“It is finished.”
The last words of Jesus according to John.
We had an interesting discussion recently about this line among the
people who were preparing to give voice to the Passion Gospel for our Palm
Sunday reading.
Now…last Sunday…it was the Passion as described by Mark.
In Mark…Jesus cries out with the opening verse of Psalm 22:
“My God, my God: why have you forsaken me?”
But John wants us to hear Jesus say,
“It is finished.”
The phrase sounds like a poignant period to such a brutal and
excruciating death as crucifixion.
But don’t let the English fool you.
The word in the Greek—tetelestai (pronounced tet-uh-LESS-tie)—is
the perfect tense of the verb teleo.
Teleo can loosely translate to mean “to accomplish something.”
Using tetlestai…implies a task accomplished in the present as well
as the past…and even into the future.
When Jesus says…”It is finished”…we could translate it to mean:
“Mission accomplished.”
So what is accomplished?
The dawning of a new way, a new path.
Those gathered there at the foot of the cross are evidence of the
mission that he has accomplished.
His beloved disciple will now take in his mother.
Take care of her…and treat her as if she were his own mother.
He has drawn to himself Mary Magdalene…that Tower of a woman…who
remained faithful to the end…and she will be the one who first meets the risen
Christ.
She will be the apostle to the apostles.
Jesus has taught that one should refrain from brutal violence.
When Simon Peter drew his sword to protect his friend and teacher
from the authorities…Jesus told him to put his weapon away.
It recalls the words of Isaiah that we find in one of our canticles
from Morning Prayer:
“Violence will no more be heard in your land,
Ruin or destruction within your borders.”
Jesus’ mission was entirely built upon a radical idea that love is
stronger than hate, faith overcomes fear, and that the truth is found not in
Empires, and bullies, and tyrants…but in trusting in that divine Source of Life
and Light.
What Jesus has accomplished is to lay down the tracks for his
disciples…both then and now…to follow Love…stay grounded in Love…and remain
steadfast in Love.
His earthly life completed…his suffering finished…he has drawn
people together…while highlighting the hypocrisy and cynicism of the religious
collaborators…and the brutality of Roman Empire.
That mission is accomplished.
The world is free to live in love…all we have to do is open our
eyes…and believe in our hearts that it is true…that love is the truth…and live
it.
Jesus…through the workings of the Holy Spirit….through the
stirrings in our hearts that yearn for a connection to God…that draws us to the
cross on a Friday night… now places us in this moment to consider those things
that remain unfinished.
There are still those clinging to the need to “other” people…that
perpetuate suffering in the world.
We are still looking for the day when we can say definitively that
racism, sexism, heterosexism, ageism, ableism, war, and poverty are no more. .
Some two-thousand plus years later…the work of Jesus…that mission
of Love…needs constant and conscious revisiting.
It needs regular recommitting…repenting…and returning.
It needs us.
In the same way that Jesus passed on the work of living and loving
to his disciples…the cross stands as the reminder that we are called to that
same mission to live and love as he did.
Jesus didn’t fail in his mission.
He did what he had to do…through the power and grace of God within
him.
And we…who claim that mantle of Christ for ourselves…must stand for
the Love Jesus shared with us…and won for us and the world.
Now is the time to give thanks to the God in Christ who taught us
to love one another…so that we might lead others to do the same.
That we might rise up and meet the world’s challenges in Love.
In the name of God…F/S/HS.
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