The Passover, the Plant, & the Plan

Have you taken time to admire the plants in bloom this spring? As trees, flowers, and meadows survive the year, they cycle through seasons of withering and death, followed by hydration and a fresh start. We see our favorite plants bloom and are reminded of new life evidenced by colorful blossoms, germination, and the teeming of butterflies and bumble bees. When Jesus sees the hyssop plant lifted to his lips, he knows his springtime death will bring new life to humanity. However, the life he provides for us will never wither away.

Here is the scene. Jesus is on the cross at this point. He has been falsely tried in humanity’s courts, tortured within an inch of his life, and the Roman soldiers who pinned him to the cross are laughing and gambling for the very clothes they stripped off his body. Jesus uses one of his limited breaths to utter a request, “I thirst” (Jn. 19:28). His disciple, John, is nearby and tells us what he sees, “A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (Jn. 19:29-30).

Rendering the Old and New Testaments as one continuous account, this is not the first time we see the hyssop plant in Jesus' story. Exodus tells of how God empowers Moses to approach Pharaoh to free the people of Israel from Egyptian slavery. Pharaoh hardens his heart and refuses God’s command. The resulting consequence is a flurry of 10 plagues on the land of Egypt, which are intended to persuade Pharaoh otherwise (Ex. 7:14-12:32). The last of the plagues is the death blow, quite literally. God commits to take the firstborns’ lives across the land of Egypt, man and livestock alike. However, the Lord gives a stipulation of salvation for his people’s households. He instructs his followers to sacrifice a lamb without blemish and eat it. After the lamb is slain, they are to dip a hyssop branch in a basin of the lamb’s blood and touch it to their houses’ doorpost. The Lord commands them to stay inside. He promises that as he executes judgment that night, the destroyer will pass over the houses that are marked by the blood (Ex. 12:1-32). 

The hyssop branch at Christ’s crucifixion is a signal that Jesus is the Passover lamb for all of humanity. God’s covenant people are spared from physical death on the night of the first Passover, as they are marked by the blood of the sacrificial lamb that is without blemish. Likewise, during the Passover festival thousands of years later, Jesus, the one without any blemish of sin, sacrifices himself on the cross to spare us from spiritual death. The sacrifice of the lambs of old allowed for God’s wrath to pass over his people, which led to their freedom from Egyptian slavery. So too, Christ’s blood shed at Calvary allows God’s wrath to pass over us regarding the due penalty for our sins and frees us from eternal slavery.

It is striking that the Israelite community was ordered to eat the very lambs they sacrificed on the Passover. Such an act is partaking in the lamb's blood and body. Likewise, as Jesus shares the Passover meal with his disciples and extends it to us, he instructs them to eat the bread that symbolizes his body and drink the wine that represents his blood. Participating in the Lord’s Supper demonstrates that we partake in the life and death of Christ, who is the lamb of God that takes away our sins.

This Easter season, let us walk with a special appreciation for the eternal life we have in Christ. As the perennial plants of spring rise again, we can be reminded of God’s Son, who resurrected for our sake. New life is not far off for many unbelievers around us. When we demonstrate Christ’s sacrificial love, we minister the goodness and peace of a life partaken in the body of Christ. Let us enjoy the freedom and security that Christ’s sacrifice gives. Furthermore, let us pray that the unbelieving world around us would be brought into the body of Christ, as he died for them as well.