…Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. (Hebrews 2.9)

It was common in ancient times for kings to have food-tasters, people who would sample the food and drink at the royal table, cupbearers, to keep the king from being poisoned. Nehemiah is a perfect example of this lived out in the Bible as a servant who lays his life on the line day in and day out for the sake of preserving the life of his sovereign. There is something noble about this high view of royalty.

And yet, as always, Jesus turns our worldview on its head. He is the sovereign and eternal King, the matchless one, the everlasting God but he took the bitter cup set before us. As His servants we are ready to taste the cup in His hands but he placed it His own lips and drank deeply of its death. He is the cupbearer for the nations. He tasted death for all of humanity, the redeemed, the unreached and those still lost in the darkness of unbelief. Jesus, crowned with all the glory and honor of the government on His shoulders, took the cup for us.

Now, Jesus invites us to take the cup. He has tasted death and consumed the poisonous sting. We may suffer martyrdom but the fear of death has been destroyed. We can take up the cup knowing that the suffering in its liquid is only a temporary gate through which is the presence of our Jesus the taster of death, our abiding cupbearer.

Jesus, thank you for tasting death and removing its sting from my servanthood that I might have everlasting life.