Finished!

     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 ESV, italics mine)
     Good Friday has increasingly become a day of sacred wonder for me, feeling at times almost too holy to talk about. But that would miss the point entirely of what Jesus was doing on the cross, of course, so I write today about "the sixth word" from the cross. 
     What was finished? Certainly Jesus' life was finished--His very next words would be His last until after His resurrection. But Jesus was clearly referring to far more than His brief time on earth. Come along with me as we look with wonder at some of what this single but remarkably powerful word means (John used only one word to translate into Greek what Jesus said).
     Jesus evidently shouted "Finished!" in a loud voice (Matthew 27:50). And He didn't say, "I am finished" (as in "done in") but rather "It is finished" (as in a work or task to be completed). Also, the Greek word John uses to translate what Jesus (in Aramaic) uses a verb tense that means "an action completed with continuing results." This is amazing to me. Jesus didn't whimper at the end as His death drew near. Instead He shouted out His triumphant certainty that He had accomplished, with eternally lasting results, all that the Father had assigned to Him see verse 28 above). 
     "Finished!" Jesus' work of revealing the Father's heart and love was finished! Jesus came to reveal a loving Father, a Father seeking to reconcile His wandering children to Himself, not a string of theological facts,. He did this by doing the Father's works, co-laboring with His Father to heal the sick, destroy the works of the devil, confront religion's harshness, teach listening hearts, bring life to the dead. "Finished!"
     "Finished." But there's more, of course, and that's what makes this remarkable day (only one like it in all of time!), so sacred and full of wonder. The Father's final assignment was to do the unthinkable: to suffer beyond what any human could ever suffer, to suffer so far beyond the physical torment and gore of the cross that we simply cannot grasp what He endured. Death was part of Jesus' life assignment (John 12:27); and it was a death on behalf of those He and His Father love (John 10:11,18); a death that would bring judgment on the world, defeat to the evil one and that would draw all people towards Him (John 12:31-32). Please, dear ones, pause a moment and reflect on the wonder of those last words! Don't let familiarity with the story rob you of the holy awe that can overtake us as we place ourselves firmly at the foot of the cross, refusing to move until we catch in some new way why "Good Friday" is so very, very good! (Selah).
     "Finished!" A life that perfectly modeled living in the Father's love, perfect intimacy with Abba, was not ending but being transformed. The earthly modeling of "living loved, listening, saturated and surrendered" was finished.
     "Finished!" A life's work of perfect obedience to the Father that glorified the Father by pouring out the Father's love and power upon all He met was finished.
     "Finished!" All the power of Heaven, all the love of God were brought to bear upon the dark and evil kingdom and upon death itself, and the result was complete and eternally enduring victory! "It is finished!"

Bowing my head and heart in loving wonder.

Tom, one of Jesus' joint-heirs