it is finished.

"when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said,

'it is finished,'

and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit."

john 19:30

there is nothing left to be done, it is finished. God's wrath has been satisfied. every sin of every person to have lived in past, living in the present (time of Jesus' crucifixion), and to live in the future has been forgiven. there was no other way to complete it; there is nothing left to be completed. it is finished.

i don't know if i always live as if it is finished. obviously the completion of atonement doesn't mean that i no longer sin, that i have been made perfect. i fall short each and every day, multiple times a day. my awareness of this, my need to "fix" things, and my independent nature leads me to try to receive further forgiveness. i don't think i do it consciously - sin, realize my mistakes, and do something good to make up for it. it is below the surface. but there is nothing i can do to make it more finished. that wasn't part of God's plan.

it is finished. life like it is. live in gratitude for the completion. live in recognition that we need Jesus as our Savior each and every day.

God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh, the sabbath. last night frank (pastor frank, to be more accurate) pointed out that Jesus rested on the seventh day too. his work was complete and on the seventh day he rested. today - the day in between good friday and easter - was a day of rest. His last week on earth started with the Triumphal Entry on Palm Sunday. we don't have a day-by-day account of Jesus' "creation", but we can take what we have from the Gospels to know that Jesus last week on earth was full of teaching and preparing. it was more or less his last chance to teach his disciples and prepare them for their ministries.

Jesus washes their feet, an example that he wants them to follow, both literally and figuratively. live as servants. put others first. He gives them a "new" commandment: love one another. He explains that he is the way, the truth, and the life. He promises a helper, the Holy Spirit. He describes himself as the true vine, that we are branches of this true vine. our branches are to bear fruit (through the true vine) but our branches need pruning. He warns them of persecution and being hated by the world. He tries to explain as best as possible, without just spelling it out for them, what is about to happen. He tells them that sorrow will turn to joy. He prays. Jesus, the Savior of the world, prays in submission to His Father. "glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you' (john 17:1). He breaks bread with His disciples, establishing a tradition to celebrate until we eat and drink with Him one day in Heaven.

as his time draws nearer, Jesus prays again in the Garden of Gethsemane. his time comes and Jesus experiences the ultimate betrayal. judas, one of the twelve disciples that he has been loving and teaching and guiding for several years now, betrays him and hands him over. judas betrays him in leading the soldiers, chief priests and pharisees to him, but Jesus offers himself voluntarily.

good friday. a culmination of events that are hard to imagine, hard to watch depictions (in movies such as 'the passion of the Christ'). Jesus suffers immense physical pain and torture. but we cannot forget the emotional and spiritual pain he suffers. betrayal. denial of another disciple. separation from His Father, forsaken.

all for love. for love of God's will and for love of His people. for love of me.

after all of this, he rests.

can you imagine what was going through the minds of His disciples on this day? can you imagine what His mother felt? although they had been told many times, did they really understand what the next day would bring? did they hold out hope for the 8th day?

'love never fails...and now these three remain: faith, hope and love. but the greatest of these is love.' (1 corinthians 13:8a, 13)

'we love because He first loved us.' (1 john 4:19)