Ginger Tea

I started with a cold at the month’s start which cleared after a week or so, but the gravely voice refused to go with it. Preaching two or three times on a Sunday possibly hampers its healing, but I have made a point of not singing or talking during the week unless I have to. Various remedies have been tried: gargling salt water, inhaling steam, expensive honey. So far, no good.

To this same end, someone kindly provided me with a little stash of ginger tea. Peculiarly, the half-dozen tea bags came wrapped in tin foil, as though they were some kind of narcotic being discreetly distributed among the criminal classes. I delayed trying them; I assumed, with some general support, that medicine tastes horrible. Well, the bags were not as bad as I thought. I even took them without milk, such was the flavour’s adequacy. Of course it is not really tea, because it does not have any tea leaves unless these bags, from unknown packaging, was a blend of both. At the time of writing, the healing properties of ginger have not been realised or noticed, but the taste has been pleasant. Is this the problem? Should effective medicine taste rotten?

The best medicine for my soul is the gospel: God’s amazing plan of redemption by which the Crucified Christ purchases men and women for God. And its taste- beautiful! Apart from some persecutions in this world, it is really a most quaffable elixir from which to draw. For the Lord Jesus, however, its price was a most noxious brew:

And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.” Mark 14:36

So to us He says:

“See, I have taken out of your hand the cup of trembling, the dregs of the cup of My fury; you shall no longer drink it.”  Isaiah 51:22

And:

On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink”. John 7:37

Christ drank the Cup of Wrath that we might share the new wine of His kingdom.