“IT IS FINISHED...”

Many things came to a halt on Golgotha. Human Love Ceased and became confused so that Divine Love can triumph; time ceased and became challenged so that a new season might be inaugurated. However, nothing stopped with such finality as Jesus’ declaration of an end to his life and ministry; in John 19:30, Jesus said “It is finished!” It has always been easier for the Church to explain this as a statement of completeness. Jesus was saying that the work of redemption on earth is finished. While not doubting that this is implied, we might be more comforted if we look for a more nuanced meaning.

The context of the statement “it is finished” is set in the words “and they crucified him.” This was a bloody statement that epitomized human capacity to inflict pain at a level difficult to describe. The Roman nails were blunt and square, not pointed (triangular) and sharp like ours. The tendons and muscles at the front of the wrist (not the palm!) was mashed to create two upper hanging points for the body; the arch of the two feet (not the ankle!) was mashed to create one lower hanging point; these monstrous deformities were then used to hang up the person to be crucified. There was a guaranteed loss of body fluid, key nerves are crushed, fiery pain surges to the brain in waves that does not stop; fatigue and loss of fluid in the arms create cramps that cannot be described. Attempts to ease upper body pain activates lower body pain, attempt to ease lower body pain activates upper body pain. The crucified man was doomed to spend every second in searing fiery pain.

More than the pain is the sense of abandonment. “Why has thou forsaken me?” Jesus said from the cross. Put all of these into context, we cannot accept an explanation of triumphalism; we must rather see Psalm 22 fulfilled in totality. God forsook him, He was distant in this hour of terrible need, Isaiah 53:3 was true, we hid as it were our faces from Him. For him at that point, it was “finished.” All he had was “a hope in the Father who judges rightly…” On that brow of Golgotha’s painful face, the Just must live by Faith, the just must tell his Soul to hope in the Lord who will yet be his salvation.

There may be people reading this for whom “it is finished...” literally. Relationships have failed, power has ceased, God seems far; his Spirit seems to require, nay, demand that you submit to pain. Does the spirit author Pain, you ask? Does He command Sufferings? I challenge you not to ask the question of fools, I challenge you to rather say like our Lord..., “It is finished!” This phase of my life is finished, my effort has faltered, my strength has failed, my capacity to engage has ceased, I am not able...; it is finished! I challenge you to go further and say: “Yet I believe!” “For He shall not suffer my soul to see corruption...!” Even though I walk through the valley of shadow of death, I will fear no evil...!

In this must the Saint rejoice, that S/He is called to live by Faith in the face of certain unavoidable death. In this must the Saint hope, that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is not the God of the dead, He is the God of the Living. HE FOR WHOM “IT IS FINISHED” SHALL YET ARISE! HE FOR WHOM IT IS FINISHED SHALL STILL SHINE!!! THE END IS THE BEGINNING, THE RESSURECTION LIFE WILL FLOW!

Written for Victory Court RCCG on March 23rd 2008