Friday
Friday
His Shout of Triumph
When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.”
John 19:30
In the first three words from the cross we saw Jesus as our example, and in the fourth and fifth as our sin bearer. Now in the last two cries he appears as the conqueror, for they express the victory that he has won for us.
One could perhaps claim that the words of the sixth cry (“It is finished”) are the most momentous ever spoken. Already in anticipation Jesus had claimed that he had completed the work he had come into the world to do (17:4). So next he makes a public declaration of it. His cry is not the despairing groan of one who is dying in resignation and defeat. It is a shout, according to Matthew and Mark, uttered “in a loud voice” (Matt. 27:50), proclaiming a resounding victory.
The Greek verb (tetelestai) is in the perfect tense, indicating an achievement with lasting results. It might be rendered, “It has been and remains forever accomplished.” For Christ has made what the Letter to the Hebrews calls “one single sacrifice for sins” (Heb. 10:12 NJB) and what Cranmer in the Book of Common Prayer called “a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.” In consequence, because Christ has finished the work of sin bearing, there is nothing left for us to do, or even to contribute.
And to demonstrate the satisfactory nature of what Christ has done, the veil of the temple was torn down “from top to bottom” (Matt. 27:51) in order to show that the hand of God had done it. This curtain had hung for centuries between the outer and the inner sanctuaries as an emblem of the inaccessibility of God to sinners, for no one might penetrate beyond the veil into the presence of God except the high priest on the Day of Atonement. But now the veil was torn in half and discarded, for it was needed no longer. The worshipers in the temple courts, gathered that afternoon for the evening sacrifice, were dramatically informed of another and a better sacrifice by which they could draw near to God.
For further reading: Hebrews 10:11–14, 19–25