Daily Affirmations - Day 1- Are You Able? - Bitter Cup

This week's Theme: Are You Able?

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Day 1: Bitter Cup

“It’s bitter,” my friend warned me, as she asked whether I had tried the herb she had given me. “I don’t mind bitter,” I replied. It was true— I really didn’t.

I had grown up in a time when a general knowledge of healing herbs, medicinal plants and beneficial botanicals was widely shared, and when specialized knowledge was dispensed freely and generously. Our childhood ailments were treated (or supplemented) with various herbal concoctions, known as “bitter bush”. Regular and occasional does of herbal brews were also administered in immune-boosting regimens known as “tonic”.

Only smatterings of this knowledge and these customs remain, and my friend and I have often bemoaned their loss. We would sometimes discuss the sad irony that as our culture loses more and more of the roots (yes, pun!) of traditional medicine, more and more of its benefits are being “discovered” in “mainstream” scientific research.

We often trade stories and discuss research we have learned of, and my friend, an avid gardener would often share her gifts of the earth with me. And as I expected, I did not have any difficulty drinking the new batch of bitter tea she had given me. In fact, I found it oddly comforting, reminiscent of those long-ago “notes” of “bitter bush.”

But I couldn’t help laughing as I reflected on a similar incident many years ago that should easily have curbed my current overconfidence. I had blithely accepted a “bitter cup” offered by another friend. I knew about the proffered herb, and its documented health benefits, but I had never tasted it.

“It’s bitter,” my friend had warned, just as in my most recent experience. I was hesitant, but curious. And, I reasoned, how terrible could a cup of herbal tea taste to someone who had grown up regularly consuming “bitter bush”, and other staples such as karela (bitter gourd), and wri-wri-wri (amaranth leaves)?  Someone who found refreshment in a tall glass of iced (even sometimes unsweetened!!) mauby— a bitter drink made from the bark of the tropical Colubrina tree?

I never got past the first swig. I will spare you the unsavory details, but suffice it to say I quickly found out that the world of bitter had some offerings beyond my tolerance level!

Like me, the disciples James and John were overconfident in their ability to drink a “bitter cup.” "Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink...?" Jesus asked them. They said to Him, "We are able" (Matthew 20:22 - NKJV). Of course in their case, this was not merely a cup of bitter tea. Not literally anyway.

For these two disciples (and their mother!) their request immediately exposed the human issue of pride that desires at any cost to "be great" and to "be first" (Matthew 20:26-27). They came— all three— with their careless, misguided request:

Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of Him. “What is it you want?” He asked. She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at Your right and the other at Your left in Your kingdom” (Matthew 20:20-21).

Jesus gently but firmly corrects their blunder: "You do not know what You ask" (vs. 22). They continue to insist they could drink His cup. But the Lord knew that their confident "We are able," was based on visions, imaginings, and expectations of a kingdom structured like the kingdoms of this world.

So He uses the opportunity to show all of the disciples that the ways of the world— the ways of selfish ascendancy, of climbing roughshod, of lording over, and of exercising authority— result in competition, resentment, and strain. For already in that very moment, having learned of the request, the ten... were indignant with the two brothers (Matthew 20:24).

Jesus showed James and John, the other disciples, and all His people, that in the kingdom of heaven, there is no fast-track to honor, no bypass to power and position, no court-favored assignment to preference. The chaotic, cutthroat world employs these means.

But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;  And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many (Matthew 20:26-28 - KJV).

Are you able to drink the cup?

Make me willing, my Lord. Deliver me from the pride and overconfidence of my own expectations. Help me drink. Down to the last drop.