Thought for Friday 25 April

John 19:28-30

Jesus knew that everything had now been accomplished, and to fulfil the Scriptures he said, ‘I am thirsty’.  A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips.  When Jesus had tasted it, he said, ‘it is finished!’  Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. 

Scholars reckon there are between 300 and 400 messianic prophecies in the Old Testament.  They are found in various books in the Old Testament.   Within this one chapter of John, Jesus fulfils prophecies from the books of Isaiah, Leviticus, Psalms, Job, Deuteronomy, Exodus, Numbers and Zechariah.  Even within the three verses chosen for today, two prophecies are fulfilled. 

At the start of today’s passage, some translations say ‘Jesus knew that everything was now finished’, some say that ‘everything had now been accomplished’.  I prefer the word ‘accomplished’.  When I finish writing this article for today, I will have another to write a week on Monday. When I finish cutting the grass later, I will have to repeat the process in a fortnight.  Many years ago at school, I learned that when I was finished doing my homework, my teachers would collect my offering then dish out more.  At the point of his death when Jesus said ‘it is finished’, he meant that everything he was supposed to do had been done.  Between 300 and 400 prophecies to fulfil and he had fulfilled every single one.  There was no more to do.  All that was required of him had been accomplished.

When it gets to the end of this life, if we are asked what we had accomplished, I wonder what our answers would look like.  On thinking about this today, I, for one would be struggling to come up with an answer, maybe other folks would find it easier to come up with a meaningful response.  Social media mentions things like putting a man on the moon, invention of the aeroplane, climbing Everest, famous works of art as mankind’s greatest accomplishments.  It is not difficult to see how these bear no comparison to the accomplishment of the Cross.  Putting a man on the moon is a massive team effort using technology that is continually being developed and some of the space flights have ended in disaster.  The aeroplane has been a fantastic invention that most of us will have experienced but it has also been used to deliver the atom bombs to Nagasaki and Hiroshima and although it is recognised as a really safe form of travel, they do crash now and again.  The climbing of Everest for the first time was heralded as a major achievement but since then, it has been climbed by many folks.  There are many famous works of art but if you asked 100 people to pick their favourite, you wouldn’t get 100 identical answers.

It can be seen that the accomplishments that men and women recognise as important are all to some extent, flawed.  When our Lord said his final words at Calvary ‘it is accomplished’, it was perfect but sad end to a perfect life having achieved all that was required of him by God the father and the fulfilment of all the prophecies over hundreds of years that had pointed to his coming.

 

Prayer

Heavenly Father, if we contemplate those who were implicated in the terrible and unjust treatment of the Lord Jesus Christ, may we not be one of the men or women  who carelessly points an accusing finger at those who condemned him, knowing that we are also to blame - for while we were still sinners, Christ died for our sins so that by his grace through faith, we might be saved from eternal condemnation.  Amen.