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The Heart Purger

Hyssop, a plant serving as an ancient levitical symbol for blood, is used often throughout the Torah as a means of cleansing, which a process done by the high priest. In the particular case of Leviticus 14, we see this process being carried out specifically in a case of leprosy (this is the most common way hyssop was used). Lepers in the biblical era were complete outcasts from society, especially within Jewish cultures who saw cleanliness and holiness as largely an external matter rather than in internal one. They didn't just feel isolated from community, they also felt abandoned and unwanted by God Himself.


"the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed [the leper in this case] two live clean birds and cedarwood and scarlet yarn and hyssop...He shall...dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water. And he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed of the leprous disease. Then he shall pronounce him clean and shall let the living bird go into the open field." -Leviticus 14:4–7

Following David's fiasco with Bethsheba, he makes an earnest prayer that I have often heard called the best example of repentant prayer in the psalms.


"Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." -Psalm 51:6–10

The way David uses the word hyssop here is rare and intentional. He is recognizing that though he is not a leper in need of outward cleansing, he is a sinner in desperate need of inward cleansing...And he cannot go to a high priest to do that for him, as a leper does.


Heart work can only be done by the Creator of that heart, for He knows it far better than we do. David recognizes this, that it is only God who is able to wash him and "renew a right spirit within" him. He is acknowledging the shortcomings of the high priests, who need just as much atonement, and going straight to the High Priest, the heart purger, tester, and healer. The term "secret heart" can also be translated "inward parts", the part of him that needed to be searched and purged more than anything else.


Jesus recognizes this same idea, for when a paralytic came to him through a roof wanting to be healed, He first (and most importantly) said, "son, your sins are forgiven" (Mark 2:5). That is the greatest thing Jesus did for that man that day; He purged the man's heart with hyssop and counted him forgiven of every sin committed. His secret heart, the deepest part of him, was clean. Son, your sins are forgiven.


The centuries full of waiting, prophecy, and prayer took up residence inside Jesus, the embodiment and fulfiller of those Scriptures. But also, Jesus is the fulfiller of our prayers, today. Here is the High Priest who is able to heal the deepest parts of us. If He went to the depths of sheol, He is able to go into the depths of your heart.


How often do we petition to God to take away our trials in this life, how often do we come to Him and ask for outward healing, only to be met with a seemingly irrelevent word:

Son, your sins are forgiven. "What? That's not what I wanted, Jesus."


But it is most certainly better.


It was only after the man's heart was purged that he was healed, because Jesus has always been more concerned with the state of our secret hearts than anything external (though He cares deeply about both).


A great deal of our "unanswered" prayers are, often times, prayers that are beginning to be answered within our inward being before they show up in our external circumstances. He purges the soul, which is eternal, before he heals what is temporary.


"After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), 'I thirst.' 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." -John 19:28–30

How deeply poetic this is, and how John must have felt that adding the small detail of the "hyssop branch" to his account! Perhaps it struck up images of his childhood, where a hyssop branch was used to paint the blood of the lamb over his front door during Passover. Or maybe the times he had seen it used to heal and cleanse those who had long been outcasted, but finally able to return to worship God in His House of Prayer, after so many years.


Finally, finally, clean.


This we know, however-


"Knowing that all was now finished", sour wine was delivered upon a hyssop branch, an ancient levitical symbol for blood, and it was held to the mouth of the Heart Purger. This very moment was answer to the pleadings of David hundreds of years prior for God to come and do what only He can do, and that is to enter into the secret places of his heart and purge them, so that he may be clean.


Finally, finally, clean.


Jesus, the embodiment of the cries of generations, for God to come and heal. Jesus, our answered prayer, heart purger, deliverer. For the branch was held to His mouth, He recieved the sour wine of cruel suffering that we will never know. It is in this Jesus can reply to David, "it is finished".


Son, your sins are forgiven...


your heart has been purged with hyssop.


And, He is purging you.

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