Good Friday. It is finished.

Good Friday

Last Words of Christ

St. Paul’s, Wickford

March 25, 2016

John 19:30

It is finished

Τελέω

-------------------------------

It is finished.

It is finished.

In Greek this is the word one signs across a bill to mark that it is paid. It is done. It is accomplished. It is finished.

Here in his final breath as he dies upon the cross, Jesus says, “It is finished,” yet here we are, gathered at St. Paul’s Church on Good Friday in preparation for the great Feast of Easter that is to come, knowing that it is not finished.

What are you talking about, Jesus? Don’t you know that the best is yet to come? Don’t you know that on Sunday there is resurrection and life? Don’t you know that we can’t just end it here on the cross in pain, suffering, and death?

And still Jesus says, “It is finished.”

All of this begs the question, “What is finished?” Before Jesus is betrayed by his friend Judas and arrested by the Roman authorities, he prays for his disciples. In this prayer, Jesus says to God the Father, “I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.” Jesus then goes on to describe that work: “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world.”  Jesus makes God’s name known.

In the Old Testament, God is often referred to as “The God of Abraham” or “the God of Israel,” or simply “God.” In one of the most dramatic scenes of the Old Testament, God appears to Moses in the form of a burning bush. Now, before Moses, people had had encounters with God. God spoke to Noah, to Abraham, to Jacob. But never before had God revealed God’s name. In this unprecedented moment, God tells Moses, “I am the great I AM.” God reveals the divine name.

YHWH.

I AM.

YHWH then tells Moses to tell the people that the great I AM, that YHWH, has sent him. By evoking the name of God, a name that reveals that God is in all of creation and causes all of creation, God invites the people into a closer, more personal relationship with God. God leads them from bondage in Israel to the Promised Land, and even though the people face centuries of trials and tribulations and exile, they remain in relationship with the God who made god’s self known to them.

YHWH. I AM. The One Who Causes All to Be.

Then something truly remarkable happens. Something so unthinkable and astounding that it changes everything. God not only reveals God’s self to us, but God becomes one of us in the person of Jesus.

Now, we not only know God by name, but we know God as one of us. Likewise, God knows us by living into what it means to be human. Our relationship deepens as we become more like one another. God and humanity.

That was the work Jesus came to do. Jesus came into the world that we, who have sinned against God, turned our backs on God, and run away from God, might be confronted, face-to-face, with a God who loves us so much that God condescended to become like us.

Jesus, perfectly God and perfectly human, suffers death just as humans do so that we might have eternal life just as God does.

It is finished.

It is paid.

But now what? Jesus’ work is finished, but what about our work? Just as the Triduum cannot end with Good Friday, our lives as Christians cannot end with Jesus’ death on the cross. Jesus says in his prayer for his disciples, “ As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”

The work of the cross, the work of the people of God, the people of YHWH who causes all to be and is in all being, is to make God known to others. In his final word on the cross, Jesus says to us, “It is finished,” but his prayer for us is that we take up the work of being the face of God to one another.

As we remember the Passion of our Lord during these days of the Triduum, may we see in Jesus the radical and transformative love that he showed to all of creation. May we be inspired to carry that incredible love of God to everyone we meet.

It’s that simple. The work of salvation is done. It is finished. Jesus took care of that in his one, full, and sufficient sacrifice on the cross--in his ultimate act of love. Our work, however, continues. We are to tell the whole world that God loves us, and that God calls us into an eternity of knowing that love. May we strive to proclaim the love of the God whom we call by name until God’s Kingdom is known to all,

And on that day, may we join with our saviour in saying, “It is finished.”

It is finished.

It is finished.