finished

Text: Isaiah 53:4-11, John 19:16b-37, John 3:16

Good morning, precious sisters. I wish I could greet each one of you with a quiet hug on this day of mourning. It is perhaps the most bittersweet day of the year, but somehow, in the darkness, the sweetness is harder to find.

Have you read through today’s passages yet? If you haven’t, I’d love if you’d do that first. Today we’ll sit quietly in John’s account of Christ’s crucifixion – chapter nineteen. Read the other gospel accounts too, if you like (Matthew 27:32-56, Mark 15:21-41, Luke 23:26-49). Allow your heart to enter into the text and ask the Holy Spirit to quiet distractions as you enter into this holy narrative.

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Do you feel the weight of what you just read? It’s hard to read without deep sighs and even tears, isn’t it? The reality of a real man – my God – enduring what He did. It makes me so painfully uncomfortable and yet, picturing it all, I’ve never felt so deeply loved.

I appreciate that John is careful to write historically, but that so much of what he writes has profound underlying spiritual meaning. The way he references fulfilled Old Testament prophecies is good and practical, but there is so much more to it than that. With each prophetic reference, John shows us God’s hand at work across the ages.

In a sham of a trial with an unjust verdict, He shows us that this is how God intended for His only Son to be sentenced. What they meant for evil, God meant for good. John shows us God – working out His purposes in this poor, fallen world. In a situation where God seems to be completely absent, He has been present for ages.

And when Christ breathes His final words before His death, “It is finished,” He not only indicates that the worst ordeal – bearing the wrath of God against sin in the place of His people (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34) – is literally over, He has also completed the work of salvation for His people.

It is finished. Complete.

And hear this today, Sisters – really hear it: Because it is finished, there is nothing that any one of us can contribute to His work on the cross to bring us any closer to salvation.

He did it all.

“He was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.”
(Isaiah 53:4-5, ESV)