Fourth Cup

Today we “sing” Psalm 69:8-10, 21-22, 31 and 33-34.  So close to Holy Week I suspect it was placed between the first reading and Gospel for a reason.  Part of one stanza is: “Rather they put gall in my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”  Here is the psalm.

R.        Lord, in your great love, answer me.

For your sake I bear insult,

            and shame covers my face.

I have become an outcast to my brothers,

            a stranger to my mother’s sons,

because zeal for your house consumes me,

            and the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me.

R.        Lord, in your great love, answer me.

Insult has broken my heart, and I am weak,

            I looked for sympathy, but there was none;

            for consolers, not one could I find.

Rather they put gall in my food,

            and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

R.        Lord, in your great love, answer me.

I will praise the name of God in song,

            and I will glorify him with thanksgiving:

“See, you lowly ones, and be glad;

            you who seek God, may your hearts revive!

For the LORD hears the poor,

            and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.”

R.        Lord, in your great love, answer me.

Lest we forget, we find in the Passion accounts these references to hyssop and/or wine or gall (sour or toxic substance):

After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I thirst.” There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth. When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.” And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit. (John 28-30)

And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of the Skull), they gave Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall. But when he had tasted it, he refused to drink. (Matthew 33-34)

They brought him to the place of Golgotha (which is translated Place of the Skull). They gave him wine drugged with myrrh, but he did not take it. Then they crucified him and divided his garments by casting lots for them to see what each should take. (Mark 22-24)

The people stood by and watched; the rulers, meanwhile, sneered at him and said, “He saved others, let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Messiah of God.” Even the soldiers jeered at him. As they approached to offer him wine they called out, “If you are King of the Jews, save yourself.” Above him there was an inscription that read, “This is the King of the Jews.” (Luke 35-38)

Much has been made of the wine being offered to Jesus when on the cross.  The preceding are all different Gospel depictions with Jesus refusing the wine [vinegar] in two accounts. Why so much focus on this event?  It’s about speculation regarding the fourth cup of wine at Passover and how the wine offered to Jesus on the cross might represent the fourth cup.  What follows is part of the Jewish Passover ritual.  I’ve read:

(begin) Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are closely linked. Passover symbolized the deliverance of Israel from captivity in Egypt. However, in the institution of it and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, leaven was searched out in each home to remove it. No leaven could be in the home. This symbolized our need to search out the leaven of sin in our lives that is necessary for us to be obedient servants of the Lamb. 

After the lighting of the candles, the Brechat Haner, the four cups of wine portion of the feast begins. The leader says, “As we read through the Haggadah, we will drink of ‘cup of the fruit of the vine,’ four times. These four cups stand for the four “I wills” that are recorded in Exodus 6:6-7. 

As the Lord spoke these words to Moses, He revealed to him the plan by which He would redeem the children of Israel. In a prophetic sense, God was also revealing how He would redeem His elect to become His children. Based on the four promises in the passage above we have the four cups of the Passover feast. 

1. The Cup of Sanctification – based on God’s statement, “I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.” 

2. The Cup of Judgment or Deliverance – based on God’s statement, “I will deliver you from slavery to them.” 

3. The Cup of Redemption – based on God’s statement, “I will redeem you with an outstretched arm.” 

4. The Cup of Praise or Consummation – based on God’s statement, “I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God.” (end)

At Christ the King some of us have followed Brant Pitre’s presentations provided in his book: “Jesus and Jewish Roots of the Eucharist” that mentions and highlights the Four Cups of Passover.  He suggests on the cross Jesus finished the Passover meal and drank the fourth cup.  According to Pitre: “In short, by means of the Last Supper, Jesus transformed the Cross into a Passover, and by means of the Cross, he transformed the Last Supper into a sacrifice.”

I don’t necessarily agree.  Only in John does Jesus drink the wine [sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop]. More likely, the other Gospel Passion accounts better reflect Psalm 69: “Rather they put gall in my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”  Moreover, where in any of the Gospels do we read about the first three cups he supposedly drank?  We don’t.

Pitre and others try to make the Last Supper a new Passover Meal with the cross being the site of the cup of consummation.  John fits better with Pitre’s interpretation because Jesus in John’s account finally says: “It is finished.”

What follows is part of a critique of Pitre’s conclusion provided in America Magazine (March 7, 2011) by John Martens.

(begin) I might as well mention the most significant issue first, which sinks most of Pitre’s argument regarding the particular significance of precise Passover rituals in the Last Supper. Pitre does not mention at all that for John the meal is not a Passover meal, but it takes place the day prior to the Passover meal (my emphasis). This is not an oversight, this is a conscious choice to leave out this hard reality which must be explained one way or the other. You cannot simply choose to ignore it, not on historical or theological terms. 

To my mind, the Gospel of John has the correct chronology of events because I do not think that Jesus would have been crucified on the day of Passover, which is why John does not have the words of institution as do the three Synoptic Gospels and Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. Instead, John has Jesus eating the Last Supper (John 13) and later crucified on the day before Passover (John 19: 14, 31, 42), when the Paschal lambs are slaughtered . This fits the Passover symbolism of the lamb of God whose blood is shed for us to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29, 36) (my emphasis).

I am open to other historical explanations of the Gospel of John’s evidence, but what does it matter? It matters much to Pitre because he wants to read the limited and spartan evidence of the Last Supper in the Synoptic Gospels as the actual celebration of a Passover meal as performed by Jews in Jesus’ day, even though very few details emerge within the Synoptic Gospels that could mark it as a complete Passover meal and even though the details for a Passover as celebrated in Jesus’ day must be taken from the Mishnah, a rabbinic document which was edited and compiled circa 200 A.D. 

To my mind, none of these details matter, because Jesus makes all things new, including the Passover.  Whether everything “fits” according to the Mishnah’s reconstruction of the Passover rite is insignificant, for if Jesus is “Lord of the Sabbath”, he is just as surely “Lord of the Passover”! The big omission, though, is simply that Pitre did not consider the evidence of the Gospel of John. He can deal with the evidence however he chooses, but he cannot ignore it (my emphasis)…

…Pitre has done us a great favor by placing Jesus and the Last Supper once again in the essential Jewish context, and his book is worthwhile reading for this reason. Yet, the Bible is not a code book to be deciphered, its secrets unlocked, it is the story of God’s love for humanity, who surprises us with the newness of his ways and the depth of his love, but who openly reveals himself for all to see. (end)

I end with this reference to the psalm I feel is most significant: “I will praise the name of God in song, and I will glorify him with thanksgiving: ‘See, you lowly ones, and be glad; you who seek God, may your hearts revive! For the LORD hears the poor, and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.’ Lord, in your great love, answer me.”

I add Psalm 23 many of us have memorized from childhood:

The LORD is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack.

In green pastures he makes me lie down; to still waters he leads me; he restores my soul.

He guides me along right paths for the sake of his name.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are

with me; your rod and your staff comfort me.

You set a table before me in front of my enemies;

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Indeed, goodness and mercy will pursue me all the days of my life;

I will dwell in the house of the LORD for endless days.

I’m focused on my cup that should be overflowing.  I don’t particularly care about some speculative fourth cup.

Deacon David Pierce