Used figuratively to express the overwhelming sufferings which the Lord Jesus endured in order to accomplish the purpose for which He came to the earth; He was “straitened” until that work was accomplished (Luke 12:50; John 12:27). When the sons of Zebedee asked to sit on the right and on the left of the Lord in His glory, He at once referred to the cup He had to drink, and asked if they could drink of that cup, and be baptized with the baptism He was to be baptized with. They, ignorant of the depths of suffering involved in the question, said they could. In one sense they should share in His sufferings—the non-atoning sufferings, from the hand of man; but the places they sought were not His to give (Mark 10:38-40).