[Editor's note: This is the third of a series of three reflections by Dr. Seitz.]
John 19:17-42
"It is finished."
Our first two lessons served to expose the depths of treachery in the hearts of us all, in the heightened form of Gentile power and Jewish fear and hatred. But through it all, Jesus was neither condemning nor vindictive. He stood forth as King, through all the worst thrown his way. By this show of unworldly power the opponents of his kingdom had the secrets of their own hearts revealed, because of this and in smite of themselves. One commentator has said: "Pilate's fear of the sinister and suspicious emperor was even greater than his awe of the mysterious personality of the Accused; his own safety appeared to him more important than a passing triumph over the accusers who were unsympathetic to him." But God was using this all for an accomplishment it was always Jesus' intention to fulfill, until his lips moved for the last time to form the words: "That is it; it has been accomplished." It is finished.
It is a strange thing to say, but in John's Gospel the crucifixion itself is finally a place where all the raging ceases and we are allowed to see our King without all the commotion and treachery. High and lifted up. Luke captures some of this by showing the power of forgiveness from the cross. The love and compassion of Jesus that could not be stopped by bodily pain and the anguish of three hours of slow asphyxiation. "Father, forgive them, for they know what they do." "Today you will be with me in paradise." How terribly, terribly kind, a love unknown, made known from a Cross of power and new life.
Pilate does want to make sure he gets in the last word, and so he does, telling the truth at last. In three languages. A sign to match the one Jesus knew was over his own head, "I am not alone for the Father is with me." Pilate's revenge reads: "This is the King of the Jews." What I have written, I have written. The garments are dispensed with, and now speech begins to come from a new source. The scriptures of Israel are speaking a truth prepared from before all ages. Speaking over the commotion and spite, speaking over the dull gentile mind and angry religious heart. These actions, the usual ones before a crucifixion, begin to talk on their own, as a seamless garment goes to the one with the lucky number. This was to fulfill the scriptures: "They divided my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots."
The picture is beginning to change even as the death of Jesus is now only a matter of very little time. John tells us that, rather than fleeing like the Twelve, one disciple stayed. And unlike the nameless women who stood at a distance in Mark, four known women were close enough to hear their savior, and friend, and son, speak. The disciple who was with Jesus from the very beginning in John is probably the same one who stands here at the very end, and whose Gospel we are reading.
And the Jesus who never had a family as we did, and the Mother who never had a son in the way other mothers have sons, here speaks tenderly to those below his cross. And we would be very wrong if we did not think that John means Jesus to be speaking to us on exactly the same terms, as we overhear this last tender exchange. For Jesus is here creating the church, his body. The church is that body, you and I gathered here, who see this Jesus, just as he is here, on a cross, our King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and acknowledge his power to make of us a new creation. Jesus is creating a family more permanent, more enduring, more able to heal and mend the families we do come from, than any family ever known.
"When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, 'Woman, behold your son.' Then he said to the disciple, 'Here is your mother.'" There will be in our families and the families we love: hurt, loss, disappointment, pain, as well as joy and hope. But all that will find its true home and its true power only at the foot of the Cross.
So once this act of love, the act toward which all others in his life was directed, is over, then he can say it is over-it is finished-and return to his own family. The Father who sent him. But not without immediately sending-not by his active doing or living but by his act of dying and giving-that member of his family who sustained him, and who, having sustained him, now comes to sustain us too on the same terms and more. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit. Think of it. Everything going on behind the scenes as it were, through these difficult last two days of trial and beating and confrontation, the power that sustained Jesus and kept his hand steady and his mind clear, even as the nails were driven in and even as he was pressed for answers upon which his own life and witness depended, a witness we are being fed on right now. That same sustaining Holy Spirit he gives us, so that we might feed on Him and find the new life Jesus has come to give, as he dies and returns to the Father.
And so the last words of Jesus are not the last things he has to say. The awful beating and scourging the day before meant his dying was swift and sure. The iron mallet used to break the legs and bring life to an end is dispensed with, and instead a spear is thrust into the side to make sure there is no life left. And with these actions the water that Jesus said would spring up from him to eternal life begins to flow. The water of Holy Spirit new life. And that Spirit gives an urgency to the testimony we have been longing to hear from someone else, someone alongside and for our crucified Lord, now in the voice of the beloved disciple. "This is he who testifies, and he knows that he tells the truth, not one bone of his was broken, and they will look on him whom they have pierced."
This Holy Spirit opens up the scriptures of Israel and shows this Jesus, this death, this cross, this creating of the new body his church, to be what has been promised from before all time, and so for all time as well, reaching into our St Matthews congregation on First Avenue in Toronto, on Good Friday 2008.
And that is why we who gather here today have no choice but to call this Friday Good. Because the shadow-and the great light-cast by that Cross extends all the way to this place and this time, and the words of Jesus spoken then and the work of Jesus undertaken then are words and work for you and for me, bringing release from sin and fear of death. Because we have a King who accomplished all He was sent to do. Whose work that day was finished, but whose work by the Spirit will never end.
And unto Him and the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory and honor, now and forever, world with out end. Amen.
John 19:17-42
"It is finished."
Our first two lessons served to expose the depths of treachery in the hearts of us all, in the heightened form of Gentile power and Jewish fear and hatred. But through it all, Jesus was neither condemning nor vindictive. He stood forth as King, through all the worst thrown his way. By this show of unworldly power the opponents of his kingdom had the secrets of their own hearts revealed, because of this and in smite of themselves. One commentator has said: "Pilate's fear of the sinister and suspicious emperor was even greater than his awe of the mysterious personality of the Accused; his own safety appeared to him more important than a passing triumph over the accusers who were unsympathetic to him." But God was using this all for an accomplishment it was always Jesus' intention to fulfill, until his lips moved for the last time to form the words: "That is it; it has been accomplished." It is finished.
It is a strange thing to say, but in John's Gospel the crucifixion itself is finally a place where all the raging ceases and we are allowed to see our King without all the commotion and treachery. High and lifted up. Luke captures some of this by showing the power of forgiveness from the cross. The love and compassion of Jesus that could not be stopped by bodily pain and the anguish of three hours of slow asphyxiation. "Father, forgive them, for they know what they do." "Today you will be with me in paradise." How terribly, terribly kind, a love unknown, made known from a Cross of power and new life.
Pilate does want to make sure he gets in the last word, and so he does, telling the truth at last. In three languages. A sign to match the one Jesus knew was over his own head, "I am not alone for the Father is with me." Pilate's revenge reads: "This is the King of the Jews." What I have written, I have written. The garments are dispensed with, and now speech begins to come from a new source. The scriptures of Israel are speaking a truth prepared from before all ages. Speaking over the commotion and spite, speaking over the dull gentile mind and angry religious heart. These actions, the usual ones before a crucifixion, begin to talk on their own, as a seamless garment goes to the one with the lucky number. This was to fulfill the scriptures: "They divided my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots."
The picture is beginning to change even as the death of Jesus is now only a matter of very little time. John tells us that, rather than fleeing like the Twelve, one disciple stayed. And unlike the nameless women who stood at a distance in Mark, four known women were close enough to hear their savior, and friend, and son, speak. The disciple who was with Jesus from the very beginning in John is probably the same one who stands here at the very end, and whose Gospel we are reading.
And the Jesus who never had a family as we did, and the Mother who never had a son in the way other mothers have sons, here speaks tenderly to those below his cross. And we would be very wrong if we did not think that John means Jesus to be speaking to us on exactly the same terms, as we overhear this last tender exchange. For Jesus is here creating the church, his body. The church is that body, you and I gathered here, who see this Jesus, just as he is here, on a cross, our King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and acknowledge his power to make of us a new creation. Jesus is creating a family more permanent, more enduring, more able to heal and mend the families we do come from, than any family ever known.
"When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, 'Woman, behold your son.' Then he said to the disciple, 'Here is your mother.'" There will be in our families and the families we love: hurt, loss, disappointment, pain, as well as joy and hope. But all that will find its true home and its true power only at the foot of the Cross.
So once this act of love, the act toward which all others in his life was directed, is over, then he can say it is over-it is finished-and return to his own family. The Father who sent him. But not without immediately sending-not by his active doing or living but by his act of dying and giving-that member of his family who sustained him, and who, having sustained him, now comes to sustain us too on the same terms and more. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit. Think of it. Everything going on behind the scenes as it were, through these difficult last two days of trial and beating and confrontation, the power that sustained Jesus and kept his hand steady and his mind clear, even as the nails were driven in and even as he was pressed for answers upon which his own life and witness depended, a witness we are being fed on right now. That same sustaining Holy Spirit he gives us, so that we might feed on Him and find the new life Jesus has come to give, as he dies and returns to the Father.
And so the last words of Jesus are not the last things he has to say. The awful beating and scourging the day before meant his dying was swift and sure. The iron mallet used to break the legs and bring life to an end is dispensed with, and instead a spear is thrust into the side to make sure there is no life left. And with these actions the water that Jesus said would spring up from him to eternal life begins to flow. The water of Holy Spirit new life. And that Spirit gives an urgency to the testimony we have been longing to hear from someone else, someone alongside and for our crucified Lord, now in the voice of the beloved disciple. "This is he who testifies, and he knows that he tells the truth, not one bone of his was broken, and they will look on him whom they have pierced."
This Holy Spirit opens up the scriptures of Israel and shows this Jesus, this death, this cross, this creating of the new body his church, to be what has been promised from before all time, and so for all time as well, reaching into our St Matthews congregation on First Avenue in Toronto, on Good Friday 2008.
And that is why we who gather here today have no choice but to call this Friday Good. Because the shadow-and the great light-cast by that Cross extends all the way to this place and this time, and the words of Jesus spoken then and the work of Jesus undertaken then are words and work for you and for me, bringing release from sin and fear of death. Because we have a King who accomplished all He was sent to do. Whose work that day was finished, but whose work by the Spirit will never end.
And unto Him and the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory and honor, now and forever, world with out end. Amen.
