The Cup of the Lord's Wrath

The cup is an image of divine judgment that we encounter on several occasions in the old testament. This is one of the ways in which the story of the gospels can be seen as a story of substitutionary atonement. Jesus is the shepherd who takes the blows upon himself while the sheep are scattered, but saved from destruction. The time of temptation is coming, but jesus bears it instead of the disciples. He warns them that they would be delivered up by friends and relatives in coming testing that would come upon the land. And he prays for the removal of the cup, that if possible, there be some way that he should be saved his fate.