It Is Not Finished!

 

[The following is a manuscript of my meditation delivered on Good Friday, the 29th of March, 2024, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  A recording of our service should be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Yesterday afternoon, we shared the Passover meal with Jesus and His dearest friends, His chosen disciples.  One of those seated at His table betrayed Him, one denied Him, and all abandoned Him, fleeing for their lives, scattering like sheep whose shepherd had been struck down.  What followed are the darkest hours in the history of mankind.  During the night and into the day, Jesus was not only betrayed, denied, and forsaken by His own followers, He was also humiliated, ridiculed, tortured, beaten, and whipped, by His fellow Jews and by the Romans.  Throughout all this, He remained mostly silent, as the Spotless Lamb led to the slaughter.

Today, at about this time, He will be nailed to a cross where He will take His last breath around three this afternoon.  Our church reading earlier is adapted from Mark 15, giving a somewhat condensed version of the last day of Jesus’ mortal life.  But what role did the Jewish religious leadership play in the day’s events?  And what about the crowds who greeted Jesus with shouts of “Hosanna!”, “Save us!”, and threw their cloaks and palm branches out into the street before Him just a few days ago?  Will they come to Jesus’ rescue?  Will God send an army of angels to free Him?  And what about the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate?  Is this just part of the job he signed up for?

I’d like to look at how the Apostle John reported what took place that Friday afternoon.  This is quite long, but I think it’s better to listen to what God thought important enough for us to hear that He ensured all four Gospel writers included it in their reports.  Please listen and follow along to the Gospel account of the Apostle John as I read from chapter 18 verse 28 through chapter 19 verse 42, and I’ll be reading from the New Living Translation of our Holy Bible...

18:28 Jesus’ trial before Caiaphas ended in the early hours of the morning. Then He was taken to the headquarters of the Roman governor. His accusers didn’t go inside because it would defile them, and they wouldn’t be allowed to celebrate the Passover. 29 So Pilate, the governor, went out to them and asked, “What is your charge against this Man?”

30 “We wouldn’t have handed Him over to you if He weren’t a criminal!” they retorted.

31 “Then take Him away and judge Him by your own law,” Pilate told them.

“Only the Romans are permitted to execute someone,” the Jewish leaders replied. 32 (This fulfilled Jesus’ prediction about the way He would die.)

33 Then Pilate went back into his headquarters and called for Jesus to be brought to him. “Are you the King of the Jews?” he asked Him.

34 Jesus replied, “Is this your own question, or did others tell you about Me?”

35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate retorted. “Your own people and their leading priests brought You to me for trial. Why? What have You done?”

36 Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, My followers would fight to keep Me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But My Kingdom is not of this world.”

37 Pilate said, “So You are a king?”

Jesus responded, “You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.”

38 “What is truth?” Pilate asked. Then he went out again to the people and told them, “He is not guilty of any crime. 39 But you have a custom of asking me to release one prisoner each year at Passover. Would you like me to release this ‘King of the Jews’?”

40 But they shouted back, “No! Not this Man. We want Barabbas!” (Barabbas was a revolutionary.)

19:1 Then Pilate had Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip. 2 The soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put a purple robe on Him. 3 “Hail! King of the Jews!” they mocked, as they slapped Him across the face.

4 Pilate went outside again and said to the people, “I am going to bring Him out to you now, but understand clearly that I find Him not guilty.” 5 Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said, “Look, here is the Man!”

6 When they saw Him, the leading priests and Temple guards began shouting, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”

“Take Him yourselves and crucify Him,” Pilate said. “I find Him not guilty.”

7 The Jewish leaders replied, “By our law He ought to die because He called Himself the Son of God.”

8 When Pilate heard this, he was more frightened than ever. 9 He took Jesus back into the headquarters again and asked Him, “Where are You from?” But Jesus gave no answer. 10 “Why don’t You talk to me?” Pilate demanded. “Don’t You realize that I have the power to release You or crucify You?”

11 Then Jesus said, “You would have no power over Me at all unless it were given to you from above. So the one who handed Me over to you has the greater sin.”

12 Then Pilate tried to release Him, but the Jewish leaders shouted, “If you release this Man, you are no ‘friend of Caesar.’ Anyone who declares himself a king is a rebel against Caesar.”

13 When they said this, Pilate brought Jesus out to them again. Then Pilate sat down on the judgment seat on the platform that is called the Stone Pavement (in Hebrew, Gabbatha). 14 It was now about noon on the day of preparation for the Passover. And Pilate said to the people, “Look, here is your King!”

15 “Away with Him,” they yelled. “Away with Him! Crucify Him!”

“What? Crucify your King?” Pilate asked.

“We have no king but Caesar,” the leading priests shouted back.

16 Then Pilate turned Jesus over to them to be crucified.

So they took Jesus away. 17 Carrying the cross by Himself, He went to the place called Place of the Skull (in Hebrew, Golgotha). 18 There they nailed Him to the cross. Two others were crucified with Him, one on either side, with Jesus between them. 19 And Pilate posted a sign on the cross that read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” 20 The place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, so that many people could read it.

21 Then the leading priests objected and said to Pilate, “Change it from ‘The King of the Jews’ to ‘He said, I am King of the Jews.’”

22 Pilate replied, “No, what I have written, I have written.”

23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they divided His clothes among the four of them. They also took His robe, but it was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. 24 So they said, “Rather than tearing it apart, let’s cast lots for it.” This fulfilled the Scripture that says, “They divided My garments among themselves and cast lots for My clothing.” So that is what they did.

25 Standing near the cross were Jesus’ mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary (the wife of Clopas), and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw His mother standing there beside the disciple He loved, He said to her, “Dear woman, here is your son.” 27 And He said to this disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from then on this disciple took her into his home.

28 Jesus knew that His mission was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture He said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to His lips. 30 When Jesus had tasted it, He said, “It is finished!” Then He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

31 It was the day of preparation, and the Jewish leaders didn’t want the bodies hanging there the next day, which was the Sabbath (and a very special Sabbath, because it was Passover week). So they asked Pilate to hasten their deaths by ordering that their legs be broken. Then their bodies could be taken down. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men crucified with Jesus. 33 But when they came to Jesus, they saw that He was already dead, so they didn’t break His legs. 34 One of the soldiers, however, pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out. 35 (This report is from an eyewitness giving an accurate account. He speaks the truth so that you also may believe.) 36 These things happened in fulfillment of the Scriptures that say, “Not one of His bones will be broken,” 37 and “They will look on the One they pierced.”

38 Afterward Joseph of Arimathea, who had been a secret disciple of Jesus (because he feared the Jewish leaders), asked Pilate for permission to take down Jesus’ body. When Pilate gave permission, Joseph came and took the body away. 39 With him came Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus at night. He brought about seventy-five pounds of perfumed ointment made from myrrh and aloes. 40 Following Jewish burial custom, they wrapped Jesus’ body with the spices in long sheets of linen cloth. 41 The place of crucifixion was near a garden, where there was a new tomb, never used before. 42 And so, because it was the day of preparation for the Jewish Passover and since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.

--John 18:28-19:42 (NLT)

Let us pray… Father God, this afternoon we remember the darkest day in all of Your creation – the day we tortured and executed Your Son, nailing Him to a cruel cross.  Jesus came to offer us salvation, but the world refused Him.  We drove nails into the hands He stretched out to save us.  We cursed Him, spat on Him, beat Him, killed Him.  But You knew all this had to happen.  By Your law, only a blood sacrifice can atone for sin, and only the blood of the one true Spotless Lamb could wash us clean and atone for our sin.  Thank You, Father, for Your great love and mercy.  Thank You, Jesus, for Your sacrifice.  Imprint this day on our hearts so that we might understand just how important this is to us and to others, how critical it is for our eternal life.  This we pray in the name of the Lamb, Your Son Jesus.  Amen.

The Jewish religious leadership were through with Jesus now.  They’d done all they could do under Jewish law.  They arrested Him, accused Him of ridiculous crimes, had Him slapped around some by their guards.  It was time to turn Him over to someone who could do what they couldn’t – put an end, once and for all, to this Jesus and His New Way, scattering His followers in the process.

Now Jesus stood in judgment before the highest human authority in the land, the governor of the region, the commander of the occupying army: Pontius Pilate.  But quite frankly, Pilate would rather have not been involved at all.  He was a Roman, not a Jew.  He even said as much when questioning Jesus.  He worshiped multiple gods, not just one.

The only reason he cared about any of this at all is because the leaders of the occupied people were stirring the crowds into a frenzy, and he feared riots and unrest might erupt.  He was there to keep the peace, the Roman peace, and that meant keeping the people under control, by any  means necessary, even putting this man Jesus to death if that would quieten the mob.

Still, Pilate wasn’t convinced that Jesus had done anything deserving of death.  So he gave Jesus a chance to answer the charges against Him, but He said nothing in His defense.  That didn’t work, so next Pilate offered the people, the mob, a choice: he could pardon either Jesus or the notorious prisoner, the revolutionary Barabbas.  “Which do you choose?”, he asked.  “Who would you have me release, Barabbas or Jesus?”  “We want Barabbas!”, they cried.

Pilate still saw no guilt in Jesus or His actions, but the mob was rapidly approaching the boiling point, so he ordered that Jesus be flogged with a lead-tipped whip.  The Roman soldiers went a bit further, jamming a crown fashioned from thorns onto His head, cutting His flesh.  They put a purple robe on Him, then slapped Him across the face as they mockingly shouted, “Hail! King of the Jews!”

Hoping this would be enough to appease the crowd, Pilate had Jesus brought out on bloodied display.  Instead, the chief priests and temple guards led the mob in shouting, “Crucify Him!  Crucify Him!”  The same people who began the week by greeting Jesus as He entered Jerusalem with shouts of “Hosanna” now called for Him to be put to death.

Pilate was quickly running out of options.  In his frustration he shouted, “If you want this man crucified, take Him yourself and do it!  I find no guilt in Him!”  But then the Jewish leaders replied in a way that actually frightened Pilate, made him even more concerned about putting Jesus to death.  They said, “He calls Himself the Son of God!”

OK, so this is just a normal, ordinary, human man.  Right?  If He were a god or a son of a god, wouldn’t He be… different, in some way?  But what if He really is the Son of the Jew’s God?  Who in their right mind would be willing to face the wrath of a god for killing his son?!?

So Pilate had Jesus taken back into the building again and almost pleaded with Him, “Please!  Talk to me!  Who are You!  What are You?  Don’t You realize I have Your life in my hands?!?”

And then Jesus utters a very telling response:  “Any power you have over Me comes to you from above.”  Pilate’s power doesn’t come from Caesar or Rome, it comes from God in heaven.  A little later, the Apostle Paul, in the opening verse to the 13th chapter of his Letter to the Romans, echoes this sentiment when he writes, “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.”  (Romans 13:1 (NKJV))  Any power that those in authority over us have comes from God.  God is the ultimate authority.  If it had not been God’s will that Jesus would be in the hands of Pilate, then Jesus would not have been.  It’s that simple.  This was all part of God’s plan, God’s will in action.

Pilate tried one last time to free Jesus, but the Jewish leaders would have none of it and the mob was getting more hostile by the moment.  He ignored his own misgivings.  He had no other choice if he wanted to appease the crowds and maintain the peace.  This Jesus had to die, guilty or not.  So he turned Jesus over to the soldiers, who took Him away to be crucified.

It’s still Friday morning, but fast approaching noon.  Jesus was forced to carry the very tool of His execution: His cross.  And there at Golgotha He was nailed to it.  The cross was stood on end and dropped into a hole to hold it erect, there between two other convicted men.  Pilate ordered that a sign be nailed to the cross above Jesus’ head reading, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews”.  This upset the Jewish leaders who demanded it be changed, but for once Pilate refused.  The Roman soldiers gambled for Jesus’ clothes, fulfilling yet another Messianic prophecy.

Hanging there, Jesus saw His beloved disciple John standing beside His mother.  He initiated a covenant with John, that he would take care of Mary, treat her as his own mother, and that Mary should consider John as her son.  And for what we can tell, John held true to this for the rest of Mary’s days.

Finally, Jesus uttered His last words, “It is finished!”, bowed His head, and died, giving up His spirit.

Now, to understand what John tells us next, we need to see just how horrible a method of execution crucifixion was.  It wasn’t the blood loss from the beatings or from being nailed to the cross that killed the person.  They didn’t die from starvation or dehydration.  They died, very slowly, from suffocation.

If you are crucified, nails are driven through your wrists just below the palms, one through each hand as your arms are held outstretched.  And then your feet are brought together and one nail is pounded through both of your ankles.  When the cross is stood up on end, you are not holding on to anything or standing on a little ledge.  Those three nails are holding you in place.  It hurts, a lot, but if you let your body slump, giving in to the pain in your ankles and legs, then your lungs can’t fully expand because of your outstretched arms.

So after a while of struggling just to catch a breath, you force your weight back on to the nail through your ankles.  Eventually you tire of this and slump down again, restricting your lungs once more.  This repeats, over and over, often for days until you finally can stand no more and you slowly suffocate.

But on this day, the Jews couldn’t allow the condemned men to hang there for days.  Tomorrow was the Sabbath, the day of rest, and a very important Sabbath this time because it came during the Passover celebration.  It just wouldn’t do for these three men, or their bodies, to be hanging there in full sight on a special Sabbath like this!  So they asked Pilate to hasten their deaths by having his men break their legs.

That’s right – the Jewish leaders wanted the Roman soldiers to break the leg bones of these three men – including Jesus – who were already suffering so much on their crosses.  Why?  Because with their legs broken, they could no longer push themselves back up, relaxing their lungs so they could breathe.  Their death would come quicker.

Pilate relented and the soldiers went about smashing the legs of the two men on either side of Jesus.  When they got to Jesus, they found Him already dead.  Just to make sure, one of the Romans jabbed Him in the side with a spear, and a little blood and fluid oozed out but the body otherwise did not react.  These two incidents also fulfilled Messianic prophecy, that the Messiah would be pierced but no bone would be broken. 

The rest of the passage deals with the kindnesses shown by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, the Pharisee who had secretly met with Jesus one night, whom Jesus told one must be born again, born of the Spirit, to enter the kingdom of God.  These two men ran some risk in asking for and receiving the body of Jesus, for who knows what the Jewish leadership may have done to one of their own for what they may have seen as treachery.  So they took the body, anointed it with a huge amount of ointment mixed from very expensive spices, wrapped it in long sheets of linen, and prepared it for burial.

Near Golgotha was a garden, and in the garden was a newly dug tomb which had never been used.  By this time it was almost sunset and the time of the Sabbath and Passover was at hand, when they would no longer be able to do any labors, so they laid the body in that new tomb and left.

It is finished.  That’s the last thing Jesus said on the cross – “It is finished”.  But what did He mean?  What was finished?  His mortal, human life?  That would seem obvious, since we know He died there on the cross.  And John says He gave up His spirit, lowercase “s”, the part of us that gives us life.  But we know the rest of the story.  We know that in just a couple of days, Jesus will conquer death, rise from the grave, and walk among us again.  Hundreds of people saw Him alive and in the flesh again, and not one ever refuted it.  So, no, His mortal life did not completely end at that point.

What about His ministry on earth?  Surely it ended there on the cross.  After all, only a few of His followers showed themselves in public at this point.  He would no longer walk around teaching and preaching and healing people.  Again, we know the rest of the story, and we know that His disciples finally got it all together and, with the addition of a former Pharisee named Paul, they began carrying the Good News of salvation to the people, creating the early church in the process.

So what was finished, there on that cruel cross?  Jesus’ role in God’s plan for mankind’s redemption was completed, finished.  He had done what He was sent to do.  Only the blood of a spotless, unblemished lamb could redeem a man of his sin against God.  Only God’s own Son, the true Spotless Lamb, can redeem the sin of all mankind.  By His selfless sacrifice upon the cross, by His precious blood shed, we are washed clean of our sin in the sight of God.  God gave Jesus human life again, for a short time, so that we could know the truth, and as a promise to us of our own return to eternal life once this life is finished.  By that knowledge, it’s up to us to stay clean.

Now we know that all sin, all have fallen, all come short of God’s glory.  So God gives us a wonderful gift.  If we will believe that Jesus is the Christ, the one true Son of God, and if we follow His commands, accepting Him as our Lord and Master, then we will stay clean, and our sins will be forgiven and forgotten when we stand before God.  All we have to do is believe, truly believe, and in our belief, live as Jesus would have us live.

So for us, it is not finished.  For one thing, we still have this earthly life to get through.  We have a race to finish, as Paul put it.  But more than that, we have a job to do.  Before going back to heaven to be with God, Jesus left us with a new commandment and a mission.  We are to love one another just as much as we love ourselves, just as much as Jesus loves us.  And we are to go into the world making disciples, telling people all about Jesus, about what He has done and everything He said.

God set His plan in motion to reconcile mankind to Himself.  He wants us all to be with Him again, like we were in the very beginning before we sinned.  Jesus did His part to make that happen.  He gave up His own life one Friday long ago, and we who believe are the beneficiaries; we are saved.  But there are way too many out there who have not accepted Jesus as Lord.  And this is where we come in.  It’s our job to help the lost come to salvation.  Jesus finished His part.  Now let’s get out there and do ours.

On Sunday we will celebrate our Lord’s resurrection and the promise of our own new life.  But today, let us remember all that Jesus went through just for us.  Remember that He took the punishment we deserve.  Remember that He suffered at the hands of those He came to save.

Sunday we can rejoice, but today let us weep and reflect on what happened that Friday many years ago.  In the blessed name of Him who died so that we might live, in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Lord Jesus, You came to us holding out the arms of God’s love.  You came to us when we were lost in our sin, reaching out Your hand to us to pull us from the depths of our sin, offering to redeem us.  You came to break the chains of sin that hold us captive to this world.  You came to save us from ourselves.  And how did we react to all this mercy and grace?  We refused to accept You.  We tortured You and nailed You to a cruel cross.  You forgave Your followers who fled for their lives in fear when You were arrested and executed.  You came to them after Your resurrection and brought them back to You.  Yet still, to this very day, even we who are called by Your name, we also abandon and deny You from time to time.  We fail to witness for You, we fear speaking out for You, we hesitate to go out helping the lost find their way.  We believe in You and Your goodness, but the world has too strong a grasp on us, and we are afraid to let it go.  We judge others based on their looks or their background or the color of their skin, without taking the time to see what is in their hearts.  Forgive us, Lord, because sometimes we just can’t force ourselves to do what is right.

Lord Jesus, every step of the way, You knew what was coming.  You knew how the events of each day would play out, including that one Friday when You lived Your last day as a mortal man.  You knew exactly how God’s plan would be accomplished, and when Your part in it was finished.  You knew why it was necessary for You, the Spotless Lamb, to be sacrificed for the atonement of our sin.  You knew the truth.  Help us, please Lord, to fully grasp the importance of Your sacrifice.  Help us realize that Your greatest suffering came not from any physical pain, but from having to take all our sin upon Yourself.  Forgive us when we fail You.  Forgive us when we won’t listen to Your voice, when we don’t live as You would have us live, when we hesitate to speak out in Your defense, when we deny You by our actions and our inactions.  Forgive us when we fail to love sacrificially, unconditionally, as You love us.  Help us be worthy of Your great sacrifice.  Help us better serve You.  In Your precious name, Lord Jesus, we pray.  Amen.