, in His miracles, but not in His pain. We don’t want to share in His rejection and persecution. He drank our cup of pain and death. We drink His cup at Communion, but do we know what that really means? Can we really drink His cup? Are we willing to be rejected, misunderstood, and even hated as He was and is? He died for us. Are we willing to die for Him? “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). The greek word used for hate can mean “to love less.” Christ is saying we gave to love these things less in comparison to our love to God.
Certainly, we don’t want to die. But I’ve come to see that even if I do not actually die, it does not mean I should not be ready to die for Him. Of course, I know that is not as easy as it sounds. I don’t know if you can reach such a willingness apart from the help of God. But if you are willing to surrender your own life there is not much else you will hold back.
Just like the disciples who asked to be seated at Jesus’ right and left, no one would contest that they want to be great in the kingdom of heaven. Greatness is a desire of the human heart. We long to be great. But there is no short cut in becoming great. Greatness in heaven means suffering on earth, becoming the least on earth. Contemporaries like Heidi Baker and Brother Yun have experienced crazy miracles but also crazy suffering. Those who experience the most miracles also experience the most suffering
