At The Cross: The Hyssop Branch Exodus 12:21-25 / John 19:29 (Wednesday Lenten Reflection)

How many of you were told at some point in your lives to go out and pull small branch off a tree and bring it back to your parents or grandparents?  Or maybe they just went and pulled the branch themselves and told you to come to them?  There was no question what that meant, was it?   Somebody was in trouble if things ever got to the point that a switch had to be pulled off the tree.  Those are the branches that no kid ever wants to have to gather.

Kids will gather sticks and branches though, and quite often, though not always, those sticks are transformed into bo staves, bows and arrows, light sabers, guns, or laser weapons as the kids fight off invisible threats to this world.

In our reading today, Moses was told by God to instruct the Hebrew people to go out and gather some fresh branches.  These branches, though, were not for the purpose of punishment, but rather for protection.  No, Moses was not to instruct the people to gather up hyssop branches in order to craft makeshift or imaginary weaponry.  In fact, the hyssop plant ranged somewhere between an herb size plant to a shrub, meaning that it’s branches would in no way be suitable for a weapon.  Still, it was to be a key part of the Hebrew people’s protection as God liberated His people from enslavement to Egypt.

The people were to take the hyssop branches dip them in the blood of the lamb that they had slaughtered, and use the hyssop and blood together to paint the lintel and two doorposts of their homes with the lamb’s blood.  This blood was used to mark the homes of God’s people so that when God released the destroyer to strike down the first-born of the Egyptians, the destroyer would pass-by, or passover, the homes of the Hebrews.

This is the first reference to hyssop branches in the Bible.  Throughout the Old Testament we see the use of hyssop in sacrificial rituals offered by the priests on behalf of the people.  Moving into the New Testament, there are only two references.  In Hebrews, hyssop is mentioned when describing the rituals of the Jewish people during the time of the Old Testament writings.  The only other reference is found in the Gospel of John at the crucifixion.  This past Sunday we read the same verse focusing in on the wine soaked sponge that was held up to Jesus when he declared, “I thirst.”  We find that it is the hyssop branch, according to John, that bore that sponge up to the mouth of Jesus.

The presence of the hyssop branch at the crucifixion is truly a gift from God.  It is a gift in two ways.  It is a reminder of God’s protection and the freedom that God offers us through the blood of Jesus.

The Hebrew people thought that their greatest enemy at the time of Jesus was Rome.  They were looking for a Messiah who would ride in on a stallion and lead an uprising that would overthrow Rome once and for all and fee them from ever being controlled by another foreign empire for the rest of history, for this Messiah would rule from the throne of David forever.  And yet what they got was a humble man who entered Jerusalem on a donkey early that week and now hung upon the cross.  This couldn’t be their Messiah, could it?  He wasn’t leading an uprising against Rome.  Roman soldiers were humiliating him, driving spikes through his wrists and ankles, and hanging him up to die.

You see, though, from God’s perspective, the greatest enemy was not Rome.  The greatest enemy was Slave-Master Sin and it’s threat of Death.  And just as God brought the people out of enslavement to Egypt, God, through Christ, brought freedom for His people once more.

Paul reminds us through Romans that prior to Christ we were slaves to sin.  That without Jesus and His atoning work on the cross, we could do nothing but sin, we were trapped.  All actions, whether intentionally maliciously evil or even good, were sinful.  It is easy to see how the actions of murder, stealing, and other acts we consider evil are sinful, but how can we call good acts sinful?  How can being kind to my neighbor, giving to charity, or helping the homeless be sinful?  If we are kind to our neighbor so that our neighbor will owe us a favor, that kindness on our part is sinful.  If we give to a charity because we need to write of the deduction on our taxes, then that gift is sinful.  If we visit the sick in an effort to earn forgiveness or earn a spot in God’s Kingdom, then that visit is sinful.  If we help the homeless in order to make a name for ourselves in the community, or simply because we want folks to offer us a pat on the back, then that effort is sinful.  Why?  Because we have done them all out of self-interest.  And in between all of those malicious and our self-serving acts, lay all of the things that we worship other than God, becoming slaves to fame, fortune, pleasure, career, family, possessions, and so on.

Jesus, on the cross, sets us free from all of that.  Jesus frees us from being enslaved to sin.  Jesus reveals to us what it is like to truly offer one’s self completely to God.  Jesus reveals what it looks like when we unselfishly offer ourselves for others.  Jesus reveals what it looks like to serve no other Master than God.  In His Sacrifice, He offers Himself up wholly and completely, unselfishly, for others…and in doing so declares freedom over all those addictions that the world would offer to enslave us once more.

My brothers and sisters, let us embrace this freedom.  Too often we experience the freedom and then voluntarily allow ourselves to be enslaved once more.  It is like a pardoned shop-lifter stealing once more…like a paroled prostitute selling herself again…like those who would find themselves free of debt, voluntarily going back down that dark path once more…like a rehabbed drug-addict seeking out their supplier…like someone that has lost weight embracing gluttony once more…like a benevolent giver returning to making a name for themselves or calculating tax credits before they make take a charitable action…and when we do those things, we are walking back into the cell and placing the shackles back on our arms and legs and submitting once more to a master who has no authority over us.

We have been set free…the chains have been broken…the cycle of sin has been brought to an end.  Reminded by the hyssop branch, let us embrace the freedom that God offers and never more put the chains on that have bound us for so long…

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

1)      Have you ever considered that good acts could be sinful?

2)      What chains have bound you?  Where have you found yourself enslaved?

3)      What is it like to experience freedom from those chains?

4)      Why would anyone who has been freed from slavery, voluntarily put those chains back on once more?

5)      In what way will you begin to embrace the freedom one more that God has offered you in the hyssop branch?