EASTER OCTAVE, DAY TWO: “Finished”
by Stephen Noll, Contending Anglican;
“Finished!”
I preached this meditation on Good Friday 1973 in my first parish.
We are told that just before Jesus died, he uttered a loud cry. The Gospels are not in total agreement as to what this last cry was, but John, who was the closest witness, reports Jesus’ final cry – it is a single word – “Finished!” (John 19:30).
“Finished.” In this simple word we have the key to the history of the world, we have the key to who Jesus is; we have the key to who we are and where we are headed. “Finished.” This word can mean so many different things, yet as I meditated upon it, St. Paul’s famous hymn to love came to mind: “Love never ends” (1 Corinthians 13:8). And I began to think that the cry of Jesus from the Cross is above all a cry of love.
In the beginning, we are told, God created the world by His Word and he gave to us men a life and an image which were uniquely His. Why did He ever make this beginning but that His abundant love overflowed, as it were, into a world of creation? And God has never ceased to exercise that creative love toward us – it is by His breath that we came into existence and that we live from day to day, and every perfect gift comes from the Father of lights. And it was God’s purpose that we should live in society of other human beings – parents, children, husbands, wives, friends, neighbors and strangers – reflecting toward them that same love which God has toward us.
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