Dear saints in Christ, be exceedingly glad, for our Saviour has triumphed over all His enemies in His own death on the cross!  This brief work will explore some of the rich Passover Exodus patterns, imagery, and themes that the apostles used when they wrote their record of the crucifixion of Jesus, the Christ.  In particular, we will be turning our attention to the final moments of the cross, where Jesus says, “I Thirst”, and then drinks of the sour wine and gives up His spirit.

From the outset, it must be understood that the Scriptures present to us a Messiah who came to fulfill ALL the Scriptures in Himself.  The cross-event is no exception.  Quite remarkably, it is the crown jewel of fulfillment.  It is here at the cross that we have the great salvation-event of our glorious God.  It is where sin, and death, and Law, and flesh, and Satan, and Old Covenant shadows are put to death forever in His Son.  It is the fountainhead, the Rock struck, where divine wrath is extinguished and God pours out the unsearchable riches of His love and grace upon His redeemed people.

As we look at the final moments of Jesus on the cross, it will be shown that Jesus is laying hold of two pillars, as it were, like Samson of old (Judges 16:29).  On one hand, He is laying hold of the past pattern of the Passover-Exodus event, showing forth the sacrificial death He was suffering in the PRESENT as the Lamb of God in bringing many sons to glory.  On the other hand, His death is also a foreshadow, laying hold of the sure and certain FUTURE destruction that would come upon all His enemies, through the same Passover imagery.  Let us now turn our attention to the final moments of the cross to see how the imagery of Jesus’ sufferings come alive with rich Passover themes.

The Present Fulfillment

The Scriptures show us that Jesus’ sufferings and death on the cross were accounted as the place of sacrificial “consuming”, where sacrifices were burned outside the camp (John 2:17; Hebrews 13:11-12).  It is clear that He was identified as the Paschal Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29; 1 Corinthians 5:7; Revelation 5:12).  His sacrificial death for us coincided with the very observance of the Feast of Passover (Mark 14:12, Luke 22:7).  To this end, Jesus’ sufferings unto death fulfilled the command of Exodus 12:8 that the Passover lamb was to be roasted with fire and eaten with bitter herbs.

It is here that we will now turn our attention to the final moments of Jesus on the cross to see these pictures in living colour:

Matthew 27:45-54
⁴⁵ Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. ⁴⁶ And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ⁴⁷ And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” ⁴⁸ And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. ⁴⁹ But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” ⁵⁰ And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

⁵¹ And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. ⁵² The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, ⁵³ and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. ⁵⁴ When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

John 19:28-30
²⁸ After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” ²⁹ 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.  ³¹ Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. ³² So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. ³³ But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. ³⁴ But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. ³⁵ He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. ³⁶ For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” ³⁷ And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”

In these two parallel passages we see complimentary viewpoints of Jesus’ final moments.  We are shown that standing by the cross was a jar full of sour wine.  We are also shown that Jesus was consciously aware that He was fulfilling the Scripture when He said, “I Thirst” (John 19:28).   It is understood that Psalm 69:21b was in full view here: “And for my thirst, they gave me sour wine to drink.”  Jesus was demonstrating that He was fully God, even on the cross, overseeing and controlling the entire event, showing that He was the Davidic sufferer who was about to receive the sour wine.

But there is more to see here!  Jesus is also fulfilling the very imagery of the original Passover event.  As Jesus was being “consumed” as the Passover Lamb, being roasted on the fire outside the camp, the taking of the sour wine to His mouth with a reed (Matthew 27:48), specifically identified as a hyssop branch (John 19:29), shows us the compound imagery being fulfilled.  Firstly, the hyssop branch was a bitter herb used to flavour middle-eastern dishes.  Bitter herbs such as this were commanded to be consumed with the feast of the Passover lamb (Exodus 12:8).  Jesus was fulfilling this imagery by taking the bitter drink offered to Him, along with the bitter herbs. 

Secondly, the Gospels tell us that the branch of reed/hyssop was dipped in the sour wine and applied to the mouth of Jesus, thus fulfilling the application of the blood of the Passover lamb to the door (Exodus 14:22).  This is understood more clearly when we observe that wine is theologically understood to be the blood of grapes, and is intimately connected to the blood of the Lamb (Genesis 49:11; Mark 14:24-25) and the blood of enemies (Isaiah 63:3; Revelation 14:18-20).

In Jesus’ reception of the sour wine, He is showing that His cross is the blood-soaked Door (John 10:7) of salvation, the only Way to God.  He is the bleeding Lamb upon the cross beams of the lintel and post who is being touched with the sour wine (the blood of grapes) on the hyssop branch, in precise fulfillment of the Passover imagery.

As the scene closes with the death of Jesus, we see in Matthew’s account that the curtain of the temple is torn in two and that the rocks were split (Matthew 27:51), with the dead being brought to life again.  This scenery captures the imagery of Moses striking the Rock in the wilderness and it being split, bringing forth rivers of Life for the thirsty people (Exodus 17:6; Psalm 78:15; Isaiah 48:21).   Jesus’ own thirst on the cross, and subsequent smiting by God (Isaiah 53:4), brought forth Living Water to His people and an opening into the Way of Holy Places that was formerly closed (Hebrews 10:19-20).  Truly, He was the Rock struck, once for all (Hebrews 10:10).

In John’s Gospel, we see a slightly different emphasis which lays hold of the original Exodus imagery.  In Egypt, the Lord commanded Moses and the people regarding the Passover lamb, “You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn” (Exodus 14:10).   John tells us that immediately after Jesus died the Jews came to Pilate to ask that the bodies of the crucified victims “would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath day” (John 19:21).  And further, John tells us that Jesus’ legs were not broken, in fulfillment of the Exodus imagery, “Not one of his bones will be broken” (John 19:36; Exodus 12:46).  In this scene, Jesus fulfilled the identity of the Passover Lamb of God who was slain, roasted, applied to the door, consumed in death with no bones broken, and not permitted to remain on the cross until morning!

The Future Fulfillment

Having explored the imagery of the Passover Exodus as a PRESENT fulfillment in Jesus own sufferings, we will now shift our focus to see that there is simultaneously a FUTURE expectation of Divine judgement upon all of Christ’s enemies embedded in the same final moments of His death.  This future element now lays hold of the final scene of the Passover event, where Pharaoh and his entire host are finally destroyed in the Red Sea.

Let us now return to the sombre scene of the cross and notice the elements that are present.  In Matthew’s account we hear Jesus crying out with a bitter lament of forsakenness, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).  This element of abandonment is an echo of the plaintiff cries that the children of Israel made to Moses, when they were surrounded and hemmed in by their enemies by the Red Sea (Exodus 14:10-12).  They thought they had been abandoned and forsaken by God to die.  This was precisely the desperate cry of Jesus, in fulfillment of Psalm 22:12-18, from which passage John also directly quotes in these moments (see John 19:24 and Psalm 22:18).

It is John’s Gospel that captures the next portion of the unfolding Exodus scene.  In Exodus 14:15-23 we have the account of God, through Moses, dividing the Red sea.  In John’s account there is also division happening (John 19:23-24), “They divided my garments among them.”

John further elucidates the “seeing” scene of Exodus 14:24-25, where God looks down upon enemies.  But here, John shows us the tender detail of Jesus looking down with compassion and love upon His mother and the beloved disciple (John 19:25-27), echoing the redemptive seeing of God toward those who are safe in the house of the Passover Lamb (Exodus 12:13).

What happens next in both Gospel accounts is the scene of the jar of sour wine, the sponge, and the reed/hyssop branch.  It is here that we must pay close attention to these particular items being depicted.  This part of the scene coincides with the climax of Exodus event where God instructs Moses a second time to “stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and their horsemen” (Exodus 14:26).  For Jesus, this was the point where He “knew that all things were now finished” and was about to die (John 19:28). 

This point in the Gospel account now lays hold on the certainty of death.  Through a future lens, we see Jesus as the dying Lamb, knowing that His own death is imminent, simultaneously fulfilling the elements of the Exodus story where all His enemies will be finally crushed and brought under our feet (Romans 16:20).  As Moses was commanded to lift up his hand and staff over the sea, so here we see a branch of reed/hyssop lifted up to Jesus.  Just as death was imminent for the Son of God on the cross, so now through a future lens we see that this same cross of Christ will bring a final death-blow  to His enemies (Colossians 2:14-15) in the same way that Israel’s enemies were crushed in the Red Sea.  He who was the suffering Lamb, tasting the final bitter moments of the cross, can also here be seen as the devouring Lion of the Tribe of Judah who will eat and devour His enemies with the sharp two-edged sword of His mouth.

This motif of God eating and devouring His enemies in wrath is well attested in the Scriptures (Exodus 15:7; Deuteronomy 32:22; Isaiah 11:15; Daniel 7:26; 2 Thessalonians 2:8; Revelation 20:9).  So, to see Jesus here as one who is symbolically eating His enemies is an idea that is supported by the very elements that are present here: the jar of sour wine, the sponge, and the reed/hyssop branch.

As we consider these elements, it must first be noted that they correspond to the wider Sea/Wilderness of Chaos motif that is developed all through the Scriptures.  This chaos motif is a spiritual picture that is widely used in the Old Testament to depict God’s cosmic enemies.  It is a prophetic theme that re-appears very heavily in the book of Revelation.  Time and space does not permit this theme to be fully parsed out in this brief work, however it can be clearly seen in places like the Exodus story, Isaiah 11:15, Daniel 7:2-3, and Revelation 13.

Let us now turn back to the cross, at the moment where Jesus receives the bitter wine.  Here we will now see the Mediator, the greater-than-Moses, lifting up his staff over the cosmic enemies who are about to be devoured in His own death.  Truly, here we see Jesus binding the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of his own altar (Psalm 118:27).

The Sour Wine

The jar full of sour wine is a picture of cosmic enemies who are identified with spiritual Sodom.  This picture is explicitly confirmed to us in Deuteronomy 32:31-33, where God’s enemies are described in terms of a counterfeit rock and a corrupted vine, whose grapes are poison, with a bitter taste, and consisting of the venom of serpents.  These cosmic enemies of spiritual Sodom are in rebellious opposition to Jesus, who is identified as the true Vine (John 15:1) and the true Rock (1 Corinthians 10:4).  This concept of Jesus being crucified in the place of spiritual Sodom is further confirmed to us in Revelation 11:8, where the enemy there is identified as the Beast, deriving from the very description of the Serpent in Genesis 3:1 and 3:14.  Furthermore, Jesus tells His disciples that the day of His coming in judgment will find the earth to be as it was in the days of Lot and Sodom (Luke 17:28-30).

The concept of a corrupting vine is associated with a field (Genesis 9:20), the same connotation that finds its very source in the Serpent of the Garden (Genesis 3:1, 14).  Sodom itself was identified as a well-watered place like the Garden of the Lord and the land of Egypt (Genesis 13:10).  Sodom’s destruction is associated with a furnace that burned the earth (Genesis 19:23-28).  Sodom’s false garden and its Serpent vine are therefore identified with the elements of sensual earthiness and spiritual Cosmic Wilderness.

The Sponge

The sponge is a direct reference to the elements of the Cosmic Sea.  In the days of Jesus, sponges were not artificial materials.  Rather, they were living organisms that were harvested from the bottom of the sea.  There are a great many references to God’s enemies being depicted as those who dwell in the sea, go upon, or who emerge from the sea (Isaiah 11:15, 21:1; Ezekiel 27:3, 28:1-2; Daniel 7:3, Revelation 13:1, 20:8).  Therefore, this description of Jesus receiving the sour wine from the sponge is a picture of His triumph over all His enemies that derive from the Cosmic Sea of Chaos, namely Satan, the twisting serpent, the dragon of the sea (Isaiah 27:1), who is also identified as the cosmic Pharaoh of this world, the dragon in the seas (Ezekiel 32:2).  This is imagery is further confirmed in Revelation 17:1-5 where the imagery is of a prostitute woman, arrayed in purple and scarlet, who is seated upon a scarlet Beast in the midst of the waters, and is identified as “Babylon the Great”.  

It is significant that this scarlet-purple robe imagery was also associated with Jesus leading up to the cross (Matthew 27:28; John 19:2).  It shows us that Jesus went to the cross as sin (2 Corinthians 5:21), as the curse (Galatians 3:13), and as the serpent (John 3:14), in order to bring them all to nothing in His own devouring death!  Conceptually, Jesus took upon Himself the identity of the Serpent on the cross so as to bring about his evil and self-devouring destruction upon his own head in the end.  This concept of the self-devouring serpent (Ouroboros) is a well-established spiritual concept rooted in ancient Egyptian religion, with the concept itself being demonstrated in the Scriptures (Judges 16:29-30; 1 Samuel 17:50-51, 25:39; 31:4-5; Isaiah 49:26; Luke 23:46; Revelation 17:16-17).  The Ouroboros circle of life/death may even be what is hinted at in Joshua 4:19-5:9 with the name Gilgal, meaning “to roll away” the reproach of Egypt (5:9).  Gilgal is where the restoration and salvation of Israel is accomplished at the cost of the destruction of their enemies, echoing the original Passover deliverance (Exodus 14:27-28 and Joshua 4:24-5:1 are parallels).

The Reed

The reed is explicitly associated with the cosmic enemies who are identified as spiritual Egypt (Genesis 41:2, 18; Exodus 2:3-5; 2 Kings 18:21; Isaiah 19:6; Ezekiel 29:6-7).  Again, Revelation 11:8 confirms that Jesus was crucified in the cosmic city also identified as spiritual Egypt.  The act of Jesus receiving the sour wine from the reed is a picture of His devouring destruction of the Pharaoh of this world, the king of Egypt, Satan, “the great dragon that lies in the midst of his streams” (Ezekiel 29:3).

This final act of Jesus on the cross demonstrates a three-fold pronouncement of destruction upon Satan and the entirety of his false kingdom: Spiritual Sodom, the Cosmic Sea of Chaos/Babylon, and Spiritual Egypt.  The earthy elements of land, sea, garden, rivers, fields, and wilderness are all conceptually included in this imagery.  It represents the totality of the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of this world, and its corrupted ruler.  They are crushed and consumed in the cross, by the very mouth of Jesus, the slain Lamb who foreshadows a devouring Lion to come!

The Overthrow

After Jesus received the sour wine we read in the accounts of Matthew and John that Jesus “yielded up His spirit” and “gave up his spirit”.  This corresponds to the exodus narrative (Exodus 14:27) where “Moses stretched out his hand over the sea”.  Both the yielded-up-spirit and the lifted-up-staff bring the finality of destruction of Pharaoh and his host which is being foreshadowed here at the cross.  In Egypt the two walls of water fall upon the Egyptians.  In Matthew’s account the invisible sword of God falls upon the citadel of spiritual Sodom and Egypt, tearing the curtain of the Temple in two from top to bottom, destroying it’s fleshly ministry once and for all.  Also, the earth shook and rocks were split.  This tearing and shaking at the cross points toward a FUTURE fulfillment of Ezekiel 29:6-7, where the final destruction of spiritual Egypt is foretold:

“Then all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord.
“Because you have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel, ⁷ when they grasped you with the hand, you broke and tore all their shoulders; and when they leaned on you, you broke and made all their loins to shake. ⁸ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will bring a sword upon you, and will cut off from you man and beast, ⁹ and the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste. Then they will know that I am the Lord.” – Ezekiel 29:6-7

 In John’s account we have the shattering of the legs, so that the “bodies would not remain on the cross”.  Here, John is laying hold of the original Exodus narrative where the LORD “shatters the enemy” of Pharaoh (Exodus 15:6), so that “not one of them remained” (Exodus 14:28).  Thus we see both a present fulfillment and a future foreshadowing where, through the cross, the Pharaoh of this world will one day be crushed with his entire host.

We have seen that both Matthew and John portray the pattern of the Exodus being fulfilled by Jesus Christ in different but complimentary ways.  Both have a “now” and “not-yet” component.  The Passover Exodus of Moses is perfectly fulfilled in the Christ-event, but it also points to a future eschatological final destruction of Jesus’ enemies, already foreshadowed and guaranteed by the cross.

The Seeing, Believing, and Doxology

The original Exodus narrative ends with the people of Israel seeing the great power of the LORD, fearing the LORD, and believing in the LORD, followed by the great doxological song of Moses: “Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. ³¹ Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.” (Exodus 14:30-31)

Matthew’s gospel presents the same Exodus pattern this way: “When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, ‘Truly the was the Son of God’” (Matthew 27:54)  Note that these bystanders were also keeping watch, in fulfillment of Exodus 12:42.

The beloved John recounts the pattern from his own perspective:  “He who saw it has borne witness – his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth – that you also may believe.”

How beautiful will it be on that great Day when we see our God finally subdue all of His enemies under our feet (Romans 16:20).  Will we not exceedingly rejoice with abounding doxologies and everlasting praise!  Will not the courts of heaven resound with the swelling chorus of the innumerable multitude singing the song of Moses and of the Lamb!

“And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations!” – Revelation 15:3

Final Thoughts

My dearest fellow saints in the Beloved, let our hearts be full of these glorious Passover Exodus themes of our blessed crucified, risen, highly-exalted, and conquering Lord.  Know that our final triumph is sure and certain.  For it is bound up together with Christ in His cross.  We then have the warrant in all of our trials and sorrows to conquer the accuser by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony (Revelation 12:11).  Do not then be ashamed of these truths, but reclaim them, publish them, recount them, and remember them.  In fact, we are called to often remember this Passover Exodus salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ, rehearsing this splendid love feast together in the congregation of the saints (Luke 22:19-20; 1 Corinthians 11:24-25), in fulfillment of the pattern to forever memorialize the Feast of the Passover of the Lord (Exodus 12:14, 26-27).  Let us then recover the New Covenant Communion Meal of the Lord in splendour, no more reducing it to an inferior rite of cracker crumbs and drops of juice consumed in passing.  But rather, let us honour it with a bountiful table of rich spiritual communion and fellowship delights, a true love feast, with the grand centerpiece being the breaking of actual bread and real wine poured out into cups, remembering together the riches of this Passover Exodus imagery that Jesus our Lord, the Lamb of God, came to fulfill for us in establishing the New and Everlasting Covenant, in His great love.  Amen.