It is Finished
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“It is finished”—these are good words in a number of scenarios.
That it finished was the best part of the ridiculously unfunny movie my mother-in-law and wife made me watch a few weeks ago. That is one hour and forty-one minutes of my life I will never get back.
I am so glad when visiting the dentist to hear those words: “Alright, we’re finished.”
Or, each year when my beautiful bride makes a German Chocolate Cheesecake for my birthday, Meghann’s announcement of “It’s finished” means I am that much closer to getting to indulge—just me and those I might decide to share with.
Don’t get your hopes up; I’m fairly selfish when it comes to that cheesecake.
The end of some things, the finish of some things can be a good thing.
The end of a move, when all the furniture is unloaded and boxes are unpacked.
The end of a track meet, the most insufferable of all sporting events (I’m sorry, but it’s true)—the end of a track meet is a glorious thing.
The end of the school year is greeted with glee by children and teachers alike. Soon—very soon—you’ll be saying: “It is finished!”
I personally enjoy the end of summer (I look forward to it ending before it even begins). Honestly, I’m over it already, and technically it’s still Spring.
The end, the finish is sometimes welcome. However, this certainly isn’t always the case.
The end of vacation is generally a bummer.
The end of a good book or movie or TV series can leave you wanting more. When you finish an especially good book, there can be a bit of grieving even over leaving the characters behind. You want more of their story.
The end of a loved one’s life, no matter how long you had them, is heartbreaking and life-altering.
“It is finished.”
These are complex words, simple as they seem. There’s a lot of natural emotion tied up in the end of something—good, bad; happy, sad; relief, despair. It’s complex, weighty stuff.
“It is finished.” Those are the last words Jesus spoke from the cross.
As Jesus spoke “It is finished,” in the language He would have spoken, it was just one word: tetelestai.
These last words, or more accurately, the last word of Jesus has just captivated me. This is how John records it:
28 Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
It is finished. Tetelestai. Done.
I like to imagine what those who might have heard Jesus’ last word believed He meant by it?
Was it good news for them or bad news? Did His last word— “Tetelestai.” “It is Finished.” — did that please them or sadden them?
Did Jesus’ last word bring tears or a smile?
I like to imagine what those who heard this were thinking. What did it mean to them? What was going through their mind when they heard Jesus say “It is finished.”
Think about the women there that day. Matthew says there were “many women” who witnessed the death of Jesus:
55 Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
A number of women had followed Jesus (disciples in their own right) from Galilee to Jerusalem. That’s a good 80-100 miles, hoofing it all the way. It was tough going. Jesus Himself said that He didn’t have anywhere to lay His head; they weren’t staying nightly in the Israel Inn & Suites. Following Jesus was no walk in the park.
These women followed Jesus. They were His followers. They were faithful.
They watched as Jesus was hanged on the cross, nails in His hands and feet. Crown of thorns on His head. Shouts of derision and mockery from the crowd.
They witnessed all of it. They heard Jesus’ words from the cross. They watched with agony Jesus suffer and bleed. They watched Jesus die.
After the wine-soaked sponged quenched His thirst, Jesus gave up His spirit.
The women gathered around their Savior heard Him utter that one word: Tetelestai. Finished.
What must they have been thinking?
Matthew tells us that a few days after the death of Jesus, a few of the women went to look at the tomb.
That’s a fairly depressing statement. They went to look at the tomb. There wasn’t any hope in their hearts. It was all grief. It was despair, maybe. They were just going to look. Look at the place where Jesus body was laid. “Let’s go look...”
Grief and darkness, their closest friend. When they walked to the tomb on that first day of the week, I imagine them walking quietly.
"They said nothing as they walked. Silence. Aching silence. Heavy, breaking, agonizing silence. He was dead—dead---dead.” - Calvin Miller
When Jesus had said, “It is finished,” they probably figured He meant what He said. That was the end. They had ventured to the tomb early on the first day of the week to anoint Jesus’ body. It was over.
Jesus’ “It is finished” meant, for these women, as far as we can tell, that Jesus was finished. That was that.
Jesus crucified. Dead. Buried. They were witnesses to the whole, horrible ordeal. And this much everyone knew: dead men don’t get better.
“Finished” meant “finished.”
For Jesus’ disciples—the Twelve—I imagine “It is finished” had a similar significance.
We don’t have much detail about 9 of the 12 disciples between the arrest of Jesus and His crucifixion.
We know Judas took his own life after selling Jesus to the authorities for a few lousy pieces of silver.
John writes for us that he and Peter were following Jesus after Jesus’ arrest.
John knew some important people, so he was able to to go with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard. John was even able to get Peter a ticket to the main event.
So, at the end, 75% of Jesus’ disciples had skedaddled, scattered, vamoosed.
Cowards. No doubt, they thought if Jesus was arrested, they’d probably be next. So, most of them got the heck out of Dodge.
Peter stuck around a little while, but quickly betrayed Jesus. Denied knowing Jesus. Denied knowing Jesus again. Denied knowing Jesus a third time.
That leaves one. One disciple. One disciple stayed near to Jesus. One disciple heard what Jesus said.
25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
One disciple—John—Jesus’ closest friend and follower heard Jesus speak. Jesus gives to John the responsibility of caring for His own mother.
I’m sure, for John, this had a feeling of finality. Jesus from the cross, making arrangements for His mother to be cared for. Jesus asking John to keep an eye on Mary.
This is last will and testament stuff.
This is what John hears. He hears Jesus say, “Here is your mother.” John hears Jesus say that He’s thirsty. And then John hears that word from Jesus’ parched lips: “Tetelestai.” “It is finished.”
What a blow! Punch to the gut. Hope dashed. A harsh realization...
“It is finished.” The last three years of John’s life spent following and serving, learning from and loving Jesus. And now Jesus is dead.
John and the other disciples left their old lives behind—fishing, tax collecting, whatever—and followed Jesus. And now Jesus is no longer.
Jesus is finished. Said it Himself.
Over the next couple of days, all the disciples would find themselves huddled together in the Upper Room. Doors locked. Afraid. Paranoid.
What are they to do now?
John certainly filled them in about what he had seen and heard. John would have told them the whole terrible story.
Jesus—their friend, Rabbi, Lord—killed before his eyes. Speared in the side, taken down from the cross, laid in a friend’s unused and borrowed tomb.
What were the disciples to do now?
John told them Jesus’ last words? Imagine what they think.
“Finished? It’s finished? 3 years down the drain? Do we just go back to fishing, to doing what we did before He called us?”
I have to imagine for the disciples this was a moment of despair. Shock. Resignation. “That’s it. That’s the end.”
This final word from Jesus was not welcomed, nor was it good in any measure. Not for the disciples and followers of Jesus.
There were, unsurprisingly, some there that day, immediately before Jesus, who found Jesus’ last word(s) to be great news.
Some were glad to hear it. “He’s finished!” Some were pleased to see it. They were glad to witness the end of this rabblerouser from Galilee.
Jesus’ “It is finished” inspired and invigorated the Pharisees and the Sadducees. It was a joyful moment for those who had been opposing Jesus throughout His entire earthly ministry.
They thought Him to be a blasphemer—claiming to have the authority to forgive sins, claiming to be the Son of God, claiming to be one with God.
7 The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
So on that terrible, dark Friday when Jesus breathed His last breath, there was rejoicing by some people at Golgotha. Rejoicing in the streets of Jerusalem. Rejoicing amongst the Jewish religious leaders.
They’d won. They’d accomplished, at long last, what they set out to do. They’d killed this ridiculous, radical rabbi. They could wash their hands of Jesus now.
The end of Jesus, the finish of Jesus was, for many, a great thing. A huge accomplishment. A big deal. This was, as far as the religious elite were concerned, a really really good thing.
“You heard what He said—it’s finished! That’s it. We did it!”
This I know: joining with the human opposition to Jesus in rejoicing and celebrating their victory—was the cosmic forces of evil, the opposing spiritual team.
Beyond the Jewish people and the chief priests, beyond Rome, beyond Pilate and Caiaphas, Satan and his minions were feeling their oats.
This was the moment they were waiting for. Darkness triumphed. Death stung real good. The forces of evil had won.
“It is finished.” The enemies of Jesus LOVED hearing those words fall from the Nazarene’s lips mere moments before He died.
“It is finished.” It’s no stretch of the imagination to think about the Jewish and Roman and demonic forces rejoicing in the end of Jesus.
“It is finished”—words that convey different meaning, depending upon who you are and what your perspective might be.
Some saddened and shocked.
Some pleased as punch.
Others indifferent to the whole thing: “What does all this matter to me?”
Well, it matters, not so much what we might think the words mean as what Jesus was actually saying.
30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Jesus’ cry— “It is finished.”—is a confirmation of John’s previous statement in verse 28 that Jesus knew everything had now been finished.
Everything, every promise, every purpose had now been accomplished.
The entire purpose for which God sent Jesus into the world was completed. Salvation, eternal life for all who would believe now freely available.
Jesus knew His work was complete; Jesus completed the sacrifice for which He came. And then He gave up His life of His own accord.
Jesus’ last word—tetelestai—(or, in English, words— “It is finished”)—it’s in the perfect tense. All this means is that it was done and has a continuous, ongoing impact.
Nothing further needed to be done. Jesus’ act was voluntary and confident.
The women who loved and served Jesus were broken by Jesus’ “It is finished” because, for them, Jesus was just dead. Gone for good.
The disciples were crushed, because they thought this meant it was all over for Jesus and for them. Back to fishing.
But for Jesus, “It is finished” was a shout of victory because the purpose of God had triumphed in His death.
It’s the final report of Jesus to the Father who will now exalt Him to glory.
“It is finished” was Jesus’ way of saying “All that needs doing to save sinners from death and judgment has been done!
What Jesus did was far better than the sacrifices the temple priests could make.
27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.
[Jesus] sacrificed for the sins [of the people] ONCE FOR ALL when He offered Himself.
When Jesus says, “It is finished,” He means it.
It’s done.
The price, the penalty, the punishment for our sins has been placed on Jesus. He paid it.
He sacrificed Himself. Once. For. All.
There is no price left to pay.
“Before Jesus died on the cross, humanity was in bondage to sin. We were sold as slaves to sin, and we deserved to die in captivity. A price needed to be paid to redeem us, to buy us back from sin and death.
But the price of redemption was a perfect sacrifice, a price we could not pay. When Jesus said, “It is finished,” he was announcing that he was paying that price in full.
Christ died for us, offering himself as a sinless sacrifice, buying back our freedom by paying sin’s price.”
The word that Jesus spoke (“It is finished”) was used by the Greeks for financial transactions. A sales clerk would write it on a sales receipt. What it meant was “paid in full.” It meant that the purchase had been made, that no debts were outstanding, that no further payments were required.
“Finished” is just the word to describe what Jesus did on the cross. When Jesus died on the cross, he paid the full price for sin. His work of redeeming us from sin was perfect and final.
Jesus did all, finished all, suffered all. He made full atonement. Those who trust in Jesus have been purchased back from sin. They have no outstanding debts. They do not need to make any further payments for their salvation.
When Jesus said, “It is finished,” he was not uttering a sigh of relief or a moan of resignation. Jesus was announcing and proclaiming victory.
He was giving a shout of joy and triumph, a shout of jubilation and exultation, the shout of a victor and a champion. “I did it!” Jesus was saying.
The cross was Jesus Christ’s job well done. It was his lifetime achievement. It was his mission accomplished.
- Philip Ryken
We can sing: “Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.”
Jesus said, “It is finished.” Complete. Paid in full.
Jesus says so.
God the Father also had something to say about Jesus’ sacrifice.
You see, Jesus spent three days in the grave, in the tomb of a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph who had become a disciple of Jesus (Matthew 27:57).
Three days dead.
And then, bursting forth in in glorious day, up from the grave He rose again!
1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”
4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.
He is risen! He is risen indeed!
Without the resurrection, Jesus’ death would go without God’s interpretation and endorsement.
The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the Father’s clear signal that Jesus is the powerful Son of God who has conquered death and reigns as Lord of all.
The resurrection demonstrates that Jesus’ “blood of the new covenant” saves His people from their sins.
Romans 4:24–25 (NIV)
...God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
The resurrection SHOUTS the Good News that Jesus has paid it all and that He has defeated death.
The resurrection—Jesus, once dead, now alive—SHOUTS the truth that Jesus has finished what He came to do.
The resurrection of Jesus SHOUTS to us, assuring those who belong to Jesus that they will be raised to new life—justified, made right with God because of what Jesus has done.
>This is what it’s all about; Easter is about Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. His death on the cross, paying the full price of our sins, and His rising victorious over sin and death.
“It is finished,” friends. Jesus has done it!
If you have not placed your faith and trust in Jesus, do it today.
Repent—turn from your sins, and turn to Jesus! Repent and believe and accept the free and costly gift of grace. Free to you, costly to Jesus.
He suffered and bled and died, for your sins and mine, so that we might be made right with God the Father.
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
> I’ve found something to be true, over and over again. It’s this: my kids are smarter than me.
They can fix my phone or show me a feature on my computer I knew nothing about. They remind me stuff that’s slipped my mind. They can do the “new math” which is complete nonsense to me.
Beyond all that, they astound me with their wisdom.
In our Sunday School class a few weeks ago, my sweet boy, Miracle said something absolutely astounding. I wrote it down to remember it, but it’s been rattling around my brain ever since; I didn’t need to write it down.
It was this phrase, Miracle referring to Jesus’ resurrection and what that means for us. He said: “The person you are believing in has risen from the dead.”
This is not some abstract truth. This isn’t some deep, theological vaguery we’re required to discuss one day a year.
This is the most life-altering reality there is. Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, is alive. He had been dead, and now He lives.
This is who we are believing in—a risen Savior!
“The person you are believing in has risen from the dead.” And if Jesus did that, if God did that, what is there He can’t do?
What are you facing that He can’t work out?
What need do you have that He can’t meet?
When you struggle, isn’t He right there with you, carrying you along?
“The person you are believing in has risen from the dead.”
The person you’re believing in was dead, and now He’s alive!
The person you’re believing in—the Resurrected Jesus—has spoken these words: “It is finished.”
And He meant every word.
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