event · New Testament
Jesus is lifted up outside the city at the hour the Passover lambs are killed.
grows out of · the only son on the mountain
Abraham carries wood up a mountain with his only son, and tells Isaac that God will provide the lamb. At the cross the pattern completes in reverse: this time the Father does not withhold his Son, and the substitute God provides is himself.
grows out of · the lamb without blemish
John notes that no bone of Jesus was broken, quoting the Passover regulation, and places the death at the hour the lambs were killed. The blood on the doorposts finds its answer at the cross.
grows out of · carried outside
Hebrews notes that Jesus suffered outside the gate, as the bodies of the atonement animals were burned outside the camp and the scapegoat driven out.
grows out of · the place of mercy
Paul uses the word for the mercy seat when he says God put Christ forward as the place where mercy is met — the meeting point moves from gold to a cross.
grows out of · lifted from the earth
John uses 'lifted up' three times, and says plainly that it signifies the kind of death Jesus would die.
grows out of · struck once
The rock is struck and life flows out; John notes that from the pierced side came blood and water.
grows out of · lays down his life
The shepherd image is not sentimental in John 10 — its defining act is dying for the sheep.
grows out of · body given
The meal interprets the death before it happens: broken bread, poured wine, 'for you'.
grows out of · pierced for our transgressions
Isaiah 53 describes a servant silent before his accusers, numbered with transgressors, buried with the rich. The Gospels and Acts read the passion through this chapter directly.
grows out of · meant for evil, used for good
Joseph tells his brothers that what they intended for evil God intended for good, to save many lives. Peter says almost the same thing about the cross at Pentecost.