Lent 24 post 3

 John 19.28-30

John records for us two of the best-known of the seven sayings of the cross, ‘I thirst' and ‘It is finished'. But the way he does so takes us right inside the mind of Jesus at that moment. How did John know what Jesus was thinking on the cross? I suppose it must have been from a conversation with Jesus after his resurrection.

Death as an achievement?

Shouldn’t we be surprised that John paints the whole scene at this moment as one of achievement? The clue lies in John's choice of three words, the first and last of which are identical in Greek and the middle one very similar,

Everything had now been finished.

So that Scripture would be fulfilled.

It is finished.

This can’t be accidental. John is making a point. And his point is that Jesus spoke these words (a) because of what he knew (that all things were completed) and (b) because of what he intended (to fulfil Scripture). Jesus was at the very point of death, and yet he was still utterly in control of his thoughts and his words.

Everything had now been finished 

Or, rather, completed. Jesus knew that nothing could now stand in the way of his death. Now you might think this is rather obvious for anybody nailed to a cross, ‘This is the end. I’m going to die.’ We’ll, yes. But, you see, it was only because Jesus had been utterly determined to die that he had reached this point of no return. So much had conspired to stop him getting to this moment of inevitable death. 

Think back over the story. Herod tried to kill him as an infant, which was not the atoning death God had planned. The devil tried to divert him in the wilderness. Peter tried to dissuade him at Caesarea Philippi. His own mother and family tried to get him to come home and be sensible. He himself struggled with the prospect in Gethsemane. Pilate wanted to release him. Everybody was taunting him, even on the cross, to save himself, as we saw yesterday. But Jesus won the final victory. He knew what he had come to do, to ‘give his life as a ransom for many’ (Mark 10.45). 

It was God’s purpose, and his own purpose, for him to reach this point. All is completed. Nothing can stop him any longer from giving his life for us. And, knowing that, Jesus returns again to the Scriptures that have guided his life and now fill his dying consciousness. 

So that Scripture would be fulfilled 

Jesus gasps, ‘I am thirsty.’ Well of course he was! Rapid dehydration was part of the torture of crucifixion. But Jesus wets his lips so that he can speak words to fulfil the Scriptures. But which piece of scripture? Possibly Psalm 69.19–21. But more likely, since he had already quoted the first verse of Psalm 22 (‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’), Jesus now remembers verse 15, ‘My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.’ And John has already sensed an echo of that psalm in the soldiers’ gambling for Jesus’ clothing (John 19.24). 

But don’t imagine that this is merely another ‘prediction coming true’, that’s far too shallow. This is the deep resonance in the mind of Jesus with the Scriptures as a whole that had governed his every waking moment and now fill his dying breaths. 

Why do you think Psalm 22 is filling the consciousness of Jesus on the cross? Because he found in both halves of the psalm words that expressed on the one hand the depth of his suffering (verses 1–18), and, on the other hand, the breadth of his faith and hope in God (verses 19–31). Jesus died in agony, but he did not die in despair. Jesus suffered separation from his Father, but he knew that God would not ultimately abandon him. Jesus endured the mockery of evil men so that sinners in every nation would seek the Lord and praise him (verse 27). Jesus trusted in God, and God did deliver him, not from the cross, but through the cross in the glorious vindication of Easter Day. 

‘It is finished’ 

Some scholars suggest that Jesus’ final cry of triumph reflects the very last line of Psalm 22, ‘He has done it!’ God has done it! Through Jesus! Through his death on the cross! This was the third and ultimate completion that John heard from the mouth of Jesus.