18 April 2014
Text: John 18:1-19:42 (Isa 52:13-53:12, 2 Cor 5:14-21)
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
In
Luther’s hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” we sing that when it comes to
the devil, “one little word can fell him.”
Dr. Luther doesn’t tell us what word he had in mind, but a good
candidate for such a single word appears in St. John’s detailed and agonizing account
of our Lord’s crucifixion. It is a
single Greek word: Τετέλεσται. It is one
little word, but we need three English words to translate it: “It is finished.”
“It
is finished!”
The
English doesn’t really capture the meaning of the original language. It’s really a daring and gutsy word,
approaching what we might even call “trash talk.” It is a declaration of conquest over a
vanquished foe. It is a fist raised
triumphantly. It is the war cry of the
survivor. It is a celebration that one’s
mission has been accomplished. It is the
ticker-tape parade. It is a shout of joy
and of happiness. It is victory.
“It
is finished!”
And
here, in the account of our Lord’s death, it seems so out of place – at least when
said by Jesus as He bows His head and gives up His spirit. It is not what we would expect at all.
Judas
might have said: “It is finished” when his plan to betray Jesus bore fruit (as
well as a payday). But Judas ended up
hanging himself. Peter might have
shouted “It is finished” after playing the hero and slicing off Malchus’s ear,
but instead he took a scolding from Jesus and then turned into a sniveling coward. The soldiers who arrested Jesus, mocked him,
beat him, flogged him, and crucified him might have claimed victory by saying:
“It is finished,” a term they knew from their military careers, but they ended
up with a few pieces of cloth and wringing their hands in fear of the day’s
events, proclaimed Jesus to have been righteous. The high priest and the Sanhedrin might have
proclaimed, “It is finished,” after illegally putting Jesus on trial and
successfully getting him crucified by the Romans, but in fact they became
shameful collaborators with their occupiers, murderers of one of their own. Pilate might have claimed the right to boast,
“It is finished,” when he asserted Rome’s power, but all he did was put an
innocent man to death because of cowardice, unmanly fear of those over whom he
ruled.
Finally,
Satan ought to have been able to claim “It is finished,” because of the
crucifixion of Jesus, having murdered God in the flesh, having placed Him in unspeakable
agony, and having wrought cosmic havoc on the earth and seemingly making chaos
among the Godhead. But, the crucifixion
of Jesus was the very crushing of the serpent’s head prophesied in the Garden
of Eden. For in paying for our sins at
the cross, our Lord Jesus Christ freed us from Satan’s power, liberated us from
the curse of death, and redeemed us from our rightfully earned place in
hell. The hateful Satan has been
thoroughly defeated by the greatest act of love in all of history.
And
so, contrary to what reason may tell us, against all expectation, and beyond
every expression of love ever imagined, our Lord Jesus Christ truly won this
greatest battle ever in the history of the universe. He has conquered the old evil foe, the serpent,
Satan, our accuser, the tempter, the father of lies, the destroyer, the one
whose rebellion inflicted sin upon God’s good creation. With this one word, “It is finished,” his
power was broken. With this one word, he
has been reduced to being of less worth than the lowliest one celled
animal. With this one word, he has
become not merely impotent, but mortal.
With this one word, Jesus has signed the death warrant of the devil. Such is the power of the Word.
“It
is finished!”
To
a world that admires Satan, that hates God and His commandments, that revels in
sin, that worships raw power, that calls evil good, and good evil, that places
a premium on selfish gain and holds love in contempt, to a world that loves to
mock, that thrills at the spectacle of human beings suffering and being put to
death, that cozies up to injustice if it appears to be beneficial, that lives
only for the moment without regard to eternity – our Lord’s crucifixion appears
to be the ultimate victory of evil over good.
Jesus
was utterly overpowered, humiliated, inflicted with pain, robbed of all respect
– and this was the master-stroke, the genius of the plan. For in dying, Jesus destroyed death; in His
obedience, Jesus overcame our disobedience; in suffering for us, His act of supreme
love trumped all hatred. And on this
Friday nearly two thousand years ago, good triumphed eternally over evil.
“It
is finished!”
The
prophet Isaiah, who lived seven centuries before these events, who was likewise
saved by our Lord’s sacrifice upon the cross, whom we joined in the liturgy
singing “Holy, Holy, Holy” before the Triune God, and who suffered in his
earthly life for the sake of his preaching about the coming Messiah, calling
his countrymen to repent, whose preaching was largely ignored, Isaiah likewise
joins with our Lord in crying out: “It is finished!” For he prophesied about the cross, and indeed,
it came to pass.
“It
is finished!”
St.
Paul, who suffered beatings and stonings and imprisonments for the name of
Christ, whose preaching was attacked and whose confession of Christ earned him
reproach in the community, and who was finally beheaded for the sake of His
Lord by a tyrannical Caesar – likewise joins in unison with our Lord: “It is
finished!” “For,” St. Paul confesses,
“the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has
died for all.”
“It
is finished!”
And
we, with blessed Isaiah, with St. Paul, with our Lord and Savior, the crucified
One, Jesus Christ, with all the saints of every time and place, with angels and
archangels and all the company of heaven, cry out on this day that so baffles
the world, the day of our Master’s death, a day for which we have the audacity
to call “good,” celebrating the cross – a symbol of death, singing in a voice
so united and so victorious that it causes Satan and his demons to cringe in
terror, and rocks the very foundations of hell itself: “It is finished!”
For
we confess with St. Paul: “For our sake, He made Him to be sin, so that in Him
we might become the righteousness of God.”
Our
sins are no more, dear friends. They are
forgiven. They have been expunged by the
blood of the Lamb Victorious. Our death
is no longer something to be feared. It
has been ransomed for life – the life of our Lord given to us on the cross and
shared with us in His holy body and blood.
Satan is no more a foe to be feared, for he was defeated by his own
plot, luring Judas to deliver Jesus over to the very cross upon which He would
defeat the forces of evil and finally deal the prophetic mortal blow to the
devil.
It
is finished, dear brothers and sisters.
That one little word makes all the difference in the world, in the
cosmos, in the heavens themselves. That
one little word transforms our lives and the lives of all who are baptized and
believe. That one little word fells the
devil and brings immortality and eternal joy to us. Τετέλεσται!
“It
is finished!” Amen.
In the name of the
Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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