Lent | Jesus' Seven Last Words on the Cross: It Is Finished

“It Is Finished.”

John 19:30

When Jesus had received the sour wine,
He said, 
“It is finished,” 
and He bowed His head
and gave up His Spirit.

Reflection Readings

John tells us, "When Jesus had received the vinegar, He said, 'It is finished'; and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit." In the original Greek text, this does not mean "It's over; this is the end; I'm done for." It means "It is completed; it is perfected." The Latin says it splendidly: Consummatum est. Jesus is announcing that, at the precise moment when He seems to be defeated, He is actually the conqueror: Christus Victor.

In this immense hope and beauty, there can also be no aspect of Christian faith more difficult for us to believe. It is in our nature to think that Christ's work could not possibly be finished for us, that we have to do more. We have to add to it. We have to earn it. But we cannot earn God's gifts of forgiveness, reconciliation, resurrection, eternal life, and new creation. These divine gifts are beyond our capacity to earn through any means we could possibly devise or try. It has already all been done for us in King Jesus. It is freely accomplished through the self-giving of the Christ. He is the perfect sin offering, "once for all", as the letter to the Hebrews repeatedly says (7:27; 9:12; 9:26; 10:10). Only the death by crucifixion of the Son of God was sufficient to lift the terrible curse of sin from the world and from each of us.

+ Fleming Rutledge
The Seven Last Words from the Cross

Nicholas Lash observes on this day, the day of crucifixion, God brings all things alive, creating ex nihilo, making a home in our sin-scarred world. "Out of the virgin's womb, Christ is conceived. Out of that world-threatening death on Calvary, life is new-born from an empty tomb. Christ's terror is God's Word's human vulnerability. But it is just this vulnerability, this surrender, absolute relationship, which draws out of darkness finished life, forgiveness of sins."

God's work, the work of the Trinity, is consummated in Jesus's great declaration from the cross, "It is finished." His life, his death, his resurrection, as Irenaeus insisted, recapitulates creation, recapitulates God's covenant with Israel, uniting creation and redemption in Incarnation.

+ Stanley Hauerwas
Cross-Shattered Christ 

The cross means that the horror is not the last word, at the heart of the horror is hope, because at the heart of the horror is Christ. In the beginning and in the end and all along the way was and is and ever will be the Word. Jesus told them, "In the world you will have trouble, but fear not. I have overcome the world." He will overcome the world because he has overcome the world. "It is finished." But it is not over. From now until it reaches its final confirmation in the coming of the kingdom of God, the human story, including all its suffering and tears, is gathered up and redeemed in the cross of Christ. 

+ Fr. Richard John Neuhaus

God's ultimate will, plan,
and purpose was:

+ that sin should be punished
and sinners forgiven
(Isaiah 53:6; 1 Peter 2:24);

+ that evil should be defeated
and humanity liberated
(Colossians 2:15);

+ that death should be destroyed,
and life and immortality
brought to light
(Hebrews 2:14; 2 Timothy 1:10);

+ that enemies should be reconciled
to one another and to God
(Ephesians 2:14-16); and

+ that the whole of creation
should be restored and
reconciled to its Creator
(Colossians 1:20).

And all of that was accomplished at the cross, and was then affirmed, vindicated, and guaranteed by the resurrection. All that God intended has now been accomplished. "It is finished." That was one single word in the original language as Jesus spoke it. And on that one word hangs the uniqueness of the Christian message. Because it is the Christian gospel alone which says that salvation is not a matter of what you can do to please God and deserve his favor; no, it is what God has already done to save you and his whole world.

+ Christopher J.H. Wright 
To the Cross

Reflection Song

In Christ Alone

Keith Getty & Stuart Townend

2001 A.D. 

In Christ alone who took on flesh,

Fullness of God in helpless babe.

This gift of love and righteousness,

Scorned by the ones He came to save.

'Till on that cross as Jesus died,

The wrath of God was satisfied,

For every sin on Him was laid,

Here in the death of Christ I live.

No guilt in life, no fear in death,

This is the power of Christ in me.

From life's first cry to final breath,

Jesus commands our destiny!

No power of hell, no scheme of man

Can ever pluck me from His hand!

'Till He returns or calls me home,

Here in the power of Christ I'll stand!

Previous Last Words Post:

+ Father, Forgive Them  

+ Today You Will Be With Me  

+ Woman, Behold Your Son  

+ My God, My God, Why ... ?  

+ I Thirst

Finale: Father, Into Your Hands ... 

Christ is all,

Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan

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