The Cup And The CURE
Barry Marshall had a problem. This man, along with another colleague, had just discovered a cure for ulcers. His research showed that ulcers were caused by a tiny bacteria called “H. pylori”. If Barry’s discovery was true, a patient could be cured in a few days by a simple treatment of antibiotics. Barry’s big problem was that the medical world did not believe him! At that time, doctors believed that ulcers were caused by stress, spicy foods, or alcohol. Treatment only focused on the pain of the ulcers since there could “…obviously be no cure”. Time after time, Barry presented his findings to doctors and researchers, only to be rejected.
By 1984, Barry’s patience had run out. One morning he skipped breakfast and asked several people to meet him at the lab. While they all watched in horror, he drank an entire glass filled with the “H. pylori” bacteria. He later said that it tasted like swamp water. Three days later, he was in extreme pain and began vomiting. Then like a miracle, he cured himself with a course of antibiotics and bismuth (the active ingredient in Pepto-Bismol). The National Institute of Health later accepted his findings and Barry was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine. Barry Marshall had a life changing cure but he first had to drink that awful glass of bacteria.
Now let’s rewind back time over two thousand years ago. In the garden of Gethsemane, the Son of God was was agonizing over another cup that He was about to drink. All of humanity was suffering from the curse of sin, of which there was no cure. When the Son of God examined the cup, with it’s swirling froth of agony, pain and rejection, Luke 22:44 says that His sweat became as great drops of blood. Our Lord, who had never tasted sin, knew that for the cure to be administered, He first had to drink that awful cup.
As His humanity trembled in horror, He prayed “…Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me…” But as His divinity rose up inside of Him, He grasped the cup and lifted it to His lips, saying “…nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”
Has it ever occurred to you that Jesus could have came to the earth and died when crucifixions were no longer a method of death? The painful death of an electric chair or the gruesome spectacle of a public hanging cannot compare to the suffering that our Lord endured. As you may know, the Romans wove chunks of glass and bone into their whips. As one doctor explained, “With one blow, the Romans could inflict enough wounds to take one hundred eighty stitches to close. If you multiply that times thirty-nine, the Romans inflicted enough lacerations to take over seven thousand stitches to close!
The method of crucifixion was not to simply kill someone. It was intended to make a human being suffer as long as possible prior to death. According to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus hung on the cross for six agonizing hours. Not until He had drank the very last drop from that bitter cup did He proclaim, It Is Finished! At this moment, our Lord placed Himself into the cold arms of death. Just to think the very one who was “The Resurrection and The Life” placed Himself into the arms of death is staggering! As His followers placed Him in that borrowed tomb, they must have felt like the end had surely come.
But praise God, inside that tomb, a cure was underway! Satan had inflicted the sickness of sin for roughly four thousand years. But in three days God fixed it! I believe on that Easter morning, when He arose, He must have proclaimed: “Don’t give up, hopeless humanity! I have the cure!” Romans 10:9 tells us, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
Oh! That our suffering world would simply believe in the cure! Just as our opening story of Barry Marshall, the world scoffs at what Jesus has to offer. To all of the scoffers, I would simple have to quote Psalm 34:8 “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good…” Dear skeptic, the knowledge of an aspirin does nothing for a headache unless you let it get inside of you! Likewise, the Cure will only work if you let Him inside of you!
If you haven’t accepted the Cure, would you pray this prayer? “Dear Jesus, I know that I am a sinner. And I believe that You are the Cure for my sin sick life. I believe that you suffered and died for MY sins. And I believe that You were raised from the dead so that I could live also. Please forgive me of all my sins and come into my heart. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”