Completed

...he poured himself out to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

[Isaiah 53:12]

Several days ago in Morning Prayer we read the text from John 10 where Jesus announced in advance:

And I lay my life down for the sheep...

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again.

I have received this command from my Father.

[John 10:15-18]

We see the horrible outer part of the work, the blood, anguish, and death,

we knew that somehow what is being worked out here is something grand and glorious for us, despite us.

We cannot make ourselves right with God, no matter what we try to do.

No matter how busy we are, even with very good and useful things;

no matter how sincere our piety;

or no matter how many ways in which our attempts at goodness have failed --

we can only gather with the weeping women at the foot of the cross,

and sit there in silence and watch what Jesus does.

It is finished, completed, accomplished, ...for us, and perhaps in spite of us.

The Gospels are but a summary of Jesus life and work; they are not a diary of everything that happened, as it happened.

Because of that, when we read the Gospels, we hear Jesus constantly on the move, it seems, teaching here, healing there, reaching the unloved and the unloveable.

This on-the-move nature of the Gospel was even more evident on Sunday evening when the catechetical parents were watching a video of some of the middle chapters of Luke.

It really made Jesus seem like one of those high-powered executives from a movie, making decisions as he walks and talks, multi-tasking to the extreme.

But now all that is over.

He says It is finished in victory.

He has fought the fight, he has faced down Satan not only in the wilderness, but also every other temptation including the temptation to escape the cross.

We remember the story from Genesis where Isaac the only son of his father Abraham is replaced by the ram caught in the thicket.

But here the only Son of the Father is himself the Lamb of God, atoning for the sins of the whole world.

All the great minds have pondered the meaning of all of this, and we are not going to figure it all out.

It is a deeper mystery than we can grasp.

We are bid to sit still today.

There is no meeting to attend.

There is no way for us to be busy about proving our worth to God.

As we listen to the story once more this day, located in the Gospel of John, our quiet words can only be “Thank you, Lord, for all that you do on our behalf,”

because the hard work, the great work, the final work needed, is completed, and will be vindicated by the Father in the resurrection to come.

In wonder and humble amazement,

let all say...

Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.