"It is finished."

“It is finished”                         - John 19:30
 
“Put your pencils down and pass your papers to the front.”  Do you remember hearing those words when you took exams in school?  It seemed to me that there were always at least a couple of questions on every test that I wasn’t quite sure about.  After answering what I knew, I’d go back to those questions and turn them over in my mind.  But any consideration, any deliberation was over when the teacher uttered those dreaded words, “Put your pencils down and pass your papers to the front.”  It didn’t matter if your work was incomplete; you were finished.  Tough luck.

In the gospel of John, Jesus’ final words (as they are translated in most of our English bibles) are:  “It is finished.”  But that’s not necessarily the best translation.  After all, I may only be “finished” with something because time has run out; like it or no, “time’s up.”  Put your pencil down.

In John’s gospel, Jesus refers to his ministry as “work.”  In chapter 4, Jesus enters into conversation with a Samaritan woman while he is sitting by a well.  In the course of their lengthy conversation, Jesus reveals his identity to her; it is the first time he has openly spoken to anyone about who he is.  When the woman heads back into town to tell her neighbors about Jesus, Jesus’ disciples try to offer Jesus something to eat.  Jesus’ answer is odd.  He says to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.”[i]  It’s a statement that baffles the disciples.  They may have only been concerned about his blood sugar dropping; but clearly Jesus has something else in mind when he speaks of food. 

Jesus picks up this thread once again in chapter six.  He had (most recently) miraculously provided food for a hungry crowd of 5,000.  But Jesus tries to put things in proper perspective giving them a response that goes something like this (my paraphrase):[ii]  You are hunting me down just to get another free meal.  Forget about wasting your time working on that.  Work on pursuing something that really matters.  Work on putting your trust in me. 
Jesus, throughout John’s gospel, makes clear that he is working God’s plan.  Over the course of the gospel, Jesus explains that plan: he will lay down his life by being lifted up on a cross to die.  That’s the plan and Jesus has been working it from the start; always aware of what lies at the finish line.

And so, when he reaches the cross, his work is finished.  But it is more than finished; it is complete.  In fact, that would be a better translation of the Greek word:  It is complete.  No loose ends; no unanswered questions.  Jesus didn’t lay down his pencil; he laid down his life.  And when he did, he did so knowing that his work was complete.    

[i] John 4:34
[ii] John 6:25-40