Good Friday: It is Finished
After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture,) “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
~ John 19:28-30
Do you know that feeling at the end of the semester, just after you finish your last exam or submit your last essay, when the weight of an entire semester suddenly falls from your shoulders, and you cannot help but feel joy? As I get ready to graduate, I know how much I am anticipating the even greater feeling of freedom after four years as an undergraduate. Imagine, therefore, the burden released from Christ when he declares, “It is finished.”
But what exactly had been finished? John writes that Christ knew “that all was now finished,” and the verb in the Greek is exactly Jesus’ last word (τετέλεσται). Jesus’ final declaration was thus a statement about everything, yet John uses a nearly indistinguishable verb to denote Jesus’ purpose in stating his thirst: to fulfill, i.e. to finish, the Scripture. I think this is a hint as to the specific meaning of Jesus’ universal declaration. Jesus knew that he had accomplished everything that Scripture had foretold; he had paid the debt of sin, ransomed the people of God, and fulfilled all the types and shadows of the Law and Prophets.
What can that mean for us except that, when Christ bowed his head and gave up his spirit, he left nothing for us to do. Sure, we have lives to live of ongoing repentance and greater works of love, but these are not things that need to be done, but that are done out of the overabundance of the work already completed on the cross. If you believe that Christ finished the work set out for him in Scripture when he declared it so on the cross, then take this time to reflect on everything you’re finishing right now - whether an essay, problem set, text message, email, or anything else - and reorient your posture to see it not as a work needing to be finished, but a work that you get to do for God’s glory out of the completeness of what Jesus has finished. If you don’t yet know what it means to believe in Jesus in this way, begin by asking, what Scripture did Jesus fulfill, and you might just be surprised at the weight of everything that he can take off your shoulders.
Timothy Kinnamon is a senior at Columbia College studying Classics and Political Science. He hopes to be at least an amateur theologian one day.