Matthew 26:27
“Drink ye all of it.”
Jesus offers the cup. If we will not drink any, we are not His. He drank the cup. We must drink also. It’s the cup of suffering, the cup of His blood.
But how do we drink? How much will we drink? And to what end?
You see, once we’re in heaven, and this world is behind us forever and for eternity, this question will be more important than it might seem now. "Work for the heavenly reward," Jesus says, again and again. But it seems like most people think the heavenly reward is heaven itself. Just heaven. Don’t get me wrong, “just heaven” is quite a lot! But there are levels of authority and levels of responsibility and levels of reward in heaven.
By faith we enter in, but where we enter, and how much access we have to which parts, and how close we get to serve with Jesus, these are the questions. On earth there were the 12, and the 70, and then there were those who only saw Him from a distance. Which will we be in heaven? Which do you want to be?
In heaven there is work to do, but not just anyone can do it, just as some vessels are to more honor than others (2 Tim 2:20). The more honorable the vessel, the more honorable the service it is able to perform. In Revelation 6 one is sought who is “worthy to open the book and its seals.” The Lamb who was slain was the only one worthy. The One who shed His blood. Jesus.
How much and how deeply we are willing to drink of that cup will determine which jobs we’re worthy of doing for eternity. But it's not only what we'll do, but how close we'll get to be to Jesus. James and John wanted to sit next to Him, but He asked them, "Are you willing to drink the cup that I am to drink?" Martha was in the kitchen, but Mary was at His feet. If we want this place of intimacy, of serving right by Jesus' side, We must walk the road of suffering now.
I want to be to more glory, God. I want to hand over to You a crown full of jewels. Not just one or two little crushed, precious fragments, but a crown full of large, colorful, beautifully faceted jewels.
Let’s live so as to have more glory to give God in the end. If that necessitates our suffering, so be it. If rejection, bring it on. All to your glory, God.