The Magical Cup

Imagine with me an experience. You are at a fine restaurant and the waiter pours you a glass of the finest wine the vine has ever produced. You take a sip of the wine and immediately you know that this is no ordinary wine. This is the most extraordinary wine that has ever reached the lips of a human being (OK all you Baptists – bear with me).

As you take in the bouquet and savor the dancing flavors in your mouth, you exclaim to your dinner guest and the head waiter. “This is the most amazing experience! I can’t believe it! I have never known a cup to make wine taste so good! I must have this magical cup… I will never drink from another cup again… all I drink from now on will come from this cup.”

You can imagine the confusion that ensues. Your dinner guest would think you had lost your marbles or were having a reaction to the wine and the waiter would probably be offended.

“How absurd, the glass didn’t create that wine!”

If you continued in your delusion, in short order or after a few more rounds of Mad Dog 20/20, you would be cursing the glass. “What’s wrong with this cup? It is no longer giving me the great experience. How unfair! Fraud!” SMASH … as the glass is frustratingly broken against the wall.

What’s wrong with this picture? How obvious, the glass is not the source of the glory – just a vessel. None of us would make such a crazy conclusion. Or would we?

In the first chapter of John, the Scriptures tells us that in Jesus is life and that that life is what turns us all on. The true life, the source of all life and all joy comes from a person – Jesus.

It is Jesus that is sharing his life with us and he is doing so through many different vessels. He shares his life in baseball, sunsets, gurgling babies and songs that make your hips wiggle. Win/Win business deals that pump you up and dates that make your heart race are glasses into which he pours the fine wine of his life.

Everyday in millions of ways, Jesus is pouring his life into us and as the Apostle Paul said – “In him we live and move and have our being.”

What’s our problem? We don’t see, we are blind or we are mistaken and turn the vessels into idols and worship them instead of celebrating their unique and beautiful ways in which they participate in the grace of God.

In our attempts to control the glory and make the magical cups work, we pervert the gifts and empty them of their glory and hurt others and ourselves in the process.

Drink deeply from the vessels Jesus is sharing himself through. Celebrate their unique expression of his glory and give thanks to the sharing Christ who serves us his best!