It is Finished

What is Finished?

John 19:28–30 NLT

Jesus knew that his mission was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture he said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips. When Jesus had tasted it, he said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

So let’s look at the verses just before our Gospel lesson picked up. John 19.28-30. It says:

Knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” I just want you to put a mental paperclip or highlight on one idea here. Everything was finished. Because that’s what John is highlighting here. He’s going to have Jesus repeat this a couple of verses later.

Then it continues: A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. [Slide 4] When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Jesus died proclaiming, It is finished. But for a long time, I’ve wondered: what was it that was finished?

What we’ve been told was finished

Maybe you’ve wondered that, too. And maybe, like me, you’ve even heard people answer that question.

Maybe you’ve heard he meant he’d completed all of the work he’d come to do. He’d fulfilled every prophecy written about him that he could. Now it was time to die, trusting that God would fulfill the rest by resurrecting him on Easter Sunday.

Or maybe you’ve heard it has something to do with the symbolism of Jesus drinking the wine vinegar. That as he received it, he somehow sensed that he’d drunk God’s wrath over sin so the dregs. And now God’s justice is completely satisfied.

Or maybe you’ve heard Jesus was talking about his painful, humiliating time on the cross being finished. And he was just grateful it was about to be over.

I believe there’s some truth in all those answers. But I also think Jesus meant so much more than any of that when he said, It is finished.

The old things were finished, so a new creation could emerge

I believe what John was getting at, and what God wants us to know, is that by about six o’clock on Good Friday, the world was a completely different place than it had been when everyone woke up that morning.

When Jesus said, It is finished, he brought a story as old as creation itself to its climax. He completed a dark chapter of the story, full of hopelessness, shame, and despair. So that the page could be turned, a new chapter could begin, and the story could reach its resolution.

Listen to how John began his Gospel. John 1.1: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The first verse of John takes us back to the very beginning of the Bible story. Genesis 1.1: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1 – 2 tells us that God worked for six days to create this world. And then it says the heavens and the earth and all who live in them were completed. On the sixth day God completed—or finished—all the work that he had done, and on the seventh day God rested from all the work that he had done (Gen. 2.1-2).

Creation was finished. And it was very good. And so God rested.

But we know it didn’t stay very good for very long. Our first parents chose sin. And violence and shame and fear and, of course, death took over God’s good creation. Violated it. Vandalized it.

But then John 1.14 tells us: The Word became flesh, and made his home among us. The living Word who was with God, and who is God, became a human. The author of creation and life came to live and move and work in the pages of the story he had been writing.

And that was Jesus.

He came to rescue, redeem, reconcile, and restore God’s creation. To make it very good again.

Beginning with us.

John wanted us to see that through Jesus, God was beginning the work of creation anew. In the cross of Christ, God put the old creation to death. The world controlled by sin and shame and fear and death was crucified along with Jesus, so a new creation could burst forth.

That’s what was finished. That’s the work Jesus completed.

And then, our story today says he was taken down from the cross and buried just in time for the Sabbath—the seventh day of the week. And so Jesus spent the Sabbath resting in the grave. Just as God had rested on seventh day.

And when Jesus rose from his grave on Sunday morning, it was the first day of the week. The first day of a new creation. A new creation blooming in this dead old world, like flowers through pavement.

That’s why Paul says, in 2 Cor. 5.17: So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!

So when you belong to Jesus, when you give your life to Jesus, when you trust Jesus and follow Jesus—when you’re in Jesus’ life—you’re already living in that new creation.

John wanted to make sure we understood all this. The old things were finished at the cross, and a new creation is blooming.

That’s why John told us that Easter morning took place in a garden. That symbolizes the garden of Eden, at the beginning. And that’s why Jesus was raised on the first day of the week. It was the first day of the new creation.

So when Jesus said, It is finished, what he meant was: The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived.

The new creation: like flowers blooming through pavement

I bet know what a lot of you are probably thinking.

It doesn’t look like the world changed forever on Good Friday.

Sin and suffering and fear and shame still violate our lives. Our world is still vandalized by violence. Death and despair and decay are still disrupting God’s good creation.

You know this from your own bitter experience, don’t you? You see it every day in the headlines. And you hear it every night on the nightly news.

Even though the scriptures tell you a new creation has already dawned, your eyes and your ears and your broken heart tell you it’s all the same as it ever was.

I get it. I have moments and days and weeks and months and even years when I feel that way, too.

But maybe part the problem is you and I have been taught that God and Jesus and the cross and the Bible are giving us something they were not really trying to give us.

Maybe you’ve been told that the point of all it is to give you a system that forgives your sins and teaches you how to live a happy life until God whisks you away to heaven when you die.

I want you to know, that’s not what it’s all about.

God is inviting you into a story as old as creation itself. A story of what God has been doing in and for the world from the beginning. A story that finds its climax in the cross and resurrection of Christ. A story where it looks like sin and shame and death have won. But God says, No! They do not win! See, I am making all things new!

Because that is what God is telling you and me and the whole world in Christ’s death and resurrection. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!

Good Friday is the part of the story that tells you the world you see around you—the one violated by sin and shame and fear and vandalized by death and decay—has already been finished by the cross. It’s the pavement, and you are the flower blooming up through it.

So, yes. There is still sin in this world. So there’s also fear and shame and death and decay. You will experience it all.

But Good Friday changes everything because that’s the day God transformed all of that into cold, dead pavement. The pavement will resist you. It will hurt you. It will try to hold you down. But you are a flower, nourished by the water and blood that flowed from Christ’s side. He shares his own life with you now. And God is making you grow up through that cold, dead pavement.

When the pavement seems too hard, remember

It is finished. That’s what Jesus said as he closed the chapter on that old world of sin and shame and fear and death. Trusting that God would resurrect him on Easter morning, to embark on the next chapter—the new creation. And all I’m asking us to do—all God is asking us to do—is believe that with all our hearts. And trust our lives to the story God is writing.

And as God pushes us up through the cold, dead pavement of the old world of sin and shame and fear and death, we must remember this. Near the beginning of his Gospel, John tells us: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light. Good Friday wasn’t very good to the people who lived through it. It looked like the darkness had swallowed up the light of the world as Jesus died. But Easter Sunday was just around the corner. And Easter is what makes Good Friday good.

God has promised a Big Easter for us and for all creation. As we await it, we will all live through our own Good Fridays. It will look like the darkness has extinguished the light. It will feel as though the pavement is too hard and we will never grow up through it.

On those days, let us remind each other of what Jesus said: It is finished.The pavement is already dead. The darkness has not, will not, and cannot extinguish the light. It is finished. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived! It is finished. God is making all things new.

Brothers and sisters—It is finished.