Tetelestai: It Is Finished.

“…He said, ‘It it finished,’ and bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” (John 19:30b)

As we go throughout the week, most of us are just looking towards Friday.  Friday means freedom right?  Freedom from the 9-5.  Freedom from stresses of the office.

Well, during Passion Week, everything was pointing to Friday also.  Friday is the day when our Lord, the Christ hung from a cross on Calvary, absorbed His Father’s wrath for me and for you, satisfied the Father as the sacrifice, and became the atonement for the sins of all of man-kind.

Those last words of Jesus on the cross carry some significant weight.  It. Is. Finished.  He knew He had accomplished what He was sent to accomplish.  He knew He had accomplished what His Father required.  He knew He had accomplished what you and I could never have accomplished.  There is so much that we could go in to and dialogue about the Old Testament sacrificial system and how it all pointed to Jesus.  Even what was required back then, was fulfilled in Christ.  However, that is not what I want to focus on for this post and it’s not what I want you to feel the weight of today.

What I would like for you to focus on and be affected by today, is your inadequacy and inability.  One of the requirements for the sacrifice was that it had to pure; spotless.  One of the flaws in the Old Testament sacrificial system was that the High Priest, appointed by God, had to make a sacrifice for his own sins before he could make the sacrifice for the sins of the people.  The system was flawed because of sin.  That’s why it was just a temporary means set up by God to keep fellowship with His people until the ultimate sacrifice would be made.

We as humans, being born into a sin nature, are automatically disqualified from making payment or atonement for our own sins.  It is impossible for us to present something before a holy God that He would even glance at.  We know and acknowledge that God judges our sinful deeds.  What we fail to focus on many times, is that God also judges our righteous deeds.  Isaiah 64:6 tells us just how repulsed God is by even our “righteous” deeds, “…all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.”  Polluted garment here is directly translated as menstrual clothes.  What disgusting, repulsive imagery.  However, it describes for us how God views us when we come to offer something that we did, in and of ourselves, that we deem “righteous”.  He looks at it and disgusted and repulsed.

Which is why we needed a sacrifice made for us, a high priest to make the sacrifice for us, and the requirements from God to be met on our behalf.  It’s why we need Jesus.  He is the sacrifice made for us AND He is the our great high priest interceding for us to His Father (Hebrews 4:14).  When Jesus cried, “It is finished,”  He’s telling us, “It’s over.  I’ve done what you couldn’t.  Though you are unworthy, I give you my worth.  Though you are unholy, I give you my holiness.  Though you are unrighteous, I give you my righteousness.”  When we could do nothing, He did everything!  Praise God!

Recently, I learned the greek translation for the phrase, “It is finished.”  The greek word for what Jesus cried out is, “Tetelestai.”  After some research and much prayer, I took a bold step.  I had this greek phrase tattooed on the inside of my right wrist.  Being right handed, obvisously I do a lot with that arm and hand.  This serves as a constant and permanent reminder to me, that there is nothing I can do but rely on what He has accomplished. 

It’s over.  It’s done. It is…

Finished!