It is Finished (2)

Celebrating Easter

Today we celebrate Easter! In preparation my wife has shopped for a new outfit, made sure there were Easter filled Easter baskets for the grandkids, planned a meal later today, and spruced up the church lawn in preparation for an Easter egg hunt in just a few minutes.

That doesn’t mean we have ignored the meaning of this past week and the significance of this day. A week ago, we watched The Passion of the Christ and were reminded of the extent of the suffering that Jesus endured for each of us. I’m sure that you were reminded of it some way this week as well.

It fits that Easter is in the Spring. Life is coming out of the hibernation of winter. It is time for bright colors, sunshine, and the freshness of Spring (after the pollen is done). Of course, there are many quotes about Easter, but here are just a couple that I like:

“Easter is the demonstration of God that life is essentially spiritual and timeless.” – Charles M. Crowe

“The great gift of Easter is hope.”- Basil Hume

“Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world.”- Virgil A. Kraft

“The very first Easter taught us this: that life never ends and love never dies.” – Kate McGahan

“Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.” – Pope John Paul II

Easter is a celebration, and it should always be! Today we celebrate Jesus coming out of the grave, but what has been done? What did He finish?

Jesus, The Easter Hero

Before we can understand the significance of the stone rolled away, we need to understand the last statement that Jesus spoke…

John 19:30 NIV

When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

“It is finished” …what is “it”? It is possible to have missed “it” …to never understand what “it” is. The truth is, “it” is what we should be celebrating today! It is possible to have the new Easter outfit, the Easter basket, the fields filled with flowers and still miss “it”.

The spaceship Mariner II made big headlines when it completed its thirty-six-million-mile trip towards Venus. Until then, we did not know very much about our closest neighbor.

Most of us have forgotten that Mariner II had a forerunner. Mariner I, which attempted the same journey through space … What happened that time?

Well, there was nothing wrong with Mariner I. It was just as close to perfect as the scientists could make it. But when it was launched, it went off course and missed Venus by tens of thousands of miles. Why?

It seems that in typing out the electronic instructions to the missile, someone left out a hyphen. That meant that the signals were off by one electronic impulse. And, of course, the missile behaved—or misbehaved—in accordance with the faulty instructions.

Damage? The project was held up for two years—and eighteen million taxpayer’s dollars were wasted. That’s what a hyphen can cost!”[1]

Mariner 1 had everything it needed but it missed “it”. Jesus didn’t miss “it”. In fact, he was so clear about “it” that he finished His life on earth by saying “It is finished”.

“It Is Finished”

“It” can be confusing. “It” can be completely misunderstood. So, let’s do our best today to figure out what Jesus meant by “it”. Andrew Paterson explains:

Sadly, our English language can’t succinctly capture the sense of this. It wasn’t a cry of defeat, of Jesus admitting failure. Rather it carried with it the sense of something being complete and accomplished. The word has already been used back at 17:4: ‘I have brought you glory on earth by completingthe work you gave me to do.’

He isn’t just talking about the word it. What he is referring to is the entire statement. Whatever it is, it has been finished, or completed as John 17:4 describes. There is nothing else to do. It is complete, you have the keys to the new car or the new house. Take possession. Take it for a drive, or simply relax in your new home.

What is finished? I believe the “it”, includes 3 wonderful things: (1) Jesus completed the Father’s will, (2) Jesus revealed the heart of the Father, and (3) Jesus redeemed the World.

Jesus Had Completed the Father’s Will

Jesus wasn’t living a life that was like a butterfly flitting from one flower to another. He was intentional. Last week we saw the determination for Jesus to go to the Cross in the Gospel of Luke. He made it clear that He intended to complete the will of His Father.

John 4:34 NIV

“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

Matthew 26:39 NIV

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

With his death his obedience was completed.[2] That is one reality of the “it” that Jesus completed. In Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” they take the prophecy of Gen 3:15 and visualize it as a serpent that slithers near Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemene. Once Jesus has resolved His time of prayer, he stands up at stomps the snakes head with his heel. Gen 3:15, “…he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” is displayed on the screen by the actions of Jesus. The Father’s will is complete, the vinegar has been drunk, His side has been pierced, no bones were broken, and hundreds of other prophecies were fulfilled perfectly because Jesus completed “it”. He completed the Father’s will.

Jesus Had Revealed the Heart of His Father

Not only did Jesus complete the will of the Father but He revealed the heart of the Father. In a wonderful priestly prayer found in John 17, Jesus makes both things clear:

John 17:4–6 NIV

I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.

It seems that the Gospel of John really wants to reveal the heart of the Father. John 17 is a statement by Jesus looking back on the work He has done. John 1 looks ahead. Through the words of John the Baptist

John 1:18 NIV

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

Through the actions, the mannerisms, the teachings, and the parables we have an opportunity to see the heart of the Father. Jesus did it. You may already be thinking of another verse in the Gospel of John about the heart of the Father.

John 3:16–17 NIV

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

So, what is it that Jesus finished on the Cross? It is the completion of the will and the revelation of the heart of the Father. I hope that encourages you – but there is one more thing.

The World Had Been Redeemed

Earlier we talked about the fact that the word finished was used back in John 17 as completed. However, the Greek word for ‘finished’ is ‘tetelestai’. A specialist with the Greek language explained:

It was also a technical term that was commonly used in relation to paying tax. Numerous bills and receipts have been found from this period on which had been stamped the word tetelestai—‘paid for’. Interestingly, tax-collector Matthew uses the term in this way in Matthew 17:24 and Paul uses it in this sense in Romans 13:6. So Christ’s cry from the cross could also legitimately be translated as ‘It is completely paid’. All that had to be done to rescue sinners had been accomplished.[3]

What a wonderful time that this would be for communion! Cindy and I have been watching a series by Masterpiece Theatre called Poldark. It is set in Cornwall, England when the results of not being able to pay one’s debt resulted in debtor’s prison or something almost as severe. We have become a debtor economy but there are no consequences to the debt. We can file chapter 11 or 13 and start again. Our government isn’t worried about it, so why should we?

Debt for sin is different. Without redeeming the debt we are bound for hell. I don’t know why we would be willing for that to happen since Jesus “finished it” on the Cross. Our debts were paid. All we must do is simply accept it. I want to read an excerpt from Andrew Paterson that draws the OT and NT together:

John has a particular perspective on Christ’s death and how it achieved redemption. It is the category of Passover sacrifice. It is not an accident that ‘the hour’ of Jesus’ death falls during a Passover feast, or more specifically that it is following the Passover meal with the disciples that Jesus went out to arrest, trial, and execution. The Passover ritual, rooted back in the deliverance from Egypt, called for each worshipper to bring a lamb ‘without blemish’ or broken bones, and present it to the priest to be slain and for its blood to be dashed against the base of the altar. This recalled the slaughter of the Passover lambs in Egypt and the smearing of their blood with the hyssop plant on the lintels of their houses, by which the people’s escape from judgment and their liberation from bondage were won. So Jesus comes, as God’s own Lamb, without blemish or broken bone (33) in the perfection of his obedience, and there at Calvary, in the presence of the hyssop plant (29), he offers freely the one ‘full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the world’. As he cries, ‘It is finished,’ and gives himself up for death, the knife falls, and all the sacrifices of the ages are gathered up and rendered obsolete forever. Because he has died, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, for all who have come and trusted in the virtue of that sacrifice there is ‘no longer any sacrifice for sin’ (Heb. 10:18).

No one took Christ’s life from him. They couldn’t. Jesus himself laid down his life. The words John uses literally mean ‘he handed over his spirit’ (v. 30). This was the final act of obedience to his heavenly Father. And as we watch this scene unfold with John, we again remember those words heard earlier in his Gospel: ‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep’ (10:11); ‘Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends’ (15:13).

Searching for Meaning at Easter

“It is finished” has become clear. It wraps up the completion of the will of the Father, the revelation of the heart of the Father, and the price Jesus paid for the redemption of the World.

Sadly, our communities are finding Easter Bunny eggs and living anxious and confused lives. Our best elected officials seem confused and misguided (both parties). Our schools lack a basis for moral truth and our justice system has shifted.

If you need good directions to get somewhere, the last person you want to ask is someone who is just as lost as you. Like you, he needs a point of reference: how to get there from here.

The geographical heart of London is Charing Cross. All distances are measured from it. This spot is referred to simply as “the cross.” A lost child was one day picked up by a London “bobby.” The child was unable to tell where he lived. Finally, in response to the repeated questions of the bobby, and amid his sobs and tears, the little fellow said, “If you will take me to the cross I think I can find my way from there.”

The cross is the point where men become reconciled to God. If we [are to] find our way to God and home we must first come to the cross.[4]

“It is finished” is good news. It is why Easter is a celebration. There wouldn’t be hope and life if it hadn’t been finished on the Cross!

Easter, Celebrating the Fact that God Provides

On Calvary’s hill we see a powerful relationship between the Son and the Father. The Son had completed the will of the Father, He revealed the heart of the Father, and the world was redeemed because of Jesus’ work.

Only one other scene in the Bible offers a picture of the intimacy of a father/son relationship and that is the story of Abraham and Isaac, Abraham’s only son.

Genesis 22:1–18 NIV

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together. When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.” The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

Take a look at verse 14. Because of this account, a popular saying became a part of the fabric of Israel, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.” Nearly 4,000 years after the incident with Abraham and Isaac, Jesus would go up to the Cross and speak the words, “It is finished”, on a mountain overlooking Jerusalem.

God has provided a finished opportunity for you and me to be free from the burden of sin. God provided Abraham a ram, but for us the Father provided His Son. “It” is pretty amazing isn’t it?

[1]Leadership Ministries Worldwide, Practical Illustrations: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians(Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide, 2001), 46–47. [2]Bruce Milne, The Message of John: Here Is Your King!: With Study Guide, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 282. [3]Andrew Paterson, Opening Up John’s Gospel, Opening Up Commentary (Leominster: Day One Publications, 2010), 167–168. [4]Leadership Ministries Worldwide, Practical Illustrations: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians(Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide, 2001), 47.