Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, Tone 1; The Procession with the Holy Relics of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord; the Seven Holy Martyred Maccabees, Their Mother Solome and Their Teacher Eleazar; Beginning of the Dormition Fast (Spasivka)
1 Corinthians 4:9-16; Matthew 17:14-23
Dormition Fast.
Read Matthew 17:14-23
Whenever I heard the Passion story I always remembered how Jesus refused the wine that would be given to him as a pain-killer. But here just before Jesus would die, He does drink sour wine presented to Him. He even asked to drink by saying, “I thirst.” That was something I would discover much later in my life.
There is a book called “The Fourth Cup” by Professor Scott Hahn that explains this mysterious gesture of Jesus. In the book Scott Hahn argues that we can deduce from the Four Gospels that Jesus would have taken 3 small cups of wine during His Last Supper. Traditionally one was required to consume 4 such cups of wine during the Jewish Passover meal. So the Passover meal was not completed until Jesus was lifted on the Cross and then finished the Passover meal by partaking of the last, 4th cup of wine. When Jesus on the cross said: “It is finished”, Jesus may have been referring to His mission on earth, or to His life on earth or to His last Passover meal. Maybe Jesus referred to all three.
By connecting the First Divine Liturgy which Jesus Himself celebrated on Holy Thursday with His sacrificial Death on the Cross through the 4 cups (3 + 1), Jesus added another level of depth to the New Testament Passover.