Empty Coke Bottles

Good Day To You,

When I was younger, my brother and I would find creative ways to raise a little money. One way was to go around the house and neighborhood looking for used soda bottles to take back to the local corner store for 10 cents a bottle. Then you could take your 50 cents from redeeming the bottles and buy yourself an Abbazabba candy bar (oh that delicious peanut butter center) and some baseball cards. The discarded bottles which were taken back to the store could be sent to the bottling company to be cleaned, refilled and sent out. This was called redeeming the bottle. Bringing the wayward bottle back to the owner to be placed into circulation again. 

In the Passover tradition the Cup of Redemption is the cup that Jesus instructed his disciples to partake of in the accounts in Matthew 26:27 and Luke 22:19. That cup was taken after the meal. The Cup of Redemption had a clear message for those listening around the table.  “I will redeem you with an outstretched arm.”

In the Passover remembrance, God redeemed the people from under the slavery and oppression of Egypt. And now Jesus is declaring that he is the redemptive outstretched arm of God’s grace. He is the initiator of a new covenant to redeem mankind from their sins, oppression, slavery and eternal separation. 

Jesus redeems us from the gutters, the disregarded and forgotten places and brings us back to the Creator, our owner, and through the miracle of his work on the cross, he cleanses our lives. Then he renews our value and refreshes us by placing the beauty of Holy Spirit in us. And he’s not done yet. He provides us with gifts, restores and empowers our lives, as we are put back into healing circulation.

This amazing and complete work of redemption is only by Christ Jesus. There is no other philosophy, religion, or construct of thinking that provides and completes this level of thorough and life transforming redemption, but Christianity!

Thanks be to our God. He reached out his arm to redeem mankind. We should pause and give thanks with a grateful heart.

Q: Can you think of any other items that use the path of redeeming?

Q: What was the disciples’ response to the the cup of redemption offered to them? What should yours be?