Good Friday Reflection 4 of 4

It is finished!

Read John 19:30

There is a note of triumph in Jesus’ cry – “IT IS FINISHED!”. This expression comes only in St. John’s Gospel. The Greek word for finished is tetelestai and it is not a resigned sigh that it is all over, but rather the cry that it is accomplished. The word comes only twice in the New Testament and both times are here in these verses. After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfil the scripture), ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, ‘It is finished.’ Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

In St.John’s Gospel, unlike the other Gospels, Ascension and Good Friday are combined into one. In St.John’s Gospel, Jesus (in his earthly ministry) spoke of what was ahead of him as a ‘lifting-up’. There is a double meaning here – to be lifted up -  both the obscenely gruesome lifting up of drawn-out dying that would be his fate on the cross, yet (at the same time) that lifting up of crucifixion would also be his lifting up in glory – His enthronement!

Also, St.John also puts the Last Supper the night before the Passover, so Good Friday is the Passover on which the Lamb of God is slain.

As we stand at the foot of the cross, I think it is helpful to take in the scene and ask, ‘what kind of King is this and what has been accomplished?’. What is revealed here on the cross? There are many, many images of God, spread across the different religions of the world and indeed many different images in the Hebrew Scriptures, which make up what we call the Old Testament. Yet the focal image for us as Christians is the figure of Christ on the cross. Is there power here? Does this image speak to us of Almighty God? Surely what is portrayed here is powerlessness and vulnerability. Is this really our image of the God we worship? Is this a king? Yet there is a power here that surpasses any image of glory or majesty that the human mind can imagine. It is a power of love that is unconditional, that will soak up any punishment, that will reach out its arms to us, even as we hammer the nails in. It is a love that will go on loving us, even after we have thrown our deepest angers and hurts at it. It is a love that will not be destroyed, even by the violence of our killing and the death that will follow. As we gaze at the cross, Jesus can say to us – “It is accomplished!” Wherever we are, whatever we do, that image is presented to us for all eternity. God has always been, and always will be, the one who is prepared to give all for us, whatever the cost – open – vulnerable – self-giving – unconditionally loving.

As we look at our world today, in all its brokeness, it is tempting to ask what has been accomplished. Where is the promised kingdom? Where is the reign of the king we proclaim as Lord?

Jesus’ answer would be that that kingdom is all around you, if only you had the eyes to see it. It is a kingdom that is born as the God of love soaks up the deepest depravity that we can muster, as we crucify him. What is accomplished is that nothing we can do will expel the God who reaches out to touch our lives. If Golgotha is the worst we can do, God remains there. His love is not defeated. And he can say, “It is finished”. “For this I came -  and now the power of my love is held out to you”. And although that does not negate the pitiful brokenness of our world, perhaps the Kingdom is born into every situation in which people like us gaze on that cross, until the penny drops, and we see it. This I have done for you – receive it – let it touch your heart – be changed by it – let your hearts be melted by it. And you will know that you are loved, forgiven, and set free.

As Christians we must believe that everything necessary for our salvation was accomplished on the cross. As we stand at the foot of the cross, we must know that perfect love is revealed to us here, a love that death cannot destroy, a love that seeks to overwhelm us and transform our lives. All is accomplished here at Golgotha. It is finished! It is done!

Yet the fulfilment of what has been accomplished takes fruit and is born into New Life as and when it touches our hearts and brings us life. It lifts us up from things of this fleeting earthly life into the eternity of God’s Kingdom and to a place where time and space no longer have meaning. This moment of crucifixion becomes the present moment of our lives, as we are caught up in the event of our salvation, and Jesus can say to us, as we stand with him in his dying, “IT IS FINISHED!”

Can we let Christ into our lives afresh? Can we dare to be vulnerable before him and stand, broken sinners though we are, before a love that seeks to overwhelm us, transfigure us and draw us into the new creation of God’s heaven? If we can, then we will know in our hearts that it is finished. What God seeks to achieve for us on this cross is accomplished in our lives.