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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The focus of our Lenten services this year at St. Paul has been the seven words of Jesus as he was on the cross. They are words of life even in his death. Tonight we conclude fittingly with his words, “It is finished.” But what is finished? Yes, the terrible suffering of Jesus is finished. His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, his arrest, his trial, beatings, his being unjustly sentenced to death, having to carry a cross, and then nailed to it and to hang on it for six hours, all of that now is finished. His suffering, pain, and darkness, and death are finished.
And I think we can kind of relate to that, that when we experience suffering, pain, or darkness, we like when it’s over, when we get through it, when it is finished. It may even be good when death finally comes to a person who’s suffering pain. That’s certainly the case as we look at Jesus on the cross tonight.
And that’s what we gather around tonight, the cross, an instrument of suffering, pain, and darkness, a place of death. A place where we hear words of death from Jesus saying that his life is finished. But something else is finished along with Jesus’s suffering, his pain, darkness, and death. Also being finished is a payment. A payment is finished.
Besides the cross being a place of death, Jesus speaks words of life from it, and “It is finished” is a word of life for us. It’s a word of life that we really need to hear because we are dead. Yes, my friends, we are dead in the brokenness of this world. We’re dead in the suffering, pain, and darkness, and death of this world, and we’re dead in our own brokenness, our own pain and suffering, and darkness. We’re dead in our sin, sin. In fact, that’s the very thing that even causes death. Romans chapter 6 says the wages of sin is death. Basically, death is what we earn for our sins. That is our wage. It’s what you and I get for breaking God’s laws. When we think, say, or do terrible things to other people, death is that price, and death awaits. You can’t get away from it.
Sin and death are our “it,” because sin and death, our lives are like unfinished payments. I think we can relate to that too, having payments to make. Sometimes they take years, maybe decades to finish. That’s frustrating and draining to even have to think about payments. But in his suffering and death and darkness and pain, Jesus finishes what you can’t finish because of your sins.
Jesus pays what you can’t. You can’t finish what’s required for your sins. So why does Jesus have to finish it? Because the payment is too overwhelming for us to pay, because we have too much of it that needs to be paid. Basically, we can’t finish it because we’re too full of it. We’re full of ignoring God, rebelling against Him. We’re full of evil actions, hurtful words, detestable thoughts, vindictive desires, and impure intentions. We’re full of brokenness, full of selfishness, full of sin. We are full of it.
And if Jesus is the sinless Son of God who committed no crime or no sin, who’s been wrongly arrested, falsely tried, and sentenced to death by crucifixion, then he’s not dying on the cross, finishing something for Himself. It’s not a payment for His benefit; it is for your benefit. His death is for you, and He finished it for you, paying for it with His life. Yes, Jesus dies to finish what’s required of your sin. He dies to pay that price. He dies to forgive you of what needs to be paid. He finishes it.
Yeah, the wages of sin is death, like I said, but hear these verses too from Colossians chapter 2. “When you were dead in your sins, God made you alive with Christ. He forgives us all of our sins, having canceled the charge of our debt which stood against us and condemned us. He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.” Do you hear that? Hear that? Jesus has taken it away, taken away the debt of your sin by nailing it to a cross. That payment is completely finished.
Again, the cross is a place of execution, it’s a place of death where Jesus dies, but in it he’s finishing that payment and it gives us life. The cross becomes a place of life. It became a place of life for Christ because just a few days later, and we look forward to it on Easter, he rises again from the dead. So the words “It is finished” is a word of life for us, and it is life that’s ongoing, you see, because in the Greek language, the words “It is finished” in the Bible are said in a tense that indicates an ongoing effect of a present action. In other words, something happens now, and the effect of it, the result, is always valid after the fact.
We have that with Jesus’s finishing death. It’s always valid. It is always finished. What God did in Jesus Christ back then is in effect right now. What his death and resurrection finished then is still finished now. You may be struggling with sins, past sins or present ones, struggling with feeling that they can be forgiven. And I know that that can be hard sometimes. You can doubt it, and that’s because Satan loves to bring up the past and loves to accuse you of your sin and your brokenness. He loves to remind you of your “it” and make you forget the finishing work of Jesus.
When Satan does that, you tell him, “No, it is finished! I am forgiven.” Tell him, “It is finished” because Jesus says so. The perfect sinless Son of God who died on the cross says so. It is finished. Don’t let Satan fill you full of it. It’s forgiven. It’s finished. Your sins are paid for, and you’re still paid for, still forgiven. It doesn’t take years or decades to finish. It’s now.
Another word that Jesus said was, “I thirst,” and then he was given some sour wine vinegar to drink. It’s not exactly clear in Scripture why he asked, you know that he said he was thirsty and wanted something to drink. I think a reason why Jesus drank that was basically to kind of wet His whistle so that He could say something very important that He had to say from the cross and wanted it to be heard loud and clear, that the whole world would hear, “It is finished.” No doubt. No wondering. It is finished. For His relief and for ours.
I want you to hear these words loud and clear tonight, to cut through the suffering and pain and darkness and death of Good Friday, and to cut through the suffering, pain, darkness, and death of your life. I want you to hear loud and clear from Jesus himself, “It is finished.” This is what my death did for you; I paid for it completely. The suffering, pain, and darkness and death caused by your sin, caused by your “it,” is finished.
I want you to hear loud and clear the words of life that Jesus has for you as he dies on the cross, and may those words be true for you now and forever. Amen.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
