The cup and the baptism

"You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?"(Mark 10:38)

Jesus asked James and John, "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?" All of sudden the atmosphere became serious. This question contained the Passion of Christ. The cup and the baptism are a symbol of the suffering.

It is known that Jesus prayed in the mount of Gethsemane at the night before crucifixion following, "Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36) He expressed his destiny of impending crucifixion as the cup to drink. His destiny was the conclusion of complete failure of his life.

People don’t think seriously why Jesus’ crucifixion is the result of complete failure of his life. Look at this. The crucifixion means death, a cursed death. Death means the termination of one’s life. The meaning of Jesus’ crucifixion is his life was terminated. So he prayed God to take this cup from him.

Doesn’t it mean to believe Jesus and to be his disciple is ready for such destiny? If there is someone to dream successful life by having faith in Jesus, doesn’t it mean that he know nothing about Jesus’ destiny yet?

You may ask isn’t there resurrection. Yes. Jesus has resurrected after three days among the dead. We hope the resurrection. However, the resurrected life is not the life of present. It is a promise, a hope and so it is the object of eschatological waiting. Here and now the crucifixion is only the end. Can we drink such cup? It is a dreadful thing.

The limitation of cognition

"You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?"(Mark 10:38)


In reply to James and John who demanded Jesus for seats at his glory, Jesus said, “You don’t know what you are asking.” James and John did not have any moral problem. They were full of religious passion. Their only problem was the hunger for cognition. The cognition signifies a religious knowledge or a religious understanding.

Understanding about Christian faith is very important. It means Christian should learn the exact identification of Christianity. Some people may think they are studying well as they may say so as learn a lot from various Bible study, QT and disciple making program. The acquisition of such knowledge is possible but in my point of view such studies have limitations. I will tell you one of them.

Such kind of Bible studies follow traditional practice in Korean Church which is concentrating not on the object of faith but the subject. It is not for God but man that becomes a center of the studies. We can confirm it from a slogan, “Gathers pray and departs preach.” This style of Bible study does not pay much attention on knowing the true meaning of prayer and preaching but interests in learning of its necessity and methodology. According to Rudolph Boren a German homiletic, modern sermon does not preach the word of God. It means church’s study consists of nothing but anthropology. In such pathetic status of Christian maturity, real religious awareness would not be possible.

According to today’s text, James and John were not able to understand Jesus though they followed him with a certain religious passion which level we do not exactly know. They even did not know what they were asking for. How about to us today? Are all our religious passions not similar to theirs? Faith without having proper knowledge and blindly working so hard is the most dangerous thing in religious life.