The Cup and the Basket

In prison, Joseph heard two dreams. The butler saw a vine: “and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand.” The baker saw baskets on his head: “And in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of bakemeats for Pharaoh; and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head.”

Joseph told them what the dreams meant. For the butler: “Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thy place.” For the baker, the opposite. “But he hanged the chief baker: as Joseph had interpreted to them.”

One brought a cup from the vine. The other brought what his own hands had baked. One was restored, and one was not.

Jesus said, “I am the true vine.” We are accepted by bringing what comes from him, not what we have made ourselves. Our own baking, however fine, won’t restore us. His cup will.