Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 166 · June 15
It Is Finished
“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”
Nothing at Golgotha looked finished. The soldiers still had work to do, the crowd still had somewhere to be, and the two men crucified beside Jesus were still alive. So when we hand this verse to someone whose life is plainly still in the middle of its trouble, it can sound like a claim that their own situation flatly denies.
John is careful to say what was finished. Two verses earlier he writes, "Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished," and the word he uses there is the very same Greek word as "It is finished." The night before, Jesus had already told His Father what the finished thing was: "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." It was the work He came to do. Hebrews then shows what He did next, and where He sat says it all: "after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God." A priest who sits down is a priest whose work is done.
Lord Jesus, You said it with vinegar on Your lips and no strength left, and You meant something exact. You did not say the world was mended; You said the work was done. Yet we keep trying to finish it for You. We add a little of our own to the account so that we can feel the books are honest, and every addition takes away from the last thing You said. Take our additions away. We were not there, and we could not have helped. You "bowed his head, and gave up the ghost," and nothing was left owing.
So before you go on with your day, be quiet for a minute or two in front of His words. You do not need to add a sentence after His. What He finished, He finished for you, and it stays finished.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 166 is The Secret of the Lord (Psalm 25:14).