+Toward the end of the Passion Gospel Jesus says: “It is Finished. ” For generations scholars have said that rather than an expression of defeat, these words were, for Jesus, an exclamation of victory, proclaiming that his work as God taking on the flesh of this world, as the man Jesus, was finished. That he had equipped his followers as best he could and that now it would be up to them…to us!
That makes sense to me----haven’t you ever finished a long and painful task and although exhausted and maybe even in pain, you’re able to look at what you’ve accomplished and say, with satisfaction, “It is Finished!”?
But you know what? I can’t help but “hear” these words of Jesus as being tinged with less triumph than scholars would lead us to believe.
I mean, look around the scene--EVERYONE but the women and the beloved disciple have abandoned Jesus----Judas has betrayed, Peter denied and the others? Philip, James, Andrew, Thomas and all the rest have left. They’ve slipped into the temple crowds, hiding as best they can, denying all that has been, securing their place back into the status quo.
How, in this scenario, can Jesus feel victorious?
His earthly life has ended--he’s taught all he could teach, he’s healed all he could heal, he’s challenged the temple authorities to the very end--- but the work?
The challenges to tyranny, the loving everyone, everywhere, no exceptions, the feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, comforting the broken-hearted? That work?
It’s so far from finished.
On this Good Friday we must admit that this work—this good and holy work is not finished and will not be finished, will not be complete—the victory of God will not be won until:
Our young people are safe in their schools, in their nightclubs, at their concerts.
It won’t be finished, it won’t be complete, the victory of God will not be won until:
Those who don’t look like us aren’t automatically singled out as dangerous or bad or illegal.
It won’t be finished, it won’t be complete, the victory of God will not be won until:
The 130 million girls across this globe with no access to education will be able to go to school without fear and without reproach. That women will get paid an equal wage for equal work and that women and girls the world over will have full and complete control over their bodies. Always and forever.
It won’t be finished, it won’t be complete, the victory of God will not be won until:
Our politicians will hold the public good uppermost in their minds instead of the contents of their wallets.
It won’t be finished, it won’t be complete, the victory of God will not be won until:
The horror of climate change is accepted as fact and all the strength and wisdom of this world is given over to protecting what is left pf this our island home.
It won’t be finished, it won’t be complete, the victory of God will not be won until:
The lost are found, the blind see, the naked clothed and the hungry fed.
It won’t be finished, it won’t be complete, the victory of God will not be won until:
We---you and me---go out into the world and do the work Jesus has given us to do.
And what is that work?
It was given to us last night in Jesus’ Mandate (Maundy) to us:
To love.
Fully and Completely and Always.
To ask ourselves, not in the trite way of bracelets and t-shirts, but in the true and full way of Jesus on the cross, what would Jesus do?
Jesus would, Jesus does, forgive.
Jesus would, Jesus does, Love.
Jesus would, Jesus does, risk.
That’s what Jesus would have us do, too:
Forgive.
Love.
Risk.
Jesus’ work on earth was finished, but it was not and it is not complete. For Jesus is not and was not in this alone. We are the descendants of those who betrayed and denied and ran away. We are the descendants of those who screamed, “Crucify Him!” BUT we are also descendants of those women who stayed at the cross and in a few days will take that long trek up Calvary’s hill to the tomb. We are descendants of those loving, forgiving and risk-taking women.
May we, as we survey that wondrous and complicated cross, be strengthened to finish the work, to complete the task and to bring the dream of God to life, right here and right now.
Amen.
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