Everything indeed is for you, so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people may cause the thanksgiving to overflow for God's glory. - 2 Cor. 4:14-15

God is good all the time.

Listen now!

When Jesus asked James and John if they could drink the chalice that He was going to drink, it is not clear if they understood what He meant, but they sharply intimated, "We can." The response was immediately endorsed by Jesus, "My chalice you will indeed drink," (Cf. Matt 20:22-23). Understand that the cup Jesus was referring to, was His sacrificial blood, which will be held in the chalice of the holy cross. 

The significant issue here is not whether James and John understood the metaphorical chalice, but the answer, "we can." And truly so, they drank it. For we know that in imitation of Christ, they were martyred and their blood is part of the reason we believe; for as Tertullian, the great church father, has positively asserted, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." The boldness that James and John displayed to the Lord was genuine. They did not know what awaited them when they first said yes to Jesus’ invitation to follow Him. They might have thought to themselves spontaneously, "If we have left everything behind to follow you, we must be prepared for whatever it entails to the end." 

Many Christians today are not bold. We lack the boldness of "we can" required to give ourselves in God's service as James did. We suffer from the fear of political incorrectness, offense to family, friends, work colleagues, classmates, or being left behind by the secular cultural values and the false sense of freedom and pleasure. So, we give feeble responses to the vital question, "can you drink the cup I drink?” We need more boldness.

Drinking the cup with Jesus signifies our willingness to offer ourselves entirely to God's work, the eagerness to live under God's instruction, and share sacrificial love with others in imitation of the Son of Man who did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many"( Matt 22:28). And when we decide to offer ourselves fully in God's service, the result is that "the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people may cause the thanksgiving to overflow for God's glory"(2 Cor. 4:15).

Prayer blessing: Father, help us to live as your faithful children and fear not to make you known to those we love and even the ones we dislike so that we may add to the reason for increasing thanksgiving for your glory. All to you, Lord. Amen.