Tetelestai

It is finished.

What Jesus came to accomplish - at least the part of the eternal plan that involved risk - was finally complete.  All that followed was/is, now and forever, a guarantee. The cross replaced the temple mercy seat as his throne. Two thieves replaced the two angels on either side of the mercy seat. Grace and truth replaced the Law, given by Moses, from under the mercy seat.
 
Jesus bore his own cross - well, at least the 100 pound cross beam - and only as far as he could go before Simon was drafted in to carry it the rest of the way to Golgotha (Latin: Calvary) where Jesus was crucified. Crucifixion was a method of execution used by the Persians, Greeks, Carthaginians, and Romans. It was primarily used for non-Romans. It was not only a horribly agonizing way to die, but it was also designed to be the most humiliating. Criminals hung naked with a placard above their heads naming their crime. Criminals were often left to hand on the cross for the vultures to eat, thus the term Jesus used in Mt 24:28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather -  a reference to His cross. All this served as an effective  deterrent to would-be law breakers, especially insurrectionists. Crucifixion was finally abolished as a Roman method of execution by Constantine - though it has been used since then by others - notably the Japanese in 1597, to execute 26 Christians in Nagasaki.

Our English word, excruciating, means out of crucifying - something that is extremely painful. Interestingly, none of the gospels include many details of Jesus' physical sufferings. The modern Christian, in contradistinction, persists with a morbid obsession with the agonizing details (i.e. The Passion of Christ). Why the relative silence by the gospel writers? Clearly, the first century believer had no need to imagine that which they often witnessed. But also, physical suffering was not the main point in Christ's crucifixion. Two others perished on crosses next to Jesus during those same hours - as had many before and after. The importance of Christ's death is not found in the method, but in the Person. 


Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing. (Lk 23:34)

Pilate had, unwittingly, not only proclaimed Jesus as the King of the Jews, but did so in the three most common languages of the then known world - Hebrew (Aramaic), Greek, and Latin. All who chanced by that day, whether Jew and Gentile, could read Rome's verdict.  More, John alone also tells us that the placard read, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus was one with all humanity, one for all humanity. He is, as John had written (1:9) the Light to every soul born into the world. Fascinating. It was not the leaders of God's 'church' on earth that most effectively proclaimed Jesus as King, but a Gentile. God continuously, creatively, takes our broken and sinful ways, and turns them into glorious proclamations. The cross itself being the most incredible example of the transformation of a hideous symbol of evil into a cherished symbol of the victory of good over evil.


The Jewish leaders immediately protested Pilates' placard. It's not accurate, they whined. Pilate, fully fed up with their manipulating, conniving ways, chose to have the last word. What I have written, I have written. But Pilates' was not the last word. Jesus would have the final say. He who suffered most, was most in control.

From the third hour (9 am) till the 6th (noon), the Chief Priests, scribes, elders, soldiers, various people passing by, as well as both of the criminals crucified on either side of Jesus - blasphemously mocked him as he hung on the cross taunting him to save himself. They even boldly called upon God to rescue Jesus if he was truly the one he claimed to be - the Son of God. Yet, God's ways are wiser than man's ways.



The two thieves crucified beside Jesus were described with the same term used for Barabbas - insurrectionists. They, supposedly, tried to overturn Roman rule by the sword. Jesus' insurrection, alternatively, was of the heart through compassion. Miraculously, one of the two thieves had a change of heart upon the cross - an indication that it is never too late, nor is conversion a lengthy process. God is always appealing to us. Jesus' response wasn't, sorry, you waited too long. We just don't have enough time for the Bible studies. Nor did he say, don't be silly. You just mocked me. I'm not going to help you. Nor did he say, wish I could, but since you can't be baptized you are out of luck.  Rather, this particular thief recognized his need for God, repented ignoring God, and became a teachable disciple before God, the Son. The first three beatitudes played forth again.


The cross upon which Jesus hung became the true mercy seat of God the High Priest. The drops of his blood, the antitypical passover Lamb, hallowed that ground, covering the sins not only of that repentant thief, but the sin of all mankind - whether Jew and Gentile, Caiaphas or Centurion, mother or disciple, believer or unbeliever. 

Truly I say to you today you shall be with me in Paradise. (Lk 23:43)

It was common for soldiers to divide the clothes of criminals among themselves. As Jesus hung humiliatingly naked upon the cross, his clothing items were distributed, as commodities, among four unbelieving men ignorant of the significance of the One they just nailed to a cross. Also present were four women of faith - Mary his mother, the mother of his disciple/cousin John, Mary Magdalene, and another woman.  At the cross, the four men saw gain in the things of the crucified man. In contrast, four women found life in the Man being crucified. Jesus had relinquished every earthly possession and would, finally, give up life itself. Nothing was grasped as more precious than the Father's will. In this case, the Father's will led Jesus submissively to the cross. Jesus reframed the meaning of the cross, of crucifixion, from a symbol of horror into the Magna Carta of hospitality - where all enter the embrace of God's grace.



When the soldiers got to the last item, Jesus' inner tunic, they marveled in that it was seamless - an unusual piece of clothing to be found worn by a criminal. It was, according to Josephus, the kind of clothing worn by a high priest (Ex 28:31,32)!  Had it been hand made by the mother of Jesus who knew the truth about her son? Had it been commissioned by one of the on-looking women, believing benefactors of his ministry? No one laid claim to it - except the soldier who had won it by the careless casting of lots. None of the friends of Jesus chose to obtain it as a religious relic. Faith is all about the Person, not the products of man. A notion too quickly lost sight of during the centuries that followed.

Why did John think to mention the seamlessness of this garment? Early church leaders speculated that it was a symbol of the unity of the church. Believers are one in Christ. There aren't to be any seams. A priest, in Latin, means a bridge builder - that which connects two sides. Jesus high priestly, seamless tunic was certainly a metaphor for the seamless connectivity through which each believer is adopted into the heavenly family and to one another.  We are drawn together as in Christ - closer through the blood of Jesus than through the blood of common pedigree. But for John, at the time of his writing, he may have only penned those words as another important piece of evidence that Jesus truly was the Messiah. This was a fulfillment (Gk. pleroo) of an OT scripture (Ps 22:18). 

As Jesus had taught in his sermon on the mount, he had not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfill (Mt 5:17). We often, in my understanding, mistake this to mean that Jesus came to give us a faithful example of keeping every law found in scripture. The gospels, though, indicate that he didn't, and that wasn't his point. His life was the fulfillment of the purpose for all scripture (Jn 5:39). In other words, rather than setting an example of law keeping - as if that was the highest purpose of Jesus - he revealed that he was the objective, the teleos, of all law. It is all about the Person, not the law. We value every jot and tittle of the scriptures not as our best guide for how we should live, but as the best directional signs to Jesus as the true Messiah. Through Him we receive the heavenly Guide, the Spirit, who coaches us on how to live for Christ every moment of every day.

Reconciliation was God's purpose through His Son. Whether Jesus was standing beaten and bleeding before Pilate, hanging crucified beside two criminals, or looking down at an antagonistic crowd around the cross - Jesus remained compassionately interested in reconciling man to God and human to human. When Jesus saw His mother and his disciple, John, standing nearby, He said to His mother, 

Woman, behold, your son! Then he said to the disciple, Behold, your mother! (Jn 19:26, 27)

Jesus' brothers and sisters, as far as we know up to this point, were not disciples. His mother needed a family of faith where the bonds between people would be eternal rather than fragile, more enduring than even gene-bias.  


An uncomfortable darkness fell upon all the land from noon to three (Mt 27:45). It was as if the Son entered where none but the high priest could go, through the veil, and into the holiest of places. Something far beyond human understanding transpired between Father and Son. An atonement was made. No human eye could witness what was happening.

Then, at about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, 

Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani? that is, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? (Mt 27:46)

Jesus knew, at this point, that all things had already been accomplished (Gk. teleo). Then again, in fulfillment (Gk. teleo) of scripture, he said,

I am thirsty. (Jn 19:28)

The soldiers always had an inexpensive beverage present to pass the time. It was a container of cheap, soured wine, diluted with water. They soaked some hyssop and put it up to Jesus' mouth. He who was the Living Water, again reaffirmed his humanity.  God was indeed incarnate, flesh and blood - contrary to the gnostic notions of John's day. Jesus accepted the common wine of the poor - that which he had presented only hours before as a symbol of his blood. We can't help but remember the time of Moses when hyssop was dipped in the blood of a lamb and placed on the door posts by faith. The plague passed over those blood covered homes. Jesus later held up a chalice of wine and said 'this is the new covenant in my blood'.  He invited the unbelieving soldiers - somewhat unnerved by the darkness and the few words they had heard Christ speak from the cross - to serve him, preparing their hearts to receive him.

Jesus had the last word. 

Tetelestai. It is finished. (Jn 19:30) Into your hands I commit my spirit. (Lk 23:46)

At that moment there was a fearful earthquake and the veil in the Holy of Holies was torn from top to bottom. A new and living way had been won for all mankind. Everything had changed.

Matthew reported that the graves of many righteous souls were opened and they, after Jesus' resurrection, also rose from the dead and walked through the city of Jerusalem as an incontrovertible witness to the truth of life after life.


Jesus had completed the Father's plan. It was a plan that involved risk. Jesus had truly been  tempted. He could have really failed. His flesh so wanted to say 'no'. Yet, he chose to follow His Father's will all the way to the cross, surrendering his human preferences. Surrendered to the Father, Jesus walked forward with courage, with dignity. 

He chose the moment to return his spirit (Gk. pneuma) - the life force - to God. All that followed, His resurrection, ascension, Pentecost, and his eventual return - all these blessings became guaranteed. Nothing more was at risk. Though all scripture has not yet been fulfilled, all that pertained to the promise of salvation was completed at the cross.

Tetelestai.