The Most Forgotten Words of Jesus
That’s a powerful statement… “… the most…”. In law school, we were taught to stay away from any superlative adjective, like “most”, “best” “greatest”, “worst”, etc. Such words make for poor legal arguments, and we were warned that such hyperbole could inflame a judge as well as a jury.
But. Sometimes one simply has to tell it like it is - hyperbole or no.
Easter, which was observed by the Western Christian church last Sunday (Eastern Orthodox believers will be celebrating this coming Sunday) is always preceded by Good Friday; the Holy Week commemorations of the passion, death and resurrection of Christ are well known and accepted in our culture, even if some of the holiday’s paraphernalia stray rather far afield from the origin of the feast. Bunnies and eggs and marshmallow chicks seem rather bizarre to celebrate what was a violent death and miraculous resurrection.
Plus, it’s a bit late to talk about Good Friday; Easter has come and gone. Jesus’ passion can be laid to rest until next Good Friday, when we’ll again take a few moments to meditate upon and ponder the death of a man who rose again three days later. It’s become so much a part of Western religious culture, its occurrence rarely merits a hiccup in our daily routine.
But something Jesus uttered in His last minute before dying hasn’t left me for days; and when that happens, I know I’m onto something; something deep, personal, and wholly holy. If one can think on His words for just a few minutes - to deeply and consciously sink into those last words He uttered, to really understand what He was saying, it would change everything.
I’m not kidding. Everything. Every. Thing. Every. One. Every. Where.
Moments before he breathed his last, Jesus said “It is finished.”
Done. Over with. Completed. Accomplished. “It is finished.'“
What was finished? Over with, completed, accomplished?
Jesus accomplished what we never could, and never would, on our own. He redeemed mankind for all eternity, taking on evil and sin into His own person and body so that we would be forever freed from condemnation and punishment. God executed the perfect plan of reconciliation through His son Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah. God’s longing was to be reunited with His people, with His created ones; to let His people know just how loved and precious they were.
And His plan of reconciliation through Jesus was a one-time deal. Once for all. No need to repeat. Once and done.
When Jesus said “It is finished”, His intent was that we would no longer have to “work” our way into God’s good graces, or beg for His blessings. We would no longer have to earn His love. In essence Jesus said, “Mission accomplished”. The plan all along was that Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice would usher in the Reign of God on earth, showing us how to love each other, in peace and joy.
But in looking over human history for the past 2000+ years, mankind seems to have forgotten those words; we just don’t get it - it seems we never have. Over the course of history we decided we had to “add on” to the plan, to perfect it. We made lots of rules, we built big churches, we created complex hierarchies and institutions, we waged wars and created all manner of “in” and “out” groups. And if our rules weren’t obeyed, if the right words weren’t said, or the right clothing worn, or the right foods eaten, or the proper prayers said, or the right books read, we had no problem with violent coercion and destruction. Read it for yourselves: the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Middle Ages, the Protestant Reformation, the religious infighting and divisiveness right within Christianity itself for over 1800 years.
Good grief, we are still doing it today. American politics has become a new religious war.
Did we forget what He said? Or maybe we’ve just never accepted that Jesus’ work was really finished. For 2000 years, we’ve tried to add on to God’s plan, to finesse and fine-tune it to our own needs and desires. We’ve used the language of faith but the weapons of war. We’ve pretended to share love and “good news”, but only to those we’ve considered worthy, never accepting that ‘worthiness’ is not ours to decide. We took the very simple message of God’s unfailing love for all of mankind, and turned it into a theological quagmire of philosophies and works that do nothing but fuel discord and discontent. It’s no wonder so many have turned away.
It’s time to return to that one-liner, “It is finished”, and see if we really believe it IS finished. If so, then what a burden is lifted! Jesus already reconciled man to God, so all I have to do is love others as He did. It’s all that’s asked of me.
The cross turns on one concept: love. My life depends on one virtue: love. My future requires one commodity: love.
What more need be said? It is finished.