When Jesus Would Drink Wine Yesterday we talked about when Jesus did not drink on the cross; today we’re going to look at when he did drink. John 19:29-30 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. (30) When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, It is finished, and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. The first time, when the wine was mixed with gall the intent was to minimize or dull the pain and Jesus would not drink it. The second time the wine was offered it was meant to prolong the agony of death by delaying dehydration, and Jesus did partake at that time. His refusal the first time indicates that He took no shortcut nor sought to escape one iota of the suffering that befell Him as He hung suspended between Heaven and earth as the embodiment of sin absorbing the full wrath of the Father. He refused to lessen His agony by drinking the gall but was willing to partake later when it would only prolong His life and extend His suffering. However, I think there is a more specific reason He drank than this, and it was to fulfill Scripture. Psalm 69:21 They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink. What a clear prophetic declaration this was of Jesus as He hung on the cross, and how there is no detail in Scripture that is insignificant or unimportant. It was foretold that they would give Him sour wine (vinegar) to drink when He cried out in His thirst but there’s more here than just that and it has to do with the hyssop branch. Exodus 12:21-23 Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. (22) Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. (23) For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. There is a foreshadowing of the cross in the death of the Passover Lamb and the scene we are looking at only becomes more vivid when we take these two crucial moments in history and sandwich them together. Can you see the sinful and needy Israelite extending a hyssop branch up toward the wood of the door and coating the vertical doorpost and the horizontal lintel with the blood of the sacrifice? Do you see how death was averted for all who hid behind the door that was covered by the blood? In the very same way a hyssop branch was extended by a sinful Roman soldier up toward a sacrifice that was hanging on a “doorpost and a lintel”. The hyssop didn’t need to be dipped in the blood of an animal sacrifice because the Blood of THE Sacrifice was already present and being spilled, coating the wood. The result was safety for those who hid behind the Door (John 10:9) and life, protection from the angel of death through the Blood of the Lamb. It was at this point that the picture was complete; Scripture was fulfilled, the task had been completed, the victory had been won. Jesus uttered the words “It is finished” and gave up His life… only to take it up again three days later when He arose from the grave as victor over death. You are loved! Shon Bruellman
Posted on: Tue, 29 Apr 2014 10:22:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015