We are stopping in the middle of
the story tonight. “It’s the deep breath
before the final plunge” JRR Tolkien once said.
Soon, Jesus will say, “It is finished.” And he will breathe His last. But we will keep on breathing. We will keep on going. If we don’t stop now, we’ll miss what it was
all about. What was Jesus doing on that
cross? Why didn’t He come down? What purpose was he accomplishing? What was it that Jesus finished? It wasn’t the story. We know now that his story continued, so what
was it that was “finished” anyway?
The
Greek word telestai, which is
translated here “finished”, can also mean “completed” or “accomplished”. We know the story didn’t end that Friday, so what
could Jesus have completed that night?
What was the purpose of all the flogging? The gratuitous violence against an innocent
man? What did it help to have him
killed? If the resurrection is the great
ending, what was accomplished on the cross?
Jesus
didn’t win his victory over death that night, no he lost that fight and gave up
his spirit. Jesus didn’t give us much of
an example to follow either, for, though he went to the cross an innocent man,
he became a curse for us and was forsaken by His Father. He who knew no sin became sin. As Jesus pointed out in the garden, if he had
asked, his Father could have sent legions of angels to save him from the
cross. If God, the Father, already knew he would raise his son from the
dead after three days, could he not have done away with the death and just up
and forgiven us?
“It
is finished,” Jesus said. But forgiveness
wasn’t accomplished on the cross.
Salvation wasn’t completed. The
story wasn’t finished. The resurrection
had to happen for all of that. So why
did Jesus say it? What was finished?
What
was finished that night? You. You and me and all our personal salvation
projects. In the greatest fit of self-righteousness
ever witnessed, God’s chosen people sacrificed their Messiah. They did all they could and killed him. They were finished. The deed was done. They were caught in the act of the
crucifixion. And so the final betrayal
of God was accomplished and completed.
What happened next would be out of their hands.
When
Jesus said, “It is finished” they story continues, but you don’t. You end right there. Right at the cross. That’s our finish line. All that is left is to weep alone with Peter
or at the side of the cross with Jesus’ mother.
All that is left is to repent with Judas and yet have no hope for
forgiveness. Because, according to the
story, we got our way in the end. We
won! We murdered God and all was
complete. What would happen next would
have nothing to do with us and everything to do with God. What would God do with a cursed, dead and
forsaken Jesus?
There
will come a time for all of us to take our last breath just as Jesus did. We will end our lives just as he did, under a
curse—the curse of the law. With sin
clinging to us taunting us that we haven’t done enough, but there will be
nothing left to do. We will lie in our
own tombs unable to will ourselves out no matter how free we thought we
were. Everything will have been
accomplished that is possible to be done.
And then, just as with Jesus, we will have to wait and see what God has
up his sleeve. We will have to just wait
and, by faith alone, trust in God’s mercy.
When Jesus says,
“It is finished” and breathes his last,we don’t keep going. We don’t keep breathing. We are stopped way back there at the foot of
the cross. That was our judgment day,
the last day for all humankind, and God judged us unworthy. Killers.
Betrayers. Ungodly. We were out of time before we even
began. When Jesus said that it was
finished, so were we. And our only hope
lies in God alone. Amen.
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