It Is Finished
Introduction: May the Lord Jesus continue to remind you of the
great love God has for you and that love has led to Jesus’ willingness to
suffer and die so that you might have life forever with God.
Today the Church celebrates one of its oldest liturgical
rites – the Liturgy of Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion. Although we do not
celebrate a full Eucharist, we reflect on God’s Word to us that speaks of the
One Who willingly suffers so that others may have their sins taken away. We
also contemplate the wood of the cross on which our Savior was hung. In order
that we might not be without the nourishment for our souls, we are able to
receive the Lord’s Body that He gave up as the ultimate sign of His and His
Abba-Father’s love for us. This day we come together to remember (zikaron) by
re-living the saving acts of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. We become a
participant in His giving His life for our salvation.
First Reading: Isaiah 52:13-53:12
‘He was pierced for our transgressions.’
Commentary: These
four poems occur in the second part of the Book of Isaiah pronounced by the
prophet in the last days of the Babylonian Exile, a time which was vital for
the consolidation and re-formation of Israel. They seem to hang together and
form a body somewhat, but not entirely, separate from the rest of the prophecy.
The fourth Song continues and intensifies the theme of
suffering; many details of it are fulfilled in the story of the Passion of
Jesus, to the extent that it seems that the Passion Narrative itself was even
composed with this Song in mind.
Who, then, is this Servant? In its primary meaning it has
been understood as the prophet himself, reflecting on his own experiences as
God’s messenger to Israel, though the difficulty here is that, as well as
having a mission to Israel, he is identified as part of Israel. Is that
identification in the second Song a later addition? The sufferings described in
other Songs must be personal. Perhaps it is the prophet precisely as identified
with Israel. Should a further extension of the meaning be understood as the
long-term suffering of the People of God in witnessing to the values of
Judaism? Certainly Christianity sees the prophecies to be fulfilled in the
mission and sufferings of Jesus.
Responsorial Psalm: 31:2, 6. 12a-d.
12e-13. 15-16. 17, 25.
Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.
The psalm for today shows the complete dependence on God for
the one who is rejected by people. Jesus quotes part of this psalm as He is
dying on the cross: “Into your hands I commend my spirit.” This is the prayer
of abandonment and surrender. Jesus hands over everything to His Abba-Father in
the final and total act of submission to the divine will. In doing so, Jesus
hands us over to His Abba, thus bringing us into a closer relationship with His
Abba.
Second Reading: Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9
‘He learned obedience and became the source of salvation to all who obey him.’
Commentary: The
Letter to the Hebrews contrasts the supreme High Priest with the transient high
priests of Judaism. In order to bring humanity to perfection Jesus had to share
completely in our humanity. He was ‘tempted in every way that we are’, sexual
temptations, temptations to anger, to intolerance, to cut people down to size.
He was ‘capable of feeling our weaknesses’, fear, frustration, laziness,
boredom. In the gospels few of these are mentioned: his exhaustion at the well
in Samaria, his grief at the death of his friend Lazarus. But, as he had a very
human personality, he must have suffered the fears and incomprehension of
childhood, the frustrations of adolescence, as well as the more complex
troubles and sorrows of adulthood, not to mention the unremitting opposition of
those who rejected him – all under the overarching passion for his Father
and his Kingship. All this would have enriched his personality still further,
until he offered the whole of his humanity in obedience to his Father’s
designs. Just as martyrdom is the crown of a life of Christian fidelity, so
Jesus’ final sacrifice was the crown of a life of love, obedience and
generosity.
In this passage
the author prepares us for the coming celebration of the Passion by reflecting
on the double aspect of the human fear and pain of Jesus, and his complete,
loving obedience. It says his prayer was heard. What prayer? Not the prayer to
be spared death, for that prayer was not heard. Rather the deeper prayer, the
prayer which was at the heart of his burning desire to establish the kinship of
God in human hearts, bringing peace between heaven and earth by his perfect
obedience. How then did he ‘learn obedience through suffering’? The secret of
the Cross of Jesus is that here he reached the perfect obedience to his Father,
giving everything to his Father’s will. His whole life and ministry had been
devoted to the Father’s will, to establishing the Father’s kingship on earth.
Now it reaches its highest point. His perfect obedience overrode and expunged
the disobedience of Adam, that is, the archetypal disobedience of the whole
human race. So by accepting defeat, pain and humiliation he obtained for
himself and for all victory, bliss and exaltation to glory.
John 18:1-19:42:
The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John.
Commentary: John’s
narrative of the Passion is different from that of the synoptic Gospels in
important respects. Some of these differences are matters of emphasis, others
spring from a set of different facts. After Caiaphas’s decision no Jewish trial
scene before the high priest, no meeting of a Sanhedrin to prepare a charge to
put before Pilate, was necessary. Instead John gives an interrogation before
Annas, the ex-high priest and father-in-law of Caiaphas. The trial before
Pilate may well be built on the same incident as that of the synoptics, but in
John it is highly elaborated for theological reasons.
The Johannine account is not the story of a condemned
criminal being dragged to the disgraceful and tortured death reserved for
slaves. Jesus is the majestic king, who proceeds royally to his triumph in
death. There is no painful prayer for release in Gethsemane. From the beginning
it is stressed that Jesus is fully aware of what is to happen. Before he can be
arrested his captors repeatedly fall to the ground in an involuntary gesture of
reverence at Jesus’s pronouncement of the divine name, “I am”. Jesus commands
them to let his followers go, and is taken only when he gives the word (18:11).
The humiliating elements of the other accounts, such as buffeting, spitting and
the challenge to prophesy, have disappeared. Jesus is emphatically declared
king in the three great world languages by the very man who condemns him to
death (19:20-22). John even notes that the proclamation was publicly
acknowledged by “many of the Jews”. not only is Jesus king; he continues his
role as revealer and judge as well. In the interview with Annas it is Jesus who
challenges and questions the high priest, reiterating his own teaching which he
has given for all the world to hear. Similarly at the trial before Pilate,
Jesus questions the governor and shows his control, until Pilate collapses with
the feeble evasion, “What is truth?” – a humiliating self-condemnation in
this gospel of truth. The judgement reaches its climax when the Jewish leaders,
in a formal and balanced scene, condemn themselves before Jesus: he is enthroned
on the judgement seat as judge and crowned – with thorns – as king,
still wearing the royal purple robe of his mockery, while they deny the very
existence of Judaism by declaring, “We have no king but Caesar” (19:15). If the
God of Israel is not universal king, then Israel has no point or purpose.
The final scene has special significance. Jesus carries his
own cross, unaided, and is enthroned on it – no agonising details of
nailing and hoisting – between two attendants. There is no final psalm
quotation of seeming despair (as in Mark and Matthew) or of resignation (as in
Luke), no wordless “great cry” as Jesus expires. In John Jesus prepares the
community of the future. In contrast to the other Gospels, Mary and the Beloved
Disciple stand at the foot of the cross and are entrusted to each other’s care
to constitute the first Christian community, the woman and the man, the mother
and the ideal disciple. This is cemented by the gift of the Spirit, as
Jesus – with typical Johannine ambiguity – “gave over his spirit”.
Does this mean “breathed his last” or “gave them the Holy Spirit”? Only then
does Jesus consent to die, with the words, “It is fulfilled”
Reflection: Who can bear to look upon the bloodied cross
where Jesus hung without shame or sorrowful grief, disbelief or reverent awe?
The cross brings us face to face with Jesus' suffering. He was alone - all his
disciples had deserted him except for his mother and three women along with
John, the beloved disciple. And his death was agonizing and humiliating.
Normally a crucified man could last for several days on a cross. Jesus' had
already been scourged, beaten with rods, and a crown of thorns pressed into his
skull. It is no wonder that he died mid-afternoon. Pilate publicly heralded
Jesus "The King of the Jews" as he died upon the cross, no doubt to
irritate and annoy the chief priests and Pharisees (John 19:19).
The King who ransoms us with
his own life: Jesus was crucified for his claim to be King. The Jews
had understood that the Messiah would come as their king to establish God's
reign for them. They wanted a king who would free them from tyranny and foreign
domination. Many had high hopes that Jesus would be the Messianic king. Little
did they understand what kind of kingship Jesus claimed to have. Jesus came to
conquer hearts and souls for an imperishable kingdom, rather than to conquer
perishable lands and entitlements.
Jesus' death on the cross
defeated sin and death for us: We can find no greater proof of God's
love for us than the willing sacrifice of his Son on the cross. Jesus' parting
words, "It is finished!" express triumph rather than defeat. Jesus
bowed his head and gave up his spirit knowing that the strife was now over and
the battle was won. Even on the cross Jesus knew the joy of victory. What the
Father sent him into the world to do has now been accomplished. Christ offered
himself without blemish to God and he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself
(see Hebrews 9:24-26).
As we gaze on his wounds - we
touch the scars of his resurrection: While the close company of
Jesus' disciples - his apostles - had deserted him and hid out of fear from the
Jewish authorities, Jesus' mother and some of the women who were close to Jesus
stood close to him while he hung upon the cross. Augustine of Hippo (354-430
A.D) in his sermon on John's passion account focuses on the gaze of the women
who witnessed the shedding of his blood and the offering of his life as the
atoning sacrifice for the sin of the world.
"As they were looking on, so we too gaze on his wounds
as he hangs. We see his blood as he dies. We see the price offered by the
redeemer, touch the scars of his resurrection. He bows his head, as if to kiss
you. His heart is made bare open, as it were, in love to you. His arms are
extended that he may embrace you. His whole body is displayed for your
redemption. Ponder how great these things are. Let all this be rightly weighed
in your mind: as he was once fixed to the cross in every part of his body for you,
so he may now be fixed in every part of your soul." (GMI 248)
Augustine invites us to present ourselves before Jesus
crucified who took our sins upon himself and nailed them to the cross. Through
the eyes of faith we, too, gaze upon the bloodied body of our Redeemer who paid
the price for our sins - and we touch the scars of his resurrection who
defeated death for our sake so that we may know the victory of his cross and
resurrection and receive the promise of everlasting life and glory with him in
his kingdom.
The miracle of my salvation: In
the cross of Christ, we see the triumph of Jesus over his enemies - sin, Satan,
and death. Many Christians down through the centuries have sung the praises of
the Cross of Christ. Paul the Apostle exclaimed, "But far be it from me to
glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6:14).
Hear what Gregory Nazianzen
(329-389 AD), an early church
father and bishop of Constantinople, wrote about the triumph of Christ's
exaltation on the cross:
"Many indeed are the wondrous happenings of that time:
God hanging from a cross, the sun made dark and again flaming out (Luke 23:44,
Mark 15:33); for it was fitting that creation should mourn with its creator.
The temple veil rent (Matthew 27:51), blood and water flowing from his side
(John 19:34): the one as from a man, the other as from what was above man; the
earth shaken, the rocks shattered because of the rock (Matthew 27:51); the dead
risen to bear witness to the final and universal resurrection of the dead
(Matthew 27:52). The happenings at the sepulcher and after the sepulcher, who
can fittingly recount them? Yet no one of them can be compared to the miracle
of my salvation. A few drops of blood renew the whole world, and do for all men
what the rennet does for the milk: joining us and binding us together. (On the
Holy Pasch, Oration 45.1)
Rupert of Deutz (1075-1129),
a Benedictine abbot and theologian, wrote:
"The cross of Christ is the door to heaven, the key to
paradise, the downfall of the devil, the uplifting of mankind, the consolation
of our imprisonment, the prize for our freedom."
The throne of love and sign of God's mercy
The Cross of Christ is the safeguard of our faith, the
assurance of our hope, and the throne of love. It is also the sign of God's
mercy and the proof of forgiveness. By his cross Jesus Christ has pardoned us
and set us free from the tyranny of sin. He paid the price for us when he made
atonement for our sins. The way to peace, joy, and righteousness in the kingdom
of God and the way to victory over sin and corruption, fear and defeat, despair
and death is through the cross of Jesus Christ. Do you follow the Lord Jesus in
his way of the cross with joy, hope, and confidence?
Lord Jesus Christ, by your death on the cross you have won
pardon for us and freedom from the tyranny of sin and death. May I live in the
joy and freedom of your victory over sin and death.
Daily Quote from the Early
Church Fathers: Christ nailed our
weakness to the cross, by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"As evening drew near, the Lord yielded up His soul
upon the cross in the certainty of receiving it back again. It was not wrested
from Him against His will. But we too were represented there. Christ had
nothing to hang upon the cross except the body He had received from us. And in
doing so He nailed our human weakness to the cross." (excerpt from
Commentary on Psalm 140,5)
“Behold, the man!” (jn 19:5)
“There was in Him no stately bearing to make us look at
Him.” —Isaiah 53:2
“When I behold the wondrous cross on which the Prince of
glory died, my richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my
pride.”
When I behold the One Whom I have pierced, I myself shall be
pierced through, convicted of my sins, and lament bitterly (Jn 19:37; Zec
12:10; Rv 1:7).
When I behold His appearance marred “beyond that of mortals”
(Is 52:14), I will be startled, “stand speechless,” and repent (Is 52:15).
When I behold Jesus, the Son of Man, lifted up, I will come
to realize that He is the I AM, God (Jn 8:28). I will believe in Him and have
eternal life (Jn 3:14-15).
When I behold Jesus on the cross, on this Good Friday, at
the Veneration of the Cross, I will...
Prayer: Jesus, my
Lord, my God, my All! “So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to
receive mercy and favor and to find help in time of need.”—Heb 4:16
The personal action for
today: How does my reflecting on
the death of Jesus make me feel? Do I have any new insights into the importance
of Jesus’ death? How can I make the reality of the salvific relationship that I
have with the Lord Jesus more alive in my relationships with others?
Good Friday invites us to stand at the foot of the Cross and
contemplate the depth of God’s love revealed in the suffering of Christ. On
this day, we remember that Jesus freely embraced the Cross, fulfilling the
prophecy: “He was pierced for our transgressions” (Isa 53:5). The Cross is not
a sign of defeat but the supreme victory of love over sin and death. As we gaze
upon the crucified Lord, we recognize the cost of our redemption and the
seriousness of sin.
Yet even in His agony, Jesus speaks words of mercy: “Father,
forgive them” (Lk 23:34), revealing a love that knows no limits. Good Friday
teaches us that suffering, when united with Christ, becomes redemptive and
life-giving. It calls us to carry our own crosses with faith, trusting in God’s
plan even in darkness. The silence of this day invites deep reflection,
repentance, and gratitude for the sacrifice of Christ. In the pierced side of
Jesus, we find the source of grace, mercy, and new life for all humanity. May
we respond with love, surrender, and hope, knowing that the Cross leads to the
glory of the Resurrection.