John 19:28-29
After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth.
Two themes that have been important to John come to the fore as we approach the climax of Jesus’ struggle and victory. And, as John will soon make abundantly clear, it is a victory. As his earthly life and ministry draw to a fitting conclusion – probably a better translation of the Greek than simply “finished” – Jesus once again fulfills prophecy.
But what prophecy? For an answer to that question, we turn again to the 22nd Psalm, a passage that figured prominently in John’s understanding that Jesus’ life and death are best understood in light of God’s ongoing commitment to Israel.
Earlier we saw John shape his narrative of the soldiers dividing Jesus’ clothes in light of this Psalm, and again he looks to this passage to describe Jesus’ last moments. For in these verses the Psalmist – tradition suggested it was King David – described his suffering and torment before being delivered by God, at one point saying “my mouth has dried up like a potsherd and my tongue sticks to my jaws” (Ps. 22:15). In this sense, Jesus is living out the experience of David, which means that his thirst isn’t simply an identification with our thirsts, but rather demonstrates his complete embrace of his identity as David’s heir.
But if the story of David, read through the Psalms, is one element of Israel’s story that John reclaims and reinterprets, the other is the Exodus story. Earlier we noticed that John placed Jesus’ death not on Passover itself – as do Matthew, Mark, and Luke – but instead on the Day of Preparation just before Passover because it was on this day that the Passover lamb was to be sacrificed. And once again imagery from the Passover informs John’s description. For the sponge of wine offered to Jesus comes on a branch of hyssop. But hyssop is a flowering herb (as in the post image), connected to the mint family of herbs, and no branch would have been able to support a sponge. It would be kind of like saying, “they put the sponge on a branch of parsley” – it just wouldn’t hold up. Then why tell the story this way? Because hyssop played a key part in the very first Passover. Using the leaf-strewn hyssop branches like a paintbrush, the captive Israelites’ marked their doors with the blood of the Passover lambs so that the angel of death would pass over their homes (Ex. 12:22).
So here, as Jesus’ mission draws to its close, John pulls together the stories of David and the Exodus – the two most important stories in Israel’s history – in order to demonstrate that Israel’s God was again coming to redeem them and, indeed, all the world.
Prayer: Dear God, enable us see our lives as the continuation of the story of your faithfulness to Israel and the early Church, that we may trust your promises and walk by faith alone. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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