It is Finished
"It is finished," Jesus says, "It is brought to its appointed end." Our first reaction is to understand that he is talking about the Crucifixion--the pain and thirst and weariness of this torture are brought to their appointed end.
We may reflect, too, that his mortal life is finished--that life which began in a stable is finished here. But if we let our minds run back to the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger, we find that we must go back farther still: back to the moment when Gabriel hailed Mary as full of grace and she said, let it be unto me according to your will--setting in motion the events that brought her son to this moment. That saving chain of events comes to its appointed end here on Golgotha.
And if we think of the manger, we remember Bethlehem--Bethlehem which was the city of David, to which Joseph and his espoused wife had gone up because they were of the house and lineage of David. The babe in swaddling clothes was a descendant of David, the king who made Jerusalem his capital. Yet now this Son of David, to whom, only days ago, the people called out Hosanna, that is, Long live the King!--now this Son of David is crucified outside Jerusalem, outside royal David's city, under a placard reading "The King of the Jews." It is the history of the house of David which is finished here on Golgotha, made perfect in this far from kingly death.
And still the force of the story presses us farther: we remember that Israel had human kings only against God's will. God reminded the people of Israel that he, Yahweh, the one who killed every first born in the land of Egypt, and brought Israel forth out of captivity with a strong right arm--he, this terrible and saving god, was the King of Israel. But the people insisted on having a human king, and so God gave them first Saul, and then the house of David--but all the while, God planned on this moment, this moment when Yahweh, the God of Sinai in terrible majesty, would come among his people living the life of their mortal king, and showing them at what terrible price the victory over Pharaoh was won: for God, too, was a first-born son. And here, now, while the Son of God, the Son of David, the King of the Jews, dies on a cross outside the city, at this very moment the priests at the Temple are sacrificing the Paschal Lambs. The Passover is finished here on Golgotha.
And there is still more. Here God the Son of God is led like a lamb to the slaughter on the same mountain to which God summoned Abraham with his son Isaac. Here God demanded that Abraham sacrifice Isaac, who was the only evidence of God's promise that all nations would find a blessing in the descendants of Abraham. And Abraham in poignant ambiguity said "God himself will provide a lamb for the sacrifice." Abraham said this thinking to conceal from the boy that he, Isaac, was the lamb which God had already provided; he said it, not yet knowing of the ram they would find entangled in the thicket, after the angel stayed his hand; he said it, not yet knowing that God would himself become the beloved Son who was to be sacrificed. And yet finally Abraham was given a vision of all this: "Abraham saw my day, and was glad," Jesus says. And this horrible day is that very day which Abraham was glad to see; this Crucifixion is the fulfillment of Abraham's covenant. For now Jesus, who as both priest and victim, both God and man, offered himself to God in his prayers on Thursday night--now Jesus fulfills the offering by his death. In this death of a son of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, all nations find their promised blessing. All sacrifice is brought to its appointed end, all the rituals are fullfilled by the death of the God-man here on Golgotha.
And so we are driven back to the very beginning of human history. Golgotha means "the place of the skull," and Christian legend says that the skull for which it was named was the skull of Adam; the legend says that here, where the Crucifixion takes place, is the very spot in which Adam was buried. This legend points to the same important truth that St. Paul taught us when he called Christ the second Adam. The whole story of human alienation from God is brought to an end here; here the disobedience of humankind is made perfect in the obedience of God. For here Christ is obedient unto death, even death upon a cross.
And in this Gospel of John, we are driven back even farther--in this Gospel, we remember that the man who dies on this cross is the Word who was in the beginning with God, the Logos who is himself the logic, the blueprint of the cosmos. That logic reaches its appointed end here; here that blueprint is fulfilled in an innocent death. Cities in the ancient world were often founded upon a human sacrifice. It is a repugnant idea: but such horrible rituals showed a dim understanding that the world itself is founded upon a sacrifice, Christ's full perfect and sufficent sacrifice of himself once offered upon the Cross. In the timelessness of God's own life, the moment in which God says "Let there be light!" and the moment in which he says "It is finished!" are one moment; the two acts are one act. If we ask, what is it that is brought to its perfection here, the answer is, finally, creation itself. Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us before the foundation of the world, and the work of creation ends on a Friday afternoon on the cross on Golgotha. When God rests on the seventh day, he rests in the quiet of the tomb.
God rests, God lies dead, on the seventh day. And yet...Among the Jews, there is a special blessing for lighting candles at the end of the seventh day, a blessing as if one were seeing fire for the first time--for, the Rabbis say, at the beginning of the eighth day of creation, God showed the now-exiled Adam how to make fire. Now as our seventh day approaches, we too can begin to believe again in the eighth day to come, in the new fire to be kindled, the light that will enlighten the Gentiles and be the glory of God's people Israel. We can begin to allow ourselves to see again a new people redeemed from captivity, a new kingdom of God already among us and yet to come, a new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven like a bride to meet her risen groom who is himself her source and her perfection, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.
--John Wm. Houghton
"It is finished," Jesus says, "It is brought to its appointed end." Our first reaction is to understand that he is talking about the Crucifixion--the pain and thirst and weariness of this torture are brought to their appointed end.
We may reflect, too, that his mortal life is finished--that life which began in a stable is finished here. But if we let our minds run back to the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger, we find that we must go back farther still: back to the moment when Gabriel hailed Mary as full of grace and she said, let it be unto me according to your will--setting in motion the events that brought her son to this moment. That saving chain of events comes to its appointed end here on Golgotha.
And if we think of the manger, we remember Bethlehem--Bethlehem which was the city of David, to which Joseph and his espoused wife had gone up because they were of the house and lineage of David. The babe in swaddling clothes was a descendant of David, the king who made Jerusalem his capital. Yet now this Son of David, to whom, only days ago, the people called out Hosanna, that is, Long live the King!--now this Son of David is crucified outside Jerusalem, outside royal David's city, under a placard reading "The King of the Jews." It is the history of the house of David which is finished here on Golgotha, made perfect in this far from kingly death.
And still the force of the story presses us farther: we remember that Israel had human kings only against God's will. God reminded the people of Israel that he, Yahweh, the one who killed every first born in the land of Egypt, and brought Israel forth out of captivity with a strong right arm--he, this terrible and saving god, was the King of Israel. But the people insisted on having a human king, and so God gave them first Saul, and then the house of David--but all the while, God planned on this moment, this moment when Yahweh, the God of Sinai in terrible majesty, would come among his people living the life of their mortal king, and showing them at what terrible price the victory over Pharaoh was won: for God, too, was a first-born son. And here, now, while the Son of God, the Son of David, the King of the Jews, dies on a cross outside the city, at this very moment the priests at the Temple are sacrificing the Paschal Lambs. The Passover is finished here on Golgotha.
And there is still more. Here God the Son of God is led like a lamb to the slaughter on the same mountain to which God summoned Abraham with his son Isaac. Here God demanded that Abraham sacrifice Isaac, who was the only evidence of God's promise that all nations would find a blessing in the descendants of Abraham. And Abraham in poignant ambiguity said "God himself will provide a lamb for the sacrifice." Abraham said this thinking to conceal from the boy that he, Isaac, was the lamb which God had already provided; he said it, not yet knowing of the ram they would find entangled in the thicket, after the angel stayed his hand; he said it, not yet knowing that God would himself become the beloved Son who was to be sacrificed. And yet finally Abraham was given a vision of all this: "Abraham saw my day, and was glad," Jesus says. And this horrible day is that very day which Abraham was glad to see; this Crucifixion is the fulfillment of Abraham's covenant. For now Jesus, who as both priest and victim, both God and man, offered himself to God in his prayers on Thursday night--now Jesus fulfills the offering by his death. In this death of a son of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, all nations find their promised blessing. All sacrifice is brought to its appointed end, all the rituals are fullfilled by the death of the God-man here on Golgotha.
And so we are driven back to the very beginning of human history. Golgotha means "the place of the skull," and Christian legend says that the skull for which it was named was the skull of Adam; the legend says that here, where the Crucifixion takes place, is the very spot in which Adam was buried. This legend points to the same important truth that St. Paul taught us when he called Christ the second Adam. The whole story of human alienation from God is brought to an end here; here the disobedience of humankind is made perfect in the obedience of God. For here Christ is obedient unto death, even death upon a cross.
And in this Gospel of John, we are driven back even farther--in this Gospel, we remember that the man who dies on this cross is the Word who was in the beginning with God, the Logos who is himself the logic, the blueprint of the cosmos. That logic reaches its appointed end here; here that blueprint is fulfilled in an innocent death. Cities in the ancient world were often founded upon a human sacrifice. It is a repugnant idea: but such horrible rituals showed a dim understanding that the world itself is founded upon a sacrifice, Christ's full perfect and sufficent sacrifice of himself once offered upon the Cross. In the timelessness of God's own life, the moment in which God says "Let there be light!" and the moment in which he says "It is finished!" are one moment; the two acts are one act. If we ask, what is it that is brought to its perfection here, the answer is, finally, creation itself. Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us before the foundation of the world, and the work of creation ends on a Friday afternoon on the cross on Golgotha. When God rests on the seventh day, he rests in the quiet of the tomb.
God rests, God lies dead, on the seventh day. And yet...Among the Jews, there is a special blessing for lighting candles at the end of the seventh day, a blessing as if one were seeing fire for the first time--for, the Rabbis say, at the beginning of the eighth day of creation, God showed the now-exiled Adam how to make fire. Now as our seventh day approaches, we too can begin to believe again in the eighth day to come, in the new fire to be kindled, the light that will enlighten the Gentiles and be the glory of God's people Israel. We can begin to allow ourselves to see again a new people redeemed from captivity, a new kingdom of God already among us and yet to come, a new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven like a bride to meet her risen groom who is himself her source and her perfection, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.
--John Wm. Houghton
