John 19:28-42

A number of years ago on Good Friday I went with my dad to watch the Passion movie. He said he wanted to watch it to get “in the mood” for the Good Friday service he was to lead later that evening. To be honest I cried a lot and during that Good Friday service as we were having communion I couldn’t keep the tears back. I kept thinking about how the movie depicted John as he watched Jesus being lifted up on the cross and then flashed back to the Last Supper. It was as if he finally got it and understood all that Jesus taught them. He realized what Jesus meant by the bread being his broken body and the wine being his blood spilled for us -- because he was literally watching it happen. And for me it was a new understanding of the deepness of communion, reminding me of his aaunparalleled love & sacrifice for us.

That brings us to the end. As Jesus knew “that all things were now accomplished” he had a drink and surrendered his spirit in death with the famous words, “it is finished.” Before that moment an unfathomable, beautiful thing was accomplished. The price was paid, all guilt and wrath of our sin was paid for and accomplished at the cross. When he cried out “it is finished” he was proclaiming a triumphant victorious declaration that his Mission was accomplished to once and for all pay the debt of sin, totally satisfying God’s wrath. The greek word can also be translated, “paid in full” meaning there is no longer a balance or a payment due -- God won’t be sending an invoice saying we owe him. Paul sums it up in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “for God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”

When we take communion and remember Jesus’ death let us also remember His declaration that He is victorious, that His mission is accomplished, He completed what He was meant to do, that we can live in the victory of Jesus and not be ruled or shamed by our sin or past. Meditate on Jesus’ last words; what do they mean to you? How can you live your life clinging to His declaration of victory?