“It Is Finished”
What did the people at the foot of the cross hear when Jesus gasped these last words?
To Pilate, the Roman Soldiers, and the Religious Leaders, “It is Finished” perhaps is heard with a smirk of gladness and probably a sigh of relief. This man threatened their power, tradition and authority, but now, finally, this blaspheming-rabble-rousing rabbi, hangs helplessly on a cross. He’s Done. Dead. Finished-off. Not their problem anymore. Finally they can get back to business as usual.
To Jesus’s mother, standing at the foot of the cross, watching her son--bleeding, tortured, gasping for air hearing her son--her own flesh and blood—crying out “it is finished” The one who birthed Jesus into the world, now stands helplessly at the foot of the cross as he exits the world.
His mother, the one who first heard the cries and coos of her baby boy so many years ago in that tiny barn in Bethlehem, now hears her boy cry in agony on the cross.
She, who used to be able comfort her son with the milk from her breast, now has nothing to offer him but her tears of helplessness. She cannot wrap him up in her arms and make the pain of the world disappear. Her baby boy, the child that she had nurtured… delighted in… her son…. It is finished.
For his disciples--the women and the 12 that have accompanied Jesus on his ministry, “it is finished” is the end of a dream. They had left everything, their whole lives to follow this man. Now what are they going to do? Hadn’t he just promised that he’d always be with him? Why isn’t he fixing this? They thought he was going to do something really great. But as they watch their teacher, their friend that they love hanging on the cross, all their hopes are shattered.
How could it finish like this?
“It is Finished!” What about us? How can we hear these words?
Tetelestai is in the perfect tense in Greek. That's significant because the perfect tense speaks of an action which has been completed in the past with results continuing into the present. It's different from the past tense which looks back to an event and says, "This happened." The perfect tense adds the idea that "This happened and it is still in effect today."
Te-tell-es-tie” It is finished; accomplishes the proclamation by John the Baptist who at the beginning of John’s gospel points his finger at Jesus and says “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” “it is finished” is the fulfillment of Christ’s words in John 3:16—for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not die but have eternal life.
“It is finished” is not a weak whisper uttered in defeat, but it is a victorious proclamation of the fulfillment of God’s love for you.
On the cross, God has now finished the work that God began with us so long ago.
Because we could not get up to God, God climbed down to us. All the way down to a manger in Bethlehem, so that he could die on a cross at Golgotha. It is here on the cross, here in the bloody, torturous crucifixion, here in Christ’s death that you can know just how much God loves you. Christ has freed you from the clenching chokehold of sin and death—the powers that pull you away from God.
With his last breath, Christ has at last accomplished what God began us so long ago—to be in a full, loving, and life-giving relationship with you, and with me. It is finished.
When life becomes too hectic, when you lie awake in your bed at night going over to-do lists in your head, when the voice of the Evil One sneakily seeps into your ear and tells you that you are a failure, a phony, not good enough—when this happens and you begin to doubt God’s love for you, begin to doubt that God’s promise of forgiveness and love couldn’t possibly be referring to you… surely I must be do something, become something or someone that is worthy of God’s love—when these ___ of anxiety permeate your brain, I need you to remember the last words of Your Lord as he hung on the cross.
Listen to your Savior proclaiming this promise of God’s completed work on your behalf. “It Is Finished”-- the culminating act God’s love now complete. It’s all done. And God has done this all for you.
It is finished. Amen.
Thank you Lord that by your wounds we are healed. Thank you that because of your huge sacrifice we can live free. Thank you that sin and death have been conquered, and that your Power is everlasting.
Thank you that we can say with great hope, “It is finished…” For we know what’s still to come. And death has lost its sting. We praise you for you are making all things new.
Tetelestai is in the perfect tense in Greek. That's significant because the perfect tense speaks of an action which has been completed in the past with results continuing into the present. It's different from the past tense which looks back to an event and says, "This happened." The perfect tense adds the idea that "This happened and it is still in effect today."
Rebecca Holland
4/19/2019
Faith-Lilac Way Lutheran Church