We’ve made it to week 5 of A Lenten Look at Bread – let’s pause and simply bake a loaf to celebrate the grace-flavor that Jesus brings to life. Jesus is life! He came in grace and truth (John 1:17), He grew in grace and wisdom (Luke 2:52), and He sacrificed and died so that we can life forever in grace and forgiveness (Ephesians 1:7). A handful of herbs from the garden makes a gentle, delightful infusion to symbolize the grace and captivating flavor He brings to life. Hopefully herbs are waking up and growing in your spring garden by now, and you’re crazed to do something with them!
May God’s delightful grace and peace rest upon you. 2 Thessalonians 1:2 TPT
Arguably, every home-baked loaf sends a whiff of His unmerited favor into the air – O, the aroma wafting from the oven that fills kitchen and beyond! Yet herbs carry a special mantle of God’s forgiveness and grace, thanks to one special scented plant, hyssop.
Cleanse Me with Hyssop
Psalm 51 spells out the poetic relationship of hyssop, Origanum syriacum, with the Lord’s forgiveness.
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Psalm 51:7 NIV
David clung to God and sought His forgiveness, invoking the poignant precedent for hyssop in God’s moves to deliver His people and cleanse them from disease (Exodus 12:22, Leviticus 14:4). In turn, this heart-wrenching song resounds when Jesus’ followers lifted bleak refreshment to His lips just as he passed to the death that paid our debt and settled us in forgiveness.
There was standing nearby a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and wound it about with hyssop, and put it to his mouth. John 19:29 NMB
By His wounds are healed, and we now have His grace and forgiveness as a daily sustenance, a one-time sacrifice meant to grace our lives every day and flavor all that we think about and do.
Growing Hyssop
You have heard me rave many times about this garden favorite that first drew me to planting God’s Word in my garden. A fragrant mint family herb, hyssop is perennial to zone 7, growing in ground-coverish clumps about 12 inches tall and spreading agreeably to fill garden beds. It is stubborn to start from seed, though it volunteers mysteriously around my garden each spring.
Online sources are best for this rare Origanum species, and O. maru is a comparable plant if you find it instead. Hyssop holds compelling scent in its leaves, clamoring to be crafted into something delectable, flowering all summer with snowflake-like blossoms to enthrall the honeybees.
What precious mention that a branch of hyssop was lifted up to Jesus just before he died in sacrifice. Gardeners, savor this detail! In his last moments of life, perhaps he smelled the hyssop, a scent ever-present as he walked the lands of the Levant throughout his life on earth, a reminder of the forgiveness and cleansing that he was winning for humankind in the very moment (Psalm 51:7; Hebrews 9:22).
My Father is the Gardener, “The Fragrance of Forgiveness,” page 110
visit the Garden in Delight Plant Guide for more information on growing hyssop
Jesus is Life
Martha, the consummate hostess who regularly fed Jesus and His crowd, no doubt baking Him a loaf or two during His ministry visits, received a special revelation from her friend and Savior as her brother lay dead in a tomb.
Jesus said, “Your brother will be raised up.” Martha replied, “I know that he will be raised up in the resurrection at the end of time.” “You don’t have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?” John 11:23-25 The Message
Jesus is life! What He first spoke to this baker and homemaker, He later explained to His disciples (John 14:6), reiterating His proclamation as the Bread of Life (John 6:35, 48). Do we believe? Receiving His favor will give us His life grace-flavored, charging the atmosphere around us with His gracious presence as we savor Him and retell His stories.
The apostles with great power gave their eyewitness reports of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Everyone was surrounded by an extraordinary grace. Acts 4:33 VOICE
I am continuously thanking my God for you when I think about the grace God has offered you in Jesus the Anointed. In this grace, God is enriching every aspect of your lives by gifting you with the right words to say and everything you need to know. In this way, your life story confirms the life story of the Anointed One 1 Corinthians 1:4-6 VOICE
These community testimonies will come to describe our communities, watch and see.
Grace-Flavored Treasury
Let us ingest the nature of the One who forgives us and become His serving of grace to those surrounding us—fill yourself up for a grace-flavored life.
Let them return to the Lord so that he may have mercy upon them; and to our God, for he is rich in forgiveness. Isaiah 55:7 NCB
My grace will never desert you or depart from your life. Luke 21:18 TPT
Set out a sacrifice I can accept: your thankfulness. Do this, and you will honor Me. Those who straighten up their lives will know the saving grace of God. Psalm 50:23 VOICE
Yes, all things work for your enrichment so that more of God’s marvelous grace will spread to more and more people, resulting in an even grater increase of praise to God bringing him even more glory! 2 Corinthians 4:15 TPT
But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master. Romans 6:23 The Message
And Jesus increased in wisdom and in age and in grace with God and men. Luke 2:52 NCB
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God Ephesians 2:8 RSV
From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. John 1:16-17 NCB
grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 3:18 RSV
Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. Colossians 3:3 The Message
God, God, a God of mercy and grace, endlessly patient—so much love, so deeply true—loyal in love for a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. Exodus 34:6 The Message
She said, “Oh sir, such grace, such kindness—I don’t deserve it. You’ve touched my heart, treated me like one of your own. And I don’t even belong here!” Ruth 2:13 The Message
Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. Matthew 11:28 The Message
He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. Titus 3:5 The Message
Splash water over me with a hyssop plant, and I will be really clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Psalm 51:7 EASY
Worship with a Weekly Loaf
Try this easy way to flavor bread with herbs. Prepare bread dough from your favorite recipe and let it rise according to instructions (click here for my sourdough recipe). When transferring the risen dough to the baking pan, first fill the bottom of the pan with herb leaves. Pictured here is hyssop, but almost any mint family herb can substitute.
Try oregano (closest taste to hyssop), rosemary, thyme, sage, basil, or another Biblical flavor, bay leaves. Follow the rest of the recipe, and as the dough bakes, the oven’s heat infuses herbal flavor into the bread.
Closing Prayer
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for your grace and forgiveness filling my life. I agree with Ruth: “Such grace, such kindness—I don’t deserve it.” (Ruth 2:13) O Father, You are faithful and You are endlessly patient and You knew I would need Your mercy before You ever planted Your garden. And as my garden fills out with herbs this spring, let me take to heart every enthralling scent and savory taste and believe You are forever as crazy for me as I am for herbal aromas! Thank You for sending Jesus, who ushers Your grace into the world and who enables me to grow in grace like He did. Lord, help me to live a grace-flavored life and watch others be nourished in Your grace, too (Isaiah 55:7, 2 Corinthians 4:15). In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.
May God’s undeserved kindness and total well-being that flow from our Father God and from the Lord Jesus be yours. Galatians 1:3 TPT
A Lenten Look at Bread is a 7-part series at the crossroads of bread and garden plants in God’s Word. Slicing into bread analogies draws us closer to Lord of the Sabbath, the Word, more life-sustaining than bread, and the Bread of heaven, for starters (yes, there will be sourdough!)—against a background of wheat, barley, coriander, and Israel’s best produce. Taste and see my goodness, the Lord beckons (Psalm 34:8), so we’ll be worshiping with a weekly loaf for hands-on help in grasping who Jesus is and what he has done for us, growing our hearts for a deep embrace of the ultimate metaphor, He is Risen!
Read more about hyssop in My Father is the Gardener, chapter 8. Order your copy today!
Ready to plant hyssop? Find more information in the Plant Guide, www.gardenindelight.com/plant-guide/hyssop/
Find hyssop in God’s Word for Gardeners Bible, in Devotions on Watering in the Garden Work section, beginning on page a-26
Take in the sheer delight of hyssop’s poetry in the Bible in A-to-Z Primer of Plants from God’s Word, H is for Hyssop
Hyssop in the poster child of the Devotions Blog! Read more in depth on this holy plant as I have favored it over the years!
Photo Credits: ©2015-2025 Shelley S. Cramm
The Message denotes Scripture quotations taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries.
NCB denotes Scripture taken from the SAINT JOSEPH NEW CATHOLIC BIBLE® Copyright © 2019 by Catholic Book Publishing Corp. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
NIV denotes Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.®
NMB designates Scripture quotations from the New Matthew Bible, of which only the New Testament is published at the date of this publication, © 2016 under the title “The October Testament.” Used by permission of Ruth Magnusson Davis, Founder and Chief Editor of Baruch House Publishing.
RSV denotes Scripture quotations taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
TPT denotes Scripture quotations taken from The Passion Translation®. Copyright © 2017, 2018, 2020 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ThePassionTranslation.com
VOICE denotes Scripture quotations taken from The Voice™. Copyright © 2012 by Ecclesia Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
