Sunday, April 14, 2019 ~ Lent VI
Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor
Sermon Series on the Seven Last “Words” of Christ
“It is finished.” ~ John 19:30
© 2019, Dr. Tamilio
This last Christmas, my daughter asked for one thing: a pair of sneakers. But she didn’t want just any old pair of sneakers. She wanted professional running shoes. She has decided that she wants to run a marathon. She asked me if I wanted to train with her? I looked at her as if she had nine heads. Actually, first I looked around to see if she was talking to someone else. When I failed to see anyone behind me, I then looked at her — as if she had nine heads. I get winded running up the stairs, and she wants me to run 26.2 miles! Let’s forget the fact that she leaves near Kent, Ohio and it would be impossible for us to train together. Let’s put that one aside for a moment. Twenty-six point two miles? Now, if she asked if wanted to train to run a 5K, I’d say sure. But a marathon.
Tomorrow is the Boston Marathon, as you all know. You can watch it all you want, but you won’t see me anywhere near the starting line. You won’t even see me in the back of the pack. If you come to Beverly, you will see me on my couch watching the race. In fact, I like watching the Boston Marathon. I am always interested in who is going to win. Who will be the female champion? Who will be the male victor? Which wheelchair participant will come in first.
Aside from that, it is fun just to see people complete the race. That’s the true competition, isn’t it? No matter what place you come in, if you ran 26.2 miles you won in my book. When people finish and raise their arms in the air, they must feel an incredible sense of accomplishment, regardless of what the clock says.
The people along the sidelines cheering them on remind me of the people who lined the parade route in Jerusalem when Jesus rode into town some 2000 years ago. But that is not where I am going with this illustration. We are nearing the end of our sermon series on the seven last words of Christ. There are two statements that are recorded as Jesus’ last — two that came at the end, after he had been hanging on the cross for six hours. One of them, which we read today, is “It is finished.”
Yes, Jesus ran a race that day: a race against sin and evil. When he was done he said that he was finished, which meant that what he was sent to do was completed — completed in a very holistic way.
Be it literal or metaphorical, God created Eden — Paradise — the place where he wanted humanity to live in perfect fellowship with him and all creation. But we succumbed to temptation. We were tempted by the serpent to follow our way rather than God’s way. You know the story: Adam and Eve were kicked out of Eden and had to therefore suffer the pains of human existence as we know them. Why? Because they put their faith in themselves and not God.
When most people tell that story, they get it wrong. They forget that there were two trees in the center of the Garden: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Everlasting Life. It is the first one (the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) that they are not supposed to eat from. The fruit of the other (Everlasting Life) was there for the taking. I have often wondered why they were allowed to eat from one and not the other. What is so bad about knowledge?
Nothing. There’s nothing bad about knowledge in general. That’s not the issue. The problem is that by eating this particular fruit, they sought to be like God. Essentially, they sought to be God. Maybe they sought to be their own gods, which is the height of idolatry. If you are seeking to be your own god, then you are rejecting the God of heaven and earth, the God of all creation.
As a result, a wedge was created (a chasm, if you will) between us and God — a great gulf that could not be traversed. Imagine standing at the Grand Canyon and looking out across it. How could you, on your own, bridge that gulf? Obviously, you can’t. As a result of the Fall, God was on one side of the gulf and humanity was on the other. This wasn’t a punishment. This was our own doing. God came to us in Jesus to bridge the gulf. Through what Jesus achieved on the cross, he became the bridge — a bridge we could not create on our own — the bridge that would connect us to God.
For me, this is one of the best ways to understand what was achieved on Good Friday. This is not a metaphor I devised, but it is one I agree with wholeheartedly. Jesus is the bridge between the gulf that sin created between us and God. That bridge was under construction the moment Jesus was born. It began in Bethlehem, but it was finished on Calvary. When Jesus says, “It is finished” from the cross, he does not mean that his life is finished; he is saying that he has completed what he came to accomplish. He not only ran the marathon, but he won it — leaving every other competitor behind in the dust.
The Greek word for what Jesus says here is tetelestai. Dr. Ray Pritchard reminds us that “Tetelestai comes from the verb teleo, which means ‘to bring to an end, to complete, to accomplish.’ It’s a crucial word because it signifies the successful end to a particular course of action.”[1]
Debbie McDaniel writes, “There’s no doubt that Jesus knew what His last words needed to be here in this life. He knew the power those final words would have for generations still to come. And He had great purpose in them, which still breathe such life and meaning for our lives today.”[2]
Not only did the words have purpose, but the act had purpose as well. Jesus knew what he had to do. As difficult as it was for him, he was obedient — obedient all the way to the cross.
There is an obvious lesson here for all of us: we are to follow Jesus no matter where he leads no matter how hard it is. But there is another lesson here, too. Jesus completed our salvation on the cross, but his overall work isn’t complete. There is still many an unbeliever out there. The Gospel still needs our voices so that others will hear it. Jesus needs you to share the message. There are many ways to do it. As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I had some small flyers (commonly known as Bible tracts) made. They’re in your pews: the small red pamphlet that reads “Somebody Loves You.” The entire tract is filled with messages of God’s love. Take it — and if you want more, I have them. Give this to someone: someone who has yet to hear the Word and to respond to it. Saint Teresa of Ávila (not Mother Teresa) said it best: “Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”[3]
Be the body, my friends. Having been blessed, be a blessing to others. The work of salvation has been completed by our Savior. The sharing of his Word hasn’t. Be that voice. Run that race with Jesus — and win it with him. Amen.
[1] Ray Pritchard, “Why Did Jesus Say ‘It Is Finished’? Meaning and Importance of His Last Words,” taken from Christianity.com.
[2] Debbie McDaniel, “The Power of Jesus’ Last Words: The Meaning Behind ‘It Is Finished,’” taken from ibelieve.com.
[3] Taken from goodreads.com.