It Is Finished

Read it: Mark 14–15; John 19

It was Passover week in Jerusalem. The city was packed with pilgrims who had come to remember the night, more than a thousand years earlier, when God rescued Israel from Egypt and the blood of a lamb on the doorposts meant death passed over. The religious leaders wanted Jesus dead but were afraid of the crowds. Then one of the Twelve, Judas, offered to hand Him over for money.

A meal and a garden

On the Thursday evening Jesus ate the Passover meal with His disciples in an upstairs room. Everything about that meal looked back to the Exodus. But Jesus gave it a new meaning. Jesus “took bread, spoke a blessing and broke it, and gave it to the disciples,” with the words “Take it; this is My body” (Mark 14:22). Then the cup: “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many” (Mark 14:24). At Sinai, Moses had sprinkled blood on the people and called it “the blood of the covenant” (Exodus 24:8). Jeremiah had promised a new covenant. Now Jesus said it would be sealed with His own blood.

Afterwards they walked to an olive grove called Gethsemane. There Jesus was overwhelmed with sorrow. He fell to the ground and prayed: “Abba, Father,” He said, “all things are possible for You. Take this cup from Me. Yet not what I will, but what You will” (Mark 14:36). “Abba” is the close, warm word a child used for a father. Three times He prayed, and three times His friends fell asleep.

Then Judas arrived with an armed crowd and identified Jesus with a kiss. “Then everyone deserted Him and fled” (Mark 14:50).

On trial

That night Jesus stood before the high priest and the ruling council. Witnesses contradicted each other. Jesus stayed silent, like the lamb in Isaiah 53, until the high priest asked Him directly, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” “I am,” said Jesus (Mark 14:61–62). That was enough for them. They condemned Him for blasphemy, spat on Him and beat Him.

Down in the courtyard Peter, warming himself by a fire, was asked three times whether he knew Jesus. Three times he swore he didn’t. Then the rooster crowed, and Peter “broke down and wept” (Mark 14:72).

Only the Romans could carry out an execution, so in the morning the council took Jesus to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. Pilate could see Jesus wasn’t dangerous, but the crowd shouted for Him to be crucified and for a violent prisoner named Barabbas to be released instead. Pilate gave in. Soldiers dressed Jesus in purple, jammed a crown of thorns on His head and mocked Him as “King of the Jews.”

The cross

Crucifixion was Rome’s most shameful punishment, kept for slaves and rebels. It was meant to be slow and public. The Gospels describe it with great restraint, and so will we. “Carrying His own cross, He went out to The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. There they crucified Him, and with Him two others, one on each side, with Jesus in the middle” (John 19:17–18). Pilate had a sign fixed above Him: “JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS” (John 19:19), written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek so that everyone could read it. Without meaning to, Pilate announced the truth in the three great languages of the world.

Even in agony Jesus cared for others. Seeing His mother standing near with the disciple He loved, He said, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother” (John 19:26–27).

At noon darkness covered the land for three hours. Then Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mark 15:34). These are the opening words of Psalm 22, a psalm of David that moves from abandonment to triumph. Jesus was experiencing the separation from God that sin deserves, and He was experiencing it for others.

John records the end. When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished.” And then, “bowing His head, He yielded up His spirit” (John 19:30). In Greek, “It is finished” is a single word, used for a task that has been completed. Not “I am finished,” as if He had lost. The work He came to do was done.

At that moment, Mark says, “the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Mark 15:38). That was the thick curtain shutting off the Most Holy Place, where only the high priest could enter, once a year. It was torn from the top, from God’s side. And the Roman officer in charge of the execution, watching how Jesus died, said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:39).

That evening a member of the council, Joseph of Arimathea, boldly asked Pilate for the body and laid it in a tomb cut into rock. A stone was rolled across the entrance. Some of the women who followed Jesus watched where He was laid.

Where Jesus is in this

Almost every thread of the story runs through this hill. Paul writes, “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7). John notices that the soldiers didn’t break Jesus’ legs, and says this happened to fulfil the Scripture, “Not one of His bones will be broken” (John 19:36), which was the rule for the Passover lamb (Exodus 12:46). Isaiah’s Servant was “pierced for our transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5).

And the torn curtain means the way to God is open. “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way opened for us through the curtain of His body” (Hebrews 10:19–20). Paul puts the great exchange in one sentence: “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Think about it: Jesus said “It is finished,” not “Now it’s your turn.” Is there anything you’re still trying to do to make yourself acceptable to God, as if the cross were only a start?

Go deeper: A Retrospect (For Teens) by Hudson Taylor — As a young doubter who had given up trying to make himself a Christian, Taylor picked up a gospel booklet to pass the time, was stopped by the phrase “the finished work of Christ”, and realised there was nothing left for him to do but accept it. Start with chapter 1, “It Is Finished”.