A GOOD CUPPA

A Good Cuppa

How many problems have been resolved over a good cuppa? Whether with a family member or a friend, who hasn’t sat down and enjoyed some timeout with a good cuppa? I tend to think that the word cuppa originally referred to having a cup of tea. However, a good cuppa to me is all about coffee. In the Bible the cup usually contains water (Mark 9:41) or wine. But whether a good cuppa refers to tea, coffee, water, or wine it’s the moment that matters. Whether alone or with family and friends, it’s the taking pause to sup with another that’s most important. It’s a time to reflect, reset, and reconnect.

Without making too much of it, the first mention of the word cup in the Bible is a passage that refers to bread and a cup. It is found where the falsely accused Joseph (a type of Christ) interpreted the dreams of the butler and baker who were with him in Pharaoh’s prison. The butler said, ‘Then Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand’ Genesis 40:11. In the end, like (another couple of types of Christ) the scapegoat and the sacrificial goat (Lev. 16:8), Pharoah set the chief butler free but hanged the chief baker from a tree. In the two dreams, the cup spoke of blessing, i.e., freedom and life, and the bread spoke of captivity and death.  

‘The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?’ 1 Corinthians 10:16. In the Lord’s Supper there is bread that speaks of the body on the tree (Acts 5:30). But there is also a cup that speaks of that which cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7). At the Lord’s Table there is commemoration, communion, and commitment. A good cuppa bears only a faint resemblance to the Communion cup of blessing in that it is a time to pause, ponder, and parley. To be sure, a good cuppa is only good when it is to your liking. Too hot, too cold, too sweet, too bitter, too strong, too weak, too much, too little, we can be such fussy, fitful, and fickle creatures!

The Lord knows all our needs. ‘And wine that makes glad the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread which strengthens man’s heart’ Psalm 104:15. He knows how much we need. ‘He who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack’ 2 Corinthians 8:15. But what about the Lord and a good cuppa? ‘You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over’ Psalm 23:5. Isn’t that the way of it with the Lord? He gives us blessings beyond measure. ‘Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you’ Luke 6:38.

How full was David’s cup? ‘My cup runs over.’ We’re not told what was in that cup, but we know it was a good cuppa because David was in the presence of the Lord. For he says, ‘You are with me.’ The Lord walked through the valley of the shadow of death with David. Before the Lord walked through the valley of the shadow of death towards the cross, ‘He said to them, “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many. Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”’ Mark 14:24-25. Are you looking forward to the good cuppa with the Lord?