Daily Devotional
The Cup of Communion: Victory at Gethsemane

April 3, 2020

Ponder This

Scholars tell us that in Jesus’ time, when animal sacrifices were made on the temple mount, the blood would run down into the Kidron brook in the Kidron Valley. When Jesus left the upper room and crossed the valley to go to Gethsemane to pray, He had to cross that brook running crimson with blood. Surely it must have reminded the Lord Jesus that soon His blood would flow in that same spot on Moriah. Indeed it began flowing in the garden as He prayed with such intensity that He bled. And in that singular moment at Gethsemane, when He reaffirmed, “...not My will but Yours be done,” He made a way to bind us together in sweet communion for eternity. Before those nails ever went into the hands of Jesus, they had already come into His soul. Gethsemane was the doorway of Calvary. The victory really was won in Gethsemane, not on Calvary. Victory was paid for at Calvary, but it was won in Gethsemane.

Practice This

Because Jesus drank the cup of sin’s pollution, the cup of sin’s punishment, which is separation from God, we drink the cup of communion. He takes our sin. He drinks it down. We take His righteousness. We drink it in. God forbid that we should fail to be moved by Gethsemane.

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