“Oh the wormwood and the gall, O the pangs his souls sustained…” So goes the line from the hymn “Go to Dark Gethsemane.” What is wormwood? What is gall? I invite you to consider the following passages from the Bible:
Psalm 69:21-22
Deuteronomy 29:18
Jeremiah 23:15-16.
Jesus refuses the “mixed drink” of wine and bitter gall. For the “cup” that He drinks is much fuller (cf. Matthew 26:39), it is the fullness of death. Jesus drinks of this Cup, the Cup of the Cross, so that we might drink not bitter wine but sweet wine, the Cup of Salvation (Luke 22:20), which is his Blood.