After Jesus had finished praying, pouring out his burdened soul to his heavenly father in the garden of Gethsemane, he is ready for what is to come. He is ready to complete his Father’s mission.
As his betrayer, Judas, with officials from the chief priests and the pharisees come with soldiers to arrest him…Jesus goes to out meet them.
He knows that they are here for him, but he asks,
Who is it you want? They answer Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus responds I am he.
Ego Eimi…I am.
Jesus uses the Divine term for God to introduce himself. The name God gave Moses when they met at the burning bush. When Moses asks God who shall I say sent me, God replies I am who I am.
Jesus has used I am several times in the gospel of John to describe himself. I am the light of the world, I am the way, the truth and the life, I am the resurrection and the life. Jesus is I am. Jesus is God himself.
There was power in these words. It seems that the contingent that came to arrest him were briefly struck by Jesus’ power and proclamation. For what happened when he announced who he was?
They drew back and fell to the ground.
The irony. They came in numbers and with weapons, but at those words from Jesus they are powerless.
But Jesus does not use his power here, his time has come to journey to the cross…as they get up off the ground, he asks them again who they are looking for and he encourages them to get on with what they are here for, insisting that they leave his disciples alone.
Impetuous as ever, Simon Peter draws a sword, but Jesus rebukes him.
Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?
What is this cup Jesus speaks of?
It is the cup of suffering and the cup of God’s wrath. There are many references to the cup of wrath and judgement in the Old Testament.
This is the cup Jesus asks his Father to take from him, yet not my will but yours, he says. Jesus has been on God’s mission since his birth, a mission that is about to be completed, a mission that will involve immense pain and suffering. We see here, Jesus obedient to the Father to the very end. He tells Peter that he must drink the cup the Father has given him.
By going to the cross, Jesus will drink the cup of God’s wrath, every last drop of it. He will bear divine judgment, that which rightly falls upon Israel and upon all humanity. He will suffer horribly, both in the physical realm and in the spiritual realm as he enters the hell of separation from his Father.
Jesus is taken to the High Priest and then to Pontius Pilate in their pursuit to have him killed.
Pilate asks him if he is the King of the Jews.
It is an interesting dialogue they have. Jesus does allude to being a King, but not of this world. His Kingdom is from another place. He tells Pilate that he came to testify to the truth and everyone on the side of the truth listens to me.
We get the sense that Pilate wants to listen to Jesus as truth, but he has been pushed into a corner and is fearful of an uprising if he doesn’t do what the Chief Priests want. Pilate has Jesus flogged and the soldiers mock, spit, slap and put a painful crown of thorns on his head. But that is not enough for the chief priests, and they continue to call for his crucifixion.
When the Jewish Leaders tell Pilate that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, Pilate steps up his attempt to free Jesus. He perhaps sees and believes what the Jewish leaders do not want to see and believe.
Eventually Pilate caves and hands Jesus over to be crucified.
As Jesus hangs on the cross, John records his final words.
Firstly, are words of compassion. Jesus who would have been in agonizing pain, looks out for his mother who is standing near the cross. We assume that Jesus’ earthly Father had died some years before, and Jesus being the eldest son was responsible to look after his mother. He looks from his mother to the disciple Jesus loved, whom we presume is John. To his mother he says, “Woman, here is your son” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother”.
Sometime later, Jesus says “I am thirsty”.
In John chapter 7 at the Festival of Tabernacles, Jesus had stood and said in a loud voice… “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them”.
And yet now Jesus calls out that he is thirsty.
How many hours had he been hanging on the cross? Of course, he was thirsty! Jesus was fully God but also fully man. He had been flogged, carried his heavy cross, and then had nails driven through his hands and feet to the cross.
He calls out that he thirsts, knowing that he had done all that was required of him, but there is one more Old Testament scripture to be fulfilled.
Was it psalm 22 that he was referring to? That his mouth is dried up like a potsherd and my tongue clings to my gums.
Or perhaps psalm 69…
Answer me, Lord, out of the goodness of your love;
in your great mercy turn to me.
17 Do not hide your face from your servant;
answer me quickly, for I am in trouble.
18 Come near and rescue me;
deliver me because of my foes.
19 You know how I am scorned, disgraced and shamed;
all my enemies are before you.
20 Scorn has broken my heart
and has left me helpless;
I looked for sympathy, but there was none,
for comforters, but I found none.
21 They put gall in my food
and gave me vinegar for my thirst.
This psalm echoes the cry of Jesus recorded in Matthews gospel where he calls out from the cross, Eli eli, lema sabacthani? My God my God why have you forsaken me.
Jesus was so much more than physically thirsty. As he hung on the cross, he felt deserted by his own Father. He was spiritually thirsty.
The time for him to die and take on the sins of the world and the wrath of God was near, he thirsted for that living water…was he also thinking of psalm 42…
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
He longed to be at one with his Father again. What agony it must have been to feel separated from him. //
And then come his final words.
It is finished!
What did he mean by these words? Was he just alluding to the fact that his earthly life was over, that he was dying? No… He didn’t say I am finished, he said it is finished.
There is one Greek word that encompasses those 3 words, tetelestai. It comes from the verb teleo, which means ‘to bring to an end, to complete, to accomplish’.
It’s the word you might use when you get to the top of Mt Everest, or hand in the final copy of your PHD dissertation, make the final payment on your new car, or when you cross the finish line of a marathon, perhaps having run up Kunanyi! It is said when there is nothing more to be done. Jesus had completed exactly what he had set out to do. It wasn’t a term of defeat, but rather of victory.
For those of you who understand grammar, Tetelestai is in the perfect tense in Greek. This means that it speaks of an action which has been completed in the past with results continuing into the present…the past tense would just refer to something that has happened, the perfect tense means it happened and is still in effect today.
When Jesus cried out “It is finished”, he meant it is finished in the past, the present and will remain finished in the future…
What exactly was finished when Jesus died on the cross?
His mission was finished, his reason for coming to earth…Mission to rescue us from sin and death.
He had been completely obedient and finished the task his Father had sent him to earth for, to redeem the world.
Jesus shows us God’s great redeeming love.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
God sent Jesus, the lamb of God as the one perfect, holy, forever sacrifice to reconcile us to himself. No more animal sacrifices, no more ritual washing required for our sins. Jesus gave himself so that every sin is paid for, both now and forever. Tetelestai! It is finished!
This is good news, hence the name of this day – Good Friday.
Today will you come before the great I am, look at the cross and reflect on the incredible love God has for you?
Are you suffering today, do you have sins to repent, is your soul parched, your faith dry? Then call out to Jesus. As he showed compassion to his mother on the cross, Jesus sees and cares for you also. He knows what it is like to suffer, to feel abandoned. Will you come to Jesus with your thirst? He poured out his blood that we might have life. He longs to fill us with his life-giving water.
Let’s pray.
Jesus, King of heaven, thank you for the amazing love you showed in laying down your life for us. We are in awe and humble gratitude as we consider your willing submission to suffer and die in our place. Thank you for being completely obedient to the Father until it was mission accomplished, finished.
We sit today remembering with sober and thankful hearts.
As we remember your love, I pray we will respond with great love for you.
May we worship you in spirit, knowing your truth. Jesus, we love you. Amen.