A Perfect Finish

So they took Jesus; and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them. Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.” When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. So they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who will get it.” This was to fulfill what the scripture says,

Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

A few years ago I attended a meeting in Dallas and because of some unusual plane connections needed to go a day early. After arriving in Dallas I had the better part of a day with nothing to do. So I decided to visit the 6th floor of a building once known as the Texas School Book Depository. From a window on that 6th floor Lee Harvey Oswald shot President John Kennedy and Governor John Connolly on November 22, 1963.

Through pictures, video, displays, and recordings, the 6th floor has been turned into an amazing exhibit of what happened and what is thought to have happened on that day when the President was assassinated. I found it eerie, strangely fascinating, and deeply moving. Thoughts and feelings from that day in 1963, which happened to be my 16th birthday, flooded back into my consciousness.

I mention this not to talk about the Kennedy assassination nor all the theories of conspiracy that still swirl about it. I just want to make the point that every detail of those few moments has been studied and researched and examined and argued about countless times. Volumes have been written, miles of videotape and film produced, and the reflections continue still more than forty-two years later.

In a very similar way, the early Christians reflected and pondered and studied and wrote about the crucifixion of Jesus. They obviously could not return to Golgotha and do scientific research and DNA sampling. No pictures or video were taken that Friday; no recordings were made of the soldiers hammering in the nails. But they did reflect, eye witnesses shared their accounts, and the details were noted carefully. And for the next 30 to 50 years those reflections shaped the gospels, one of which we’ve read today.

That’s why John so carefully noted detailed information about the place and time when these things happened. For John and the early Christians, the event of the cross was clearly fixed within the scope of history. Place and time were demonstrable before world public opinion. This is confirmed by John’s understanding of the inscription on the cross. When he tells us it was written in three languages, he shows his concern to indicate that this happened before the world. For John, the cross of Jesus is an immovable sign of humankind’s guilt. It is also a sign of God’s intention to ‘lift up’ the crucified one. The ‘lifted up one’ becomes the source of salvation for all who raise their eyes to him and believe.[1]

Now we are actually given only the barest details of the crucifixion, probably out of delicacy for the martyrdom of the Lord. The people of the day knew crucifixion, saw crucifixion, and understood crucifixion. It hardly needed to be described.[2] So what we have in the text are reflections on the “facts,” reflections upon which the reflections of the centuries have been built.

The question is what do these facts mean? Facts are facts and they are important. But the most important question is always, what do they mean? The 6th Floor of the Texas School Book Depository presents lots of facts and some tantalizing questions. But what do those facts mean? What happened to us when a popular president was murdered before our very eyes?

Long ago there was the death of another popular leader. He was murdered before their very eyes. These are facts, carefully recorded and reflected upon. But what do they mean? John expressed their meaning in Jesus’ words “It is finished.” Jesus spoke those words and bowed his head and died. The meaning is “it is finished.”

When a student learns New Testament Greek, she or he learns about Greek’s perfect tense. The Greek language has a present tense., of course, and a future tense. But its other tenses are a little more complex. It has a past tense (aorist) which means that something happened in the past and it is over and done with. It happened once and that’s it.

Then there is the perfect tense. Something happened but it’s not over. It happened but the meaning of it and the effect of it continue to this very moment. When Jesus said “it is finished” he used the perfect tense. What God wanted done has been done but it continues in effect to this very moment.

Dear friends, that is why we are here today. The effect of what happened on the cross, the perfect finish of all the purposes of God, continues to shape us even now.

No one sits around to worship and pray and sing about the death of a president from even forty-two years ago, which is not to make light of what happened in 1963 or ignore its importance. But millions do gather today to remember another death much longer ago. For in that death the love of God was finished, not to be over with but to continue forever, to even embrace us here today. It is the perfect finish. And it’s happening still. Thanks be to God. Amen

[1] Rudolf Schnackenburg, The Gospel According to St. John, vol. 3, trans. David Smith and G. A. Kon (New York: Crossroad, 1990) 270.

[2] Schnackenburg, 270.