It Is Finished

The scriptures referred to are John 19.

We don't get just one single version of Jesus' life in scripture; we get 4, each evangelist noting different details. The first 3 gospels, the synoptics, are nevertheless very similar. John's gospel, the last canonical gospel written, seems consciously to be filling in the details not found in the synoptic gospels. Only John lets us know that before he died, Jesus said, “It is finished.” But even John doesn't tell us what was finished.

And obviously it was important. Crucifixion put the condemned man into a position that made fully expanding his lungs difficult. To get his breath, Jesus would have had to lift himself on his pinioned feet. It was an excruciating way to get a gulp of air. To then spend that precious breath on any speech tells us that this was not an idle utterance.

But what was finished? Jesus' life? No surprise there. Jesus was a dead man already, unable to do anything, except feebly struggle against the inevitable. His life was, for all intents and purposes, over. Why waste his breath stating the obvious?

What was finished? His movement? Again, that seemed a sure thing. Jesus wasn't the first “would-be” Messiah to die, nor would he be the last. As New Testament scholar N.T. Wright points out, we know what the followers of failed Messiahs do when their leader dies. Provided they haven't been caught and executed as well, their disciples either latch on to the next candidate for Christ, or retreat back into a quiet private life and never speak of their folly again. Jesus' disciples were cowering behind locked doors. No daring new missionary initiatives were coming out of there. And, anyway, what leader wants to shout to the world that all his efforts have come to naught?

So what was finished?

There is a clue in the word used here. In Greek, Jesus' entire statement is one word. And it means to bring to an end. It could be translated “It is completed.” Whatever was meant to be accomplished by Jesus was done. But what could he have achieved, nailed to the cross like a butterfly pinned to cardboard? All he could do was die.

Maybe that's what he meant. John's gospel says that Jesus was crucified on the day of preparation, the first day of Passover, which began, in Jewish style, the previous evening. The meal featured a lamb, in remembrance of the lamb whose blood on the original Passover was shed to save the Israelites. And as the Passover lamb of every Jew in Jerusalem was spilled to commemorate God liberating the his people from slavery in Egypt, so the blood of the Lamb of God was being poured out to liberate all who put their trust in him from their slavery to sin. As the pascal lamb's blood on the doorposts caused death to pass over God's people, so the blood of Jesus protects us from the second death: eternal separation from God, the source of all goodness.

Is that a lot to read into Jesus' statement, “It is finished?” Look at it this way: the same Greek word was used in business. It was written on a bill when a transaction was completed. In that context, it meant “Paid.” It meant a debt had been totally discharged, that the obligation had been completely satisfied. When Jesus shouted “It is finished,” it meant “It is paid.” It meant the price of our redemption—another financial term—has been paid. It means we are free from our obligation to pay with our lives for what we have done to ourselves and to others. It means we are free to be the people God created us to be.

Really? Why is there still sin, then? Why, if our redemption is accomplished, do we still see people enslaved to self-destructive ways of living? Why, if our salvation is secured, do we still struggle with arrogance, lust, laziness, greed, rage, envy, gluttony and all the other evils that come from our hearts and manifest themselves in how we act toward God, toward our fellow human beings,and toward ourselves?

The Jews of Jesus' day believed that the Messiah would come, end the present evil age and only then inaugurate the kingdom of God. So one day the world as evil; the next all was good.

The problem is that nothing starts that way. We weren't all flying the day after the Wright brothers flew for 12 seconds at Kitty Hawk. But the age of flight had begun. The time when humans couldn't fly was over.

When Edward Jenner first vaccinated an 8 year old boy with cowpox, smallpox did not vanish the next day. But the era when smallpox meant inevitable death and disfigurement was over. Its dominance was broken and today smallpox is eradicated.

When Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, all slaves in the South were legally free. But even after the war, it took African Americans a while to realize they could leave their masters, and to shake off the effects of slavery and make their freedom a fact.

Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God as a seed. It begins small. It seems to die. Its outer shell is breached, a small shoot emerges, and eventually it becomes a huge tree, offering shelter and bearing fruit.

When Jesus died on the cross, it's like the seed was planted. And if you've ever gardened, you know you don't see the results at once. You need faith. But eventually the green shoots break through the dark earth and something new has entered the world and is growing.

Planting time is not harvest time but the winter is over. It is finished. That's what Jesus was shouting about.

The time when we were dead in our sins, frozen by our fears and slaves to our desires—it is finished.

The era when we could say, “I'm helpless to defeat the evils that dominate my life”—it is finished.

The time when we could say, “I'm merely the product of my environment or my genes; I cannot act differently”—it is finished.

The epoch when we could say, “That's just the way society is; you can't change people”—it is finished.

The time when we could say, “You can't fight city hall; you can't change the system”—it is finished.

The period when we could say, “Doing the right thing is too hard; resisting the tide of evil is futile,”—it is finished.

The time when we could say, “One person cannot make a difference; the sacrifices I make will do no good”—it is finished.

The age when we could say, “God is indifferent to our suffering; he doesn't care or understand my pain”—it is finished.

The time when we could say, “God hates me; my life is hopeless; evil always wins; you just have to accept it”—it is finished!

Jesus paid the price for the damage we've done. God has taken the brunt of the harm we've unleashed. The cause of our callousness, our cruelty, our catastrophic separation from God has been crucified with Christ. He has defeated disease, degradation and death. He has taken them, not us, to hell.

That is why Jesus gathered the last ounce of his strength, the last measure of his energy, and forced the muscles of his trembling legs to push up, pulled the muscles of his screaming arms against the nails, scraped his raw back against the rough wood of the cross, to lift his torso, to draw air into his burning lungs, to draw back his cracked and bleeding lips and shout his triumphant “IT IS FINISHED!”

Are we listening? Have we heard? Are we acting on it?

Let us pray:

Lord God, King of the universe, loving heavenly Father,

We stand in awe of the love you displayed in the person of your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ.

We stand aghast at the price he paid for the evil we have done and the evil done on our behalf, for the harmful thoughts we've hatched and the helpful thoughts we've let die, for the destructive words we've released into the world and the constructive words we've been too afraid to utter, for the terrible actions we have done and the wonderful actions we have not.

We stand in humble gratitude at the foot of the cross on which your Son did all that was necessary to establish your kingdom, to plant the seed, to kick off your new creation.

We hear his voice of victory: “It is finished!” We know that we are no longer under the sentence of death, under the domination of sin, under the tyranny of fear. We know that we are free: free to respond to your grace, free to trust in your love, free to become your children and grow into the likeness of your Son.

Fill us with your Holy Spirit that we may act on what we have heard, that we may be fearless in confronting evil, hopeful in reaching out to those still laboring under the mindset of being slaves to sin, and patient in nurturing the seeds of the gospel, the good news of your mercy, self-sacrificial love and transforming power, in ourselves and in the world about us.

Send us out, good Father, to see Jesus in all we meet, to be him to all we encounter, and to bring them into your eternal love and life.

We ask all these things in the name of your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, and through the power of your Holy Spirit, who live and reign with you, Father, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.