A Meditation
Presented by Rev. Merlin T. Batt
Intentional Interim Pastor
St. Matthew’s United Church of Christ
Maiden, North Carolina
Good Friday
March 21, 2008

Scripture Lesson: John 19:16b-37
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The relentless march of years and centuries, and the accumulation of many generations of Christian reflection upon the meaning of the Cross have combined to obscure the reaction to the Crucifixion on the part of Jesus’ family members and first followers. Whether they stood at the foot of the Cross or at some safe distance from it, whether they turned away their eyes in horror or busied themselves at home or work in an attempt to block it out of their minds, for Jesus’ family and followers his crucifixion was the denial of everything they’d longed for, the stupid and pointless snuffing out of the brightest light and best hope Israel ever had.

His crucifixion made them wonder if Satan had been tricking them all along. It caused them to doubt that God had been at work in Jesus. It forced them to wonder whether Israel’s God was not the world’s creator and judge after all. It raised doubt that Israel’s God existed, and made them think there was no God at all. All these questions would be forced on them by watching Jesus get dragged off to a rigged trial, subjected to a brutal and degrading beating, and the worst torture and death imaginable.

We have seen our share of injustice. We know what it feels like to have our hopes and aspirations dashed. We have grieved the deaths of loved ones. Events in our lives have caused us to question God’s love or even his existence. So we can identify with the initial reaction of Jesus’ family and friends. But this is not the Gospel writers’ main interest. Rather, they focus solely upon Jesus – upon what happens to him, upon what he says, and upon what his crucifixion means. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the last moments of the crucifixion when, according to John’s Gospel, Jesus gasps out his last words, “It is finished.”

At this point in the Greek text of John’s Gospel, there is no sentence which reads, “It is finished.” There’s only one word in the Greek text, Jesus’ last spoken word before he dies, and the word is “tetelestai.” Say it with me, “tetelestai”…. It’s the word that people would write on a bill after it had been settled. Our English equivalent to “tetelestai” is “paid in full.” The debt is dealt with. The price has been paid, paid in full.

That is part of the word’s meaning here in John’s Gospel, but there is something even deeper to which the word “tetelestai” points. Do you recall from the opening chapter of Genesis that, when God the creator made this wonderful world, at the end of the sixth day he finished it? Here’s the passage, Genesis 1:31: “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” It is finished. God’s work of creating the world is finished, done, complete – “tetelestai.”

Now, on a hill outside of Jerusalem, the crucifixion of Jesus is underway. It is Friday, the sixth day of the week. With his shameful and unimaginably horrible death, Jesus has descended into the depths, to the very bottom, to the darkest and deepest place of ruin, and there he has planted a sign which says “Redeemed - Rescued.” It is the sign of love, the love of the creator God for his ruined creation.

And thus with his last ounce of energy, Jesus speaks for the final time. “Tetelestai,” he says, “It is finished” – which is neither a cry of resignation, nor a cry of despair, not a way of saying, “Uh, this is finally over!” No, Jesus is saying that the work of redeeming the world is done. The work that only God could do is now complete, finished!  The work his Father had given him to do Jesus has finished! “Tetelestai” is a shout of victory!

And what is our proper response to the death of Jesus on the Cross, to him who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities? Our response is gratitude. Our response is faith and love. And not least, our response is, with the help of his Spirit, a commitment to implement the victory he won, to carry forward the work he completed when he said with his dying breath, “Tetelestai…It is finished.”