It is Finished!

“When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” Then bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.” John 19:30

When I was in my early twenties I worked as a hod carrier for a bricklayer. Typically, that meant that I would be carrying bricks, twelve at a time, to keep my boss’s supply stocked. If we were working with cinder blocks, I would carry two at a time, weighing 20 pounds each. Between carrying loads, I would mix the mortar and wheelbarrow it to him as well.

One of my personal quirks, and perhaps the least obnoxious, is that I find myself doing math in my head. “If I walk this fast, how far will I go in an hour?” “How much do does an individual donut cost if I paid $4.25 for a dozen?” “I tend to buy two sets of tennis shoes a year. If I pay $30 for each pair, how much will I likely spend over my lifetime?” Yes, I keep myself occupied. And you thought I was truly listening; all the while doing figures in my head.

One of the computations I did was to figure out how many pounds in cinder blocks I carried one day. The blocks were stacked in a pile about 60 feet from our worksite, and my boss, a big boned muscular Free Will Baptist preacher, could lay them pretty quickly. I carried at least a hundred blocks that day. So, in my head I figured I had carried over a ton of material the equivalent of about one quarter of a mile. (I’ve checked my numbers since, and that’s about right). No wonder I was so tired when it was time to quit! And, no wonder I shed the 20 pounds I put on the first couple years of marriage.

The end of the day brought great relief. I worked in southern Oklahoma and the heat accompanied by humidity truly sucked energy from our bodies. But I was even happier when the entire job was done. Even though he only trusted me to lay a handful of bricks or blocks myself, it was pure delight to look at the finished product. Before that time I had no experience at all in construction. Now I could say that I helped build that three-story chimney, or the addition to the restaurant on the edge of town. We even put up a restroom in a nearby state park.

“It is finished.” I was a novice, and was glad to have an accomplished mason doing the important work. I hope the chimney is still standing; I’m pretty certain the state park restroom is. But, given enough time, my “finished” work will join the rest of this world. One day they all will be cracked walls and perhaps a site that archaeologists dig to discover a bit about the 20^th century sometime in the distant future.

When Jesus cried, “It is finished” it also signified the end of a much more important project than the mud and bricks I worked with. His mission would endure for all eternity, never to be repeated again. As 1 Timothy 1:15 says, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Paul, the author, adds “and I am the worst of them.” If Paul the Apostle, who wrote nearly half the New Testament, calls himself a sinner, I should have no trouble using the term for myself. It is true; I’m a sinner.

Like all sinners, I needed to be saved. Someone lost in the mountains who is caught in a snowstorm needs rescuing. A boat lost at sea needs to be saved. A prisoner needs to be set free. A captive of war needs to be liberated. I have no problem at all admitting I am lost, uncertain of my way. I am imprisoned by my own compulsions. I am a captive of many habits that do more harm than good. All those add up to “sin”, the disease and attitude of heart that falls far short of even our own expectations.

So, in Jesus’ final breath on the cross He declares, “It is finished!” This is not the whimper of defeat, as if those who nailed Him to the cross had won, and He now finally admits death is approaching. No! With the approach of death, Jesus knows that the victory is won forever. He has been pierced for our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities. The punishment that brought peace to us all was on Him, and His wounds became our healing. (See Isaiah 53:5).

We see the world with a horribly myopic view. We cannot fathom that the final breath, one syllable away from death, would be the moment of victory. But Jesus, dying in our place, taking His mission clear to the end and bearing our punishment within His very self conquered sin and now proclaims victory to all who will receive.

Sins are forgiven! We who have strayed so far from God are now redeemed by the brilliant stroke of turning death on its head. So, while His enemies rejoiced, some perhaps laughing in derision at such a cry as “It is finished!” Jesus prepares for the coup de grace. As Sunday morning approaches, Jesus rises in triumphant life from the tomb that held His dead and bloodied body. Death and sin were vanquished, and Jesus was alive as the proof!

I was happy to be finished with a project. My hands were calloused as my mason friend and I drove away from our last work together. I cannot imagine the joy that met Jesus’ conclusion of the war that had raged between man’s sin and God’s holy goodness. But, having brought peace, He met His disciples throughout the 40 days He was alive after the resurrection, and reiterated the victory was won. Their job? Make sure and let the entire world know:

“It is finished!”