Scripture Reference: John 19:28-30
Of the seven utterances of Jesus on the cross this one, “It is finished” is, so far as we can tell, the next to the last. It came next after He said: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” (Matthew 27:46), and it came right before He said: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46).
One of my favorite dramas on television is the 11 episode production called Tetelestai.1 It tells of the events leading up to those final words of Jesus Christ on the cross. In this study we will explore what Jesus meant when he uttered that little sentence, this English sentence expressed in a single word in the original Greek, tetelestai.
I will attempt to bring some understanding of what Jesus might have meant by asking the question, to whom was He addressing Himself?
Was He speaking to the people who watched Him at the foot of the cross? That doesn’t appear to have been the case. Yes, He did speak one “word” to His mother and to John the beloved disciple, that she might be cared for till the day of her death.
Outside of that He didn’t really speak to the crowd below. Remember, there were the leaders of the people mocking Him: “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him” (Matthew 27:42). You are right, they said in effect: “It is finished. Your claim to be the Son of God has shown itself to be folly. All your preaching about the kingdom you had come to establish was, as all can now see, an idle and wicked boast. Never will you deceive the people again. You are utterly defeated.” But Jesus still did not utter an answer to them.
Yet, He did answer them. He answered them indirectly. When He said, “It is finished” He first of all, addressed Himself to His Father in heaven. Simply put, “Father, I have finished the task you gave Me to do.”
“I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:4-5).
In essence He stated, “I have established your kingdom among men.”
In the second place, when Jesus uttered the words, “It is finished” He was also addressing Satan. Satan had overheard Jesus’ high-priestly prayer. He heard the Savior say to the Father:
“While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” (John 17:12).
“It is finished, Satan. You are defeated. I refused to receive the kingdom at your hand. Throughout My ministry I set My face steadfastly toward Jerusalem, toward this little hill of Golgotha. Now it is finished; try as you may, you will not prevail. Soon you will go out into the world seeking to deceive the nations. Soon you will be trying to arouse the spirit of the anti-Christ in the church only to be cast out into outer darkness. It is finished, Satan. It is finished.” The powers of hell will not prevail against the kingdom of heaven because it is finished!
In the third place when Jesus uttered these words, “It is finished” He, as it were, also addressed those He had come to redeem. First, He addressed the eleven apostles. They, too, had overheard Him speaking to His Father in His high-priestly prayer:
“For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me” (John 17:8).
Now the disciples will understand that it was through suffering for them, through bearing the wrath of God for them, in their place, through being forsaken of the Father for them, in their place, that He came to save His people from their sin. Soon they will understand that the resurrection would follow the crucifixion and that Pentecost would follow the resurrection for them. Then they who had fled His presence in fear and shame when He was apprehended in the garden, would preach “in Jesus the resurrection from the dead” (Acts 4:2).
Tomorrow we’ll begin to explore each of these three points as they involve one another.
To Be Continued
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 
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