It is Finished

John 19:30 – When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

In John’s Gospel, the last word Jesus spoke on the cross before dying comes to us in English in three words: “It is finished.” This says a lot to us as it is, but in the Greek New Testament, it is just one word: tetelestai. Greek is such a precisely nuanced language, that every verb can be conjugated hundreds of ways to provide the exact meaning needed, and tetelestai does that.

Its perfect tense means an action was completed one time. Greek has a separate tense for ongoing actions in the past (imperfect) and another for unspecific timing and duration of past actions (aorist). Jesus’ death was a onetime event, and it was the only sacrifice necessary and required to pay the price for the sins of all mankind.

The core of tetelestai is the root telos. This gets translated as finished, complete, mature, or perfect in its adjective and noun forms. What Jesus did through his death was perfect. It was sufficient for all of us, and it was the end of sin for all who believe in him.

Tetelestai is in the indicative mood. That means it tells us what happened. There is no speculative uncertainty there would have been with the subjunctive mood. We can know the price was paid.

Another aspect of Greek verb conjugation is voice. With active voiced verbs the subject does the action. This is passive. The “it” that was finished was finished by another: Jesus.

What is that “it”? We find hints in the two remaining aspects of the verb telestai. It is third person singular. That means it is not “I” or “you” or even “we.” It was something else. That it that was finished the first Good Friday is the consequences of the wrong each of us has done. It is the eternal price that Jesus paid, so that whoever would believe in him would have eternal life. If you have not yet believed, there is no better time than today to do so.

In one word, it is finished.

You Only Think You See

John 9:39-42 – And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.”

Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?”

Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.

Don’t you hate it when someone tries to correct you? As humans, we like to believe we have things figured out. We believe we know what we are doing and that we are doing the right things the right way. When someone else comes along and tries to show us a “better” way, resentment builds. We think (or say), “Who are you to tell me what I should do and how I should do it?”

The problem with such an attitude on our part is that we can never improve, we can never learn, we can never grow, and we can never become the people we were designed to be unless we are teachable.

These verses at the end of John 9 wrap up an interesting story of four different individuals or groups. Of course, Jesus is at the center. We saw a man born blind regain his sight and willingly sacrifice his social acceptance to serve that Jesus who gave him sight. We also saw his parents not willing to trade acceptance to admit the work of the One who changed their son’s life. The fourth group unfortunately represents most of us too much of the time.

The Pharisees had influence, power, and positions of respect in the Jewish community. They were the role models and decision makers for everyone else. They seemed to everyone – and themselves – to have it together. The problem was that Jesus did not fit into their scheme. He did not do things their way, so they assumed he could not have been from God. Even when an undeniable miracle of a man born blind receiving his sight happened at Jesus’ hands they refused to acknowledge Jesus.

When the man who was healed was kicked out by these leaders, he turned and worshipped Jesus. Jesus’ words in response provoked the Pharisees to once again be arrogantly unteachable. Jesus’ final words to them are words we all need to take to heart, “Since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”

The practical truth of these words is that until we acknowledge we do not know everything and that we may not be doing the right things in the right way, we can never improve. Sometimes the most unlikely people can be the best teachers. Are you willing to listen to others? 

The deeper spiritual truth of these words is that we need to acknowledge we can never fully solve our biggest problems – our sin. We need a savior. Jesus is the only one who can take care of it and he did that on the cross. Until we respond in worship of him like the man born blind did, we will never truly see.