The Single Cup

           You may have a cupboard full of cups but there is that one which is your favorite and for as long as it doesn't get broken, it will be the one you use to get your first cup of coffee in the morning. My years in first through third grade were in a one room school. There were about 20 students and one teacher who taught the four grades in our building. The rest room was outside in what was called the “outhouse.” There was a pump on the concrete porch of the school building with one cup hanging on the pump. Miss Hastings and the twenty students all used that same cup. That's all there was. If you didn't want to use the cup, you would use your hands, which were far more dirty than the single cup. Then, shortly after, a company came out with a folding cup that would hold about six ounces of water and would telescope out to make a little aluminum glass, but it was only for those that were squeamish about that one cup and who had the money to buy one. To be honest, we never thought anything about all of us using the one cup. First Corinthians 11:25 says, “After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.”

        This has to be the most famous single cup ever mentioned in any writing. Historians often refer to it as the “Holy grail.” Everyone wants to see and to hold the cup that Jesus held that night when He instituted the Lord's Supper. It seems that everyone has their opinion as to what it looked like that is not the important thing about this one cup. In the church of the believers, there are two ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper. The loaf of bread and the cup are the symbols of the broken body of the Lord Jesus Christ as He was crucified for our sins and the cup is a symbol of the shed blood that paid the price that had been set by God the Father to pay our sin debt. We now attend an “assembly” in our home town which observes the “Lord's Supper” every Sunday morning and “no” we don't get tired of doing it nor do we take it for granted. There is no special music to get us in the mood. There is no praise band. Sometimes, there is silence as we think about what happened on the day when Jesus went to the cross. We sing hymns without accompaniment, men read from the Scriptures and perhaps say a word or two as our minds are focused on what happened when Jesus was crucified. Towards the end of the service, a loaf of bread is broken and passed among the believers where each one takes a small piece. The cup is blessed and passed among the believers and the words are remembered, “This do in remembrance of Me.” We will keep doing it until Jesus comes again. We attended our first assembly in Washington, D.C. Where a “single cup” was used to pass among the believers at Minnesota Avenue Assembly in Anacostia, D.C. No one died from drinking from the same cup as far as I know and no one worried about it either. The important thing was the remembering of what happened almost 2,000 years ago in the city of Jerusalem where Christ as crucified, died and was raised from the dead. When you take your cup of coffee from your favorite cup, just remember the most important cup of all. The Lord Jesus Christ drank all of it that was mentioned in the Garden of Gethsemane. Remember then the words, “This do in remembrance of Me.” In this day, we no longer use a single cup during the Lord's Supper, but use little disposable plastic cups. The elements of the Lord's Supper are a bit different from those of the “upper room” but the importance is still there in remembering the broken body of the Lord Jesus Christ and His shed blood for the satisfaction of the price for our sins. This is the “one cup” that you won't want to miss. Praise God today that we can remember what happened at Calvary and the empty tomb.