A Message for Easter Weekend

The Finished Work of Christ
By Loren L. Fenton, D.Min.

Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit (John 19:28-30 NIV).

Every year as Easter approaches, the Christian world stops to remember that awful moment at Golgotha where Jesus, the rabbi from Nazareth, hung suspended between earth and sky, nailed to a Roman cross. A rough, vulgar crowd swirled below him, cracking coarse jokes and hurling insults. Directly in front of the cross a tiny knot of his followers huddled, staring through fear-pained eyes at their teacher's torn and bloodied body. They watched him gasp, struggling to breathe, and held each other tight in their own desperate struggle to endure this horrible ordeal.

Everyone knew it would soon be over. No one could suffer the abuse this man had received and still survive. Whipped, tortured, a crown of thorns, blood pouring from the wounds on his head, chest, hands, and feet. Deep wounds of the body, but even deeper of the spirit. Rejection. Utter aloneness that no man - or any other being in the Universe - has ever known.

"I thirst!" he cried. Raspy words escaping parched lips and burning throat.

A soldier grabs a nearby sponge and saturates it with vinegar. Together, he and others bind the dripping sop to a branch of hyssop and lift it to Jesus' mouth. One taste. Another gasp for air. One more wrenching cry.

"It is finished!"

The anguished declaration echoed across the nearby Judean hillsides and careens down the corridors of time - a shout of victory from the blistered, bleeding lips of Christ.

It is finished! It is finished! It is finished!

But, what did Jesus mean? What was finished on that Crucifixion Friday?

To know the answer we must journey back to Genesis, back to the Garden of Eden. To know the end, we must know the beginning.

Genesis 1:1 begins unequivocally: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (NKJV).  Through thirty-one verses the Creation narrative unfolds and is summarized in chapter two, verse one: Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them were finished.

A clue to our quest emerges in Genesis 2:4 when the author changes the identity of the Creator from "God" to "Lord God."

Up to this point through all the days and events of Creation week, the Hebrew word Elohim is used as the name of God. In Genesis 2:4, however, God's name changes to YHWH  Elohim. Most English versions of the Bible follow the convention of presenting each occurrence of YHVH as "Lord," using all-caps to designate this special Hebrew expression known by all biblical Hebrew scholars as the "tetragrammaton."

I became curious about the root Hebrew etymology of YHVH. Much to my surprise I discovered an underlying word source indicating the concept of finishing a task! Suddenly, I understood the transition from "God" to "Lord God" in Genesis 1 and 2. Roughly translated the Hebrew title YHWH  Elohim could mean "The God Who Finishes What He Starts!"

Thus we see that:

1.      The summary in chapter 2:1-3 declares that the work of Creation is finished. The Creator (Elohim) then establishes the seventh-day Sabbath as an eternal memorial to His finished work.

2.      Immediately following this, beginning in verse 4, the narrative expands to show the more detailed version of Creation with "the Lord God" (YHVH Elohim) as the active agent.

3.      The point of this part of the story, however, is not the Creation itself. Rather, it provides the introduction - the backstory - for the impending Fall found in chapter three, and the subsequent beginning of the plan of salvation.

4.      YHVH Elohim - the God Who Finishes What He Starts - is on the move again. He has begun a new work, a new process, a new journey: Destination Calvary and the road to redemption for Adam's race.

Christ's last cry from the Cross declared that the door to eternal life was now permanently open. What God has opened no man can shut! Whosoever will may come! Any and all may receive the gift of God's grace and forgiveness.

Welcome home, Pilgrim! Welcome home!