5.5

It Is finished (John 19:30)

Among life’s many motivations, there is one that is constant and affects all the others. It is the drive to finish whatever we’re doing so that our goal is reached and the work is complete. In all we do, we make choices along the way that depend on the final outcome we want. Goals give direction and purpose to our actions from start to finish. The satisfaction of every goal brings with it the reward of completion. Our doing is driven at every point by the need to be done. Activity has a measure of restlessness in it that is not settled until it is finished. This restlessness helps to animate our doing until it is all done. Once the doer is done, he can enjoy the satisfaction of the desired goal and the relief that finishing provides

Goals are essential to making sense of our activities. No one expends energy without expecting an outcome or goal. No one works without a paycheck. No one starts to build a house without intending it to stand once its last nail is hammered in. If I cook a meal, I expect to eventually finish preparing it. Cooking would lose its meaning and purpose if there were no end to it and no outcome possible, if there was no edible food in the end. The days of our life are made up of activities that are valued in large part because of their anticipated end. The final purpose of all our efforts is summed up in their conclusion, when we can both enjoy their results and rest

If a central goal in all we do is at the end, then life’s meaning may be be in its end and Freud’s theory of the death instinct makes more sense than it first appears. Freud believed the human condition is motivated by two basic instincts. He called the one instinct to life, Eros and the other to death, Thanatos. Eros is the drive that seeks satisfaction and relief from tension in life. Thanatos is a drive to death, a return to an inanimate and inorganic state that Freud identified as the original human condition, before life begins. In a sense, death achieves the permanent satisfaction that life can only temporarily find. Eros continually seeks to satisfy needs and relief from frustrations but Thanatos offers a permanent rest from all need and a stillness untouched by frustration. In death, there is no need to satisfy goals or relieve tension. There is no need to work for what is already attained. Death accomplishes all life’s work, fulfilling all needs and resolving all frustrations because death does away with both. Death is life’s ultimate goal and completion

Freud’s theory of Thanatos was never as popular as Eros, but the death instinct answers a critical need that Eros can’t. The human drive to live is always seeking and never arriving at completions. There always remains incomplete goals and unresolved frustrations. Our human will to live will always be propelled by complete satisfactions and rest that life can never deliver. Freud’s genius is partly in his mastery of the obvious. He knew that goals give meaning and direction to life and that they are at the end. If death is the end of every life, then death must somehow be life’s natural direction and goal. Because death does away with every need and problem, it can be understood as the ultimate fulfillment of all goals and needs. Reducing life’s meaning to death is entirely morbid, but it offers a kind of obvious sense. Freud’s simple human sense is the exact opposite of God’s simpler sense. For God, life’s ultimate goal begins and ends in His life that is made complete in His rest. God’s Sabbath completes His work in life, not in death. The nature of God’s completing rest for us is revealed at the end of Jesus’ life on earth, when He finished the work God gave Him to do

In His torture and death, Jesus appeared passive and silent. He seemed to be led and not driven by any personal motivation. But beyond surface appearance were promises God was completing in His Son. Isaiah the prophet spoke of this hour seven centuries before it came, when God’s Servant would suffer “as a lamb led to slaughter” (53:7) by His accusers, not resisting them. Jesus died on the cross sooner than the two criminals who hung on either side of Him because He didn’t prop Himself up on His legs like they did, to breathe a little longer. The Roman soldier didn’t need to break His legs to speed up His dying because He was already dead. He fully received His death. As much as it seems that He passively bore His suffering, some of the last words He cried out before dying were, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). Was He only speaking of His suffering, that His suffering was finished? What followed His crucifixion shows how much Jesus finished in HIs sacrifice

Throughout His time on earth, Jesus spoke not only of His hour of death but also of His death’s goal. “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19), He said, speaking of His death and resurrection. Jesus endured His hour to reach life’s deepest bowels and touch all the living and dead in His sacrifice, to fulfill His hope. He called this hope God’s life that is born from above (John 3:3-15) and overcomes death. Jesus’ death was never meant to be the purpose of His life. The good of God’s good news is that Jesus did not stay dead in His tomb. His condemnation was not the final word. His hour of death was inextricably bound to the hour He would rise again beyond sin and death, finishing God’s work that makes our way to Himself

Many Jews in Jesus’ day hoped in a resurrection from death, but not all. Jesus explained to the Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection, “Moses. . .calls the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him” (Luke 20:37-8). Jesus quoted these familiar words from the Jewish Bible to reveal what was hidden to the religious leaders in His day, that our relationship with God is eternal because He is eternal. We live eternally because of God who always lives. Many saw Jesus after His death, but He was changed. He must have looked differently because they often didn’t recognize Him and He did different things in His resurrected body such as disappear and enter rooms that were locked up. But what remained the same were the scars from His crucifixion on His hands and feet. These scars would alone convince the doubting disciple, Thomas, that this living person before him was Jesus, risen from the dead (John 20:25-8). When He reigns in His kingdom, He will rule as One who was slain (Revelation 5:6), forever identified with His sacrifice

The teachings and ministry of Jesus on earth produced many good things. To this day all kinds of people who do and don’t believe in God or Jesus will quote Him and call Him a wise Teacher. But the substance of Jesus is not in His teachings or miracles. In them, we saw a life that did much good but not one that could make us good. HIs life on earth was ultimately at our mercy and He stood condemned. Only His death and life beyond death - His resurrection - could surpass our sphere of influence to finish a work we can never undo or defile. The death and resurrection of Jesus finished God’s work of redemption as completely as His work of creation was finished on the seventh day

The nature of God’s finished works is unique to Him. We reflect this quality of His in our elation that breaks forth when a race is well run or our satisfaction with a job well done. The Greek word for finished that Jesus cried out on the cross is teleo, which means to bring to an end, complete or fulfill. Teleo comes from the same word Jesus spoke when teaching His disciples to be perfect as their heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48). Perfect is teleios, which means having reached an end, complete, perfect. God’s completions are not defined by satisfaction and relief from work. God’s completions are living fulfillments of His enduring will, and they spark divine beginnings in Him