John 19:17-30 the King Dies to Complete the Saving Plan of God

The LCA provides this sermon edited for lay-reading, with thanks to the original author. Good Friday, Year A, B or C John 19:17-30 The King dies to complete the saving plan of God.

What’s the difference between an end and a finish? That’s not some tricky riddle. The two words mean much the same thing, but if we think a little further, we will probably find that we tend to use the two slightly differently. We use “end” in expressions like “end of my tether” and “end of the road” to express a final limit. When we speak of “the finish” as in “the finish of the race” we have in mind a process coming to its intended conclusion, a completion.

So when Jesus declared: “It is finished!” and bowed his head and gave up his spirit, there was an ending involved. His human life came to an end; his heart stopped beating. Jesus no longer felt the stinging pain from his lacerated back, the throbbing pain of the crown of thorns, and the excruciating pain of the nails through his hands and feet. No doubt Jesus’ death also brought to an end the mockery and taunts of the crowd. The fearful punishment of crucifixion had achieved its intended outcome – the death of the person crucified. Jesus’ agony of suffering was over.

It would have seemed, also, that the brief hope of Jesus’ messianic mission had also come to a sudden stop, that the hope for a new order of things in the world would have died and been buried in the tomb with Jesus, that his followers had nothing else to do than return to their homes and occupations and try to come to terms with their disappointment and disillusionment.

But if we listen carefully to the way John tells the story of Jesus’ crucifixion and death, we find a very different message, a message summed up in Jesus’ final word from the cross: “It is finished!” Twice already in this passage, John points out that what was happening was fulfilling written Old Testament prophecies. In verse 28, John states that Jesus knew that everything was completed before he said that he was thirsty. John also focuses on the placard on Jesus’ cross that was meant to indicate the crime for which he was being punished. “King of the Jews” it read: Pilate’s joke and taunt against the Jewish leaders, but which John clearly regards as the simple truth. It is written in Greek and Latin, as well as Hebrew, which is probably John’s way of reminding his readers and hearers that by the time his Gospel was written, Jesus was already drawing people to himself as Lord and King across the whole Greco-Roman world.

So we are meant to hear “It is finished” not as a full-stop ending, a final despairing admission of failure and defeat, but as a triumphant statement of accomplishment and victory. John wants us to know that Jesus is not a helpless victim but that he freely gave himself into capture, crucifixion and death. When John writes: “He bowed his head and gave up his spirit”, it sounds as if Jesus even chose exactly when he would die. In all these ways John is telling us that Jesus really is the Messiah, and that suffering and death are central to being God’s Saviour-King!

Yes, Jesus in his death had completed the work of redemption that he had come to earth to carry out. He accomplished what we sinful human beings could never do – he trusted and obeyed God perfectly right to the bitter end of his life. His whole life was for the salvation of the world, but his death was the final step in that mysterious process by which Jesus took our place and paid for our sin and guilt, and for the sins of the whole human race. Now everything that God had sent him to do was completed. As he died, he closed that unbridgeable gap between the holy God and our sinful human race. It’s like that classic old photograph showing the last section of the arch of the Sydney Harbour Bridge being lowered into place. With the arch locked, the rest of the bridge could now be put in place, supported by the arch. And very soon the traffic began to flow both ways across the bridge. The isolation of the North Shore was ended. St. Paul writes puts the same truth to the Christians in Corinth in these words: “In Christ there is a new creation. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. God made the sinless Jesus to be sin for us, that in Jesus we might be made right with God.”

That’s why as Christians we do not remember this day as Disaster Day or Fatal Friday, but rather Good Friday. There is ultimate goodness in what took place on that first Good Friday. Because of that day’s events we no longer need to be weighed down by sin and guilt and fearing God’s judgment. Instead we can rejoice that God forgives us and accepts us because Jesus freely gave up his life for us. Our isolation from God and all God’s goodness is now over. Once again communication can flow back and forth between God and us human beings whom he created for a relationship with himself.

“It is finished!” Jesus had accomplished what he had been sent to do. He had completed the mission of his earthly life. But in another sense it is not finished. After his resurrection from death and before he returned to his heavenly Father, Jesus commissioned us to carry the good news of what he had achieved into the whole wide world. So our work as Jesus’ followers in the world isn’t yet finished. Let us go out from here, then, to proclaim all that Jesus has done for all people, to share with them why the death of Jesus our Lord is good news for all people of all time.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.