It is Finished!

Good Friday - It is finished!

Today, we followers of Christ, do something not common: we celebrate death, the death of someone, of Jesus Christ our Lord. Today, we do not come to church to cry for Jesus, we come for Jesus to cry for us, to suffer for us, to die for us. It is weird, isn't it? I tell you, if you live well your life, if you live your life as Jesus lived his, if we live as Jesus has shown us how to live, when we die, our death will not be lamented, our death will be celebrated, just as we celebrate today Jesus' death.

As Jesus was getting ready to die, the Gospel tells us that He made this simple statement. "It is finished!" It means that even for Jesus, death, his death, was a satisfaction. It is a satisfaction because it came at the right moment, for a right cause. Jesus died happy. It is weird, isn't it?

It is the same satisfaction a painter gets when they apply the final stroke to the paint, and make a sigh like of Jesus, It is finished! It is the same  satisfaction that singers get after putting on a good performance, a good show; as they get away from the stage, they make the same sigh as of Jesus: It is finished. It is the same satisfaction that we get always after sealing a good business deal, as we sign the last page of the agreement, we get that same satisfaction of Jesus: It is finished. The deal is done. It was a win-win deal. It is finished.

When Jesus said, "It is finished", it meant that God the Father in Heaven was satisfied with what Jesus the Son had done on the cross. Yes, when Jesus Christ said these three little words, It is finished, He was telling the world that something great had been accomplished. He was finishing a deal that had been entrusted to him to do; He had just struck a deal.

You know each one of us came into this world, into this life for a deal. That is why you came into this life as woman, and me as man; that's why you're what and who you are, that is why you were born where you were born . That is why you have the talents you have. God custom-built you for something particular, which only you can do; God created you for a deal. How happy shall we die, if at the hour of our death we too cry out loud and clear, It is finished. I mean, our deal, our mission, our task, our vocation.

In Romans 8:28 we do have a God-given assurance that every single circumstance will sooner or later turn out well for those fully committed to him, and Jesus lived a committed life. Romans 8:28 is the promise that morphs us into resilient, cheerful people, whatever our temperament. It’s God’s darkroom in which negatives become positives. It’s His situation-reversal machine in which heartaches are changed into hallelujahs. Good Fridays of our life are changed into Easter Sundays.

So why stay depressed? Why mope around discouraged or moody? Why mark Good Friday as a Mishap? Why live as though God forgot to insert verse 28 into the eighth chapter of Romans. I f  this verse is in your Bible, it should be in your mind and heart. Happy celebrations of Good Friday.