John 19:30
When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
After Jesus received the wine offered him on a hyssop branch, pulling together the two major strands of Israel’s story, he says words that, in my humble opinion ☺, are translated so weakly it almost drives me to distraction. The Greek word that John uses can indeed be translated as “finished,” but it is has much more the sense of something being accomplished, something being drawn to a fitting conclusion, of achieving its intended purpose.
In short, Jesus is saying that everything that he was sent to do on earth has now been completed. His mission, that is, has been accomplished. Which means that far from Jesus crying out in agony in despair from the cross, he dies with a shout of victory on his lips.
And then, now that all has been accomplished, his life does not merely slip away; nor is it torn from him. Rather, he gives over his spirit, calling to mind his earlier words when he described himself as the good shepherd:
I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again (John 10:17b-18).
Jesus does not surrender or give up or give in to despair. He embraces the cross as his divinely appointed mission, trusting that the One who commissioned him to give his life will also give it back to him.
The cross, in John’s Gospel, is the moment of supreme victory, the place where Jesus takes on all that threatens humanity – sin, death, and the devil – and defeats them, promising all who follow him that they, too, will share in Jesus’ triumph.
The cross as victory — two thousand years later, this is still difficult to grasp or accept. That sometimes suffering can lead to healing, that death is not as powerful as life, and that what we see as defeat may be God’s means of accomplishing victory. But there it is: Jesus’ defiant, triumphant cry that, in his cross, everything that God had purposed comes to its intended end.
Prayer: Dear God, let us look for your gracious activity even in the most difficult times of our lives, knowing that you do not desire or cause harm to happen and trusting that there is no situation which you cannot redeem and turn to victory and life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Post image: “Christus Victor,” sixth-century mosaic, Ravenna Chapel.
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