“It Is Finished” John 19: 28-34
“It is finished,” said Jesus. Typically, when we hear that word, “finished,” it means the end of something. For instance, when you’re done eating, you say, “I’m finished,” or “I’m done.” We think of being finished when we have completed something, such as finishing all our chores for the day. Or it can even express frustration. I have heard my mother say a couple times, “That’s it, I’m done with this.” So when we think of that word “finished” it usually means to us the end of something.
And in fact, when Jesus says, “It is finished,” it means the end—the final word. It was the end of Jesus’s mission on earth. What has started as the birth of a holy child ended here on the cross. He had healed, he had taught, and he had created new ways of living and understanding faith and truth. Jesus had pleaded in the garden that this suffering would be removed from him, but in the end, he understood the mission of saving and redeeming humankind. It was the end of Jesus’s mission, what he came to do on earth.
But this was also an end for us—an end to our searching and separation from God and our human failure, or as I grew up hearing, the “old sinful self.” At the birth of Christ way back at Christmas, which at this point seems to be 3 or 4 years ago, we sing in a hymn, “God and sinner reconciled.” This is where we see that happen—where Christ gives us life and joins with us in our own lives.
In our modern lesson, we hear those words: I was spring cleaning, and God hadn’t found me still, so my faith sat in the attic. One year later, God teased with silence and created a period of waiting and silence. We all live in this pattern sometimes—of waiting, of uncertainty, of leaving our faith dusty and packed away in the attic because it feels like something is missing. We especially feel it right now. Some of us are self-isolated. Some of us are quarantined, and some of us are in cities with lockdowns like we’ve never seen before. It’s a holding pattern, a time of uncertainty and silence.
But our faith does not have to live in the same pattern: for Christ said “It is finished,” and all was complete—God and sinners reconciled. The hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” reminds us, of those powerful words of promise, “Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide…strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.” Even when our faith feels like it’s dusty in the attic, or we are waiting on a sign or a word, God’s presence is still there and can give us strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Christ has said, “It is finished,” and we must have faith in that promise.
But when Jesus said, “It is finished,” it wasn’t just the end, or coming to a conclusion. It was a beginning as well. It was the beginning of a relationship, of God with us. I think that idea of God with us is so beautiful. It’s much like these two weeks I’ve been working from home. My cat, Lilly, has always wanted me to be around more. But now that I am, she’s not really sure what to do with it. Some moments she naps close by. Sometimes I get bitten and batted with a paw if I step out of line. But then there are those times when I’m frustrated or annoyed that she comes up, plops herself right in my arms or lap and starts purring and dozing off. It’s a reminder of a presence that loves and appreciates me.
God with us. The cross was intended to be the end of this radical one, Jesus, of this strange set of followers he had. But the cross was not only the end, for it signaled the beginning as well: an end to our separation from God and the beginning our our ability to step out in faith—God with us. So, in these trying times, may we treat one another gently, love one another unconditionally even as God has loved us. As our modern lesson reminds us, God exists in the between, before, and after. God love is like a water cycle, from the heights of the heavens to the reflections on earth that show us God, too, lives in us. It is finished, but also, it is just the beginning. Amen.