Original Entry:
March 14, 2012
McMinnville, OR
When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is
finished.” With that, he bowed his head
and gave up his spirit. John 19:30
My hope from our
study on finishing is you have realized finishing is more than being done,
over, or having met a deadline. To
finish strong is to finish with integrity and determination. Our tendency is to finish weak just to say we
are done. We cheat on our last
repetition at the gym. We leave work ten minutes early. We fall asleep at night before ministering to
our family.
We need to look to
Jesus as our example. Look at Jesus on
the cross. He is beaten, bleeding and
broken. Crucifixion was death by
asphyxiation. Jesus struggles during his third hour on the cross to catch his
last breath. He pushes down on the nail in his feet driving his body up the
splintered beam high enough to raise his body for one last victory gasp of air.
Finally at the top he says, “It is finished.”
The New International
Version ends there. What a bummer. The
New American Standard translation, however, adds something vitally important to
our study-an exclamation point.
Jesus did not simply
say he had finished he shouted it. He
screamed it. It was a victory shout. It was a war cry, “It is finished!”
Like Mel Gibson’s
character William Wallace in Braveheart screaming, “Freedom!” Jesus wants eternity to know he has indeed
finished the task his Father has given him to do (John 5:36).
He finished strong.
He finished like a man.
