{"id":1423,"date":"2022-02-28T08:14:25","date_gmt":"2022-02-28T13:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1423"},"modified":"2022-02-28T08:14:25","modified_gmt":"2022-02-28T13:14:25","slug":"done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/02\/28\/done\/","title":{"rendered":"Done"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is finished.\u00a0<\/em>
\u00a0
Those are words that a driven, task-obsessed person can never imagine saying.\u00a0
\u00a0
\u201cIt is finished\u201d would mean there would be nothing left to check off the list of things to do.\u00a0 No more sweaters to arrange according to color and style.\u00a0 Every conceivable thank-you note written.\u00a0 Nothing left to haul off to Goodwill from the attic or the garage.
\u00a0
But Jesus was not a driven, task-obsessed person.\u00a0 As he died on the cross, there were myriad unfinished tasks on the face of the earth.\u00a0 But one task was complete.\u00a0 It<\/u><\/em> was finished.\u00a0 The priority work had been accomplished \u2013 something he declares in John 19:30.\u00a0
\u00a0
One Bible commentator has generated a list of 50 different spiritual victories that were attained at the moment of Jesus\u2019 death.\u00a0 It\u2019s enough to agree, however, that what was finished was Jesus\u2019 life, his ministry on earth, and the suffering that cocooned his final hours.\u00a0
\u00a0
And it\u2019s just as accurate to say that as Jesus\u2019 limp body was being wrapped in linen, only to rise from the dead later that weekend, something else was just beginning.\u00a0 His finished work was launching 20 centuries of additional work that Jesus would now endeavor to accomplish \u2013 to bring to completion \u2013 through us<\/u><\/em>.
\u00a0
It\u2019s worth noting that Jesus did not say, \u201cI<\/u><\/em> am finished\u201d \u2013 the resignation of a dying man, or someone playing the victim card.\u00a0 Jesus chose to endure the cross for the specific purpose of answering his Father\u2019s call to die as the Lamb of God for the sins of the world.
\u00a0
A few years ago, after my family had enjoyed a meal at a local restaurant, I was surprised when our server informed us that we had no bill to pay.\u00a0 \u201cYou know that man who was sitting right over there until a few minutes ago?\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cHe paid your bill.\u00a0 You\u2019re free to leave whenever you want.\u201d\u00a0
\u00a0
I\u2019m sure it wouldn\u2019t surprise you to hear that that act of grace changed my relationship with that man.\u00a0 Specifically, every time my family now heads out for dinner, I email him to let him know exactly where we\u2019re going to be.\u00a0 In truth, what\u2019s been enjoyable is learning how much he enjoyed our happy response.\u00a0 Payback was never the reward he was seeking.\u00a0 The reward \u2013 for both of us \u2013 has been the deepening of our relationship.
\u00a0
A meal is a real need.\u00a0 But it\u2019s just a momentary one.\u00a0 Jesus paid the bill that addressed our greatest ongoing<\/em> need in this world and the next.\u00a0
\u00a0
Those three English words, \u201cIt is finished,\u201d translate just one Greek word from John\u2019s text:\u00a0 Tetelestai<\/u><\/em>.\u00a0 It\u2019s a marketplace term from the ancient world that means \u201cpaid in full.\u201d\u00a0 The debt has been erased.\u00a0 No further action is required.\u00a0
\u00a0
That\u2019s the work that Jesus declared finished while breathing his last.\u00a0 What he seeks is the establishment and the deepening of an eternal relationship with every one of us.
\u00a0
We can imagine an anxious spiritual seeker, gripped by his need to enter such a relationship with God, asking, \u201cWhat do I need to do to make this happen?\u201d\u00a0
\u00a0
He would be told, \u201cYou\u2019re too late.\u00a0 It\u2019s finished<\/em>.\u00a0 Someone has already done it for you.\u201d\u00a0
\u00a0
We\u2019re not talking about banishing the word DO from our spiritual vocabulary.\u00a0 There is so much to do, for God\u2019s sake, every day of our lives.\u00a0\u00a0
\u00a0
But all that we DO must flow from what Jesus has already DONE.\u00a0
\u00a0
And we can awaken every morning \u2013 even on those days in which it feels as if we have a hundred things to do \u2013 knowing that Someone has already finished the most important task in the cosmos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is finished.\u00a0\u00a0Those are words that a driven, task-obsessed person can never imagine saying.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIt is finished\u201d would mean there would be nothing left to check off the list of things to do.\u00a0 No more sweaters to arrange according to color and style.\u00a0 Every conceivable thank-you note written.\u00a0 Nothing left to haul off to Goodwill from the attic or the garage.\u00a0But… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1424,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[410],"class_list":["post-1423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-last-words-on-the-cross"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1423"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1425,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423\/revisions\/1425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}