It Is Finished – Easter Sunday

Passage:  John 19:28-20

It is finished.  Three simple words that can be taken in opposite directions, good or bad.  You seniors will soon say it is finished at the a graduation ceremony.  School is finished, tests and papers are finished.  It can be said at the end of running a marathon.  It can be said at the end of some long difficult journey, at the end of a year of chemo and radiation, finally, it is finished.  In these moments it is finished is said with a sense of joy and relief.

But they can also be said with the opposite meaning.  A student who has just failed an exam, a farmer who looks at a crop just wiped out by a storm, a sports fan watching a season ending defeat, a businessman declaring bankruptcy.  In these moments it is finished is said with a sense of dejection, depression, misery, it’s over, I am done for.

It is finished.  How many of us are good starters, but have trouble finishing?  How many of us have unfinished projects around the house?  Things that just don’t seem to get done?  Books unfinished, letters unfinished, unfinished business, unfinished resolutions?

It is finished in our text has all kinds of layers of meaning.  To the Pharisees it was a great relief, the troublemaker was gone.  To the disciples it was a disaster, all their hopes and dreams were crushed.  To the soldiers it was just the cry of a dying man.  To Satan and all his forces of evil this was a victory cry, God was defeated, His plan failed.

The reason “it is finished” makes for a good Easter Sermon is because it is only on Easter that the true meaning of the words, the depth of their meaning comes into full light..  It is finished is not defeat, failure, life is over, hope is gone.  It is finished is success, victory, exam passed, enemy defeated, the work is accomplished, everything is changed, different, new.