Today's Gospel

It is Finished

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant. Today's Good Friday. But like on every other day of the year, we're going to listen to the gospel and allow the Spirit to guide us. You're looking for your word, your phrase, or your idea. I'm going to point some out. But what's the one-word phrase idea that jumps out at you that the Spirit uses to grab your attention today? Reading today is from the Gospel of John 19:17-28. "So they took Jesus and He went out bearing His own cross to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha. There they crucified Him, and with Him, two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them." Pilate also wrote a title and put it on the cross. It read, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." Many of the Jews read this title for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. And it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek.

The chief priests and the Jews then said to Pilate, "Do not write the king of the Jews, but this man said I am the king of the Jews." And Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written." When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and made four parts, one for each soldier, also his tunic. But the tunic was without seam, woven from top to bottom. So they said to one another, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be." This was to fulfill the Scripture, "They parted by garments among them. And for my clothing, they cast lots."

So the soldiers did this. But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. And when Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Behold your mother." And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home. After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said to fulfill the Scripture, "I thirst." A bowl full of vinegar stood there, so they put a sponge full of vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth.

When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished." And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Wow. So many words, phrases, and ideas here today. We've heard, obviously, the reading many, many times. And I think the power of this concept of looking for a word or a phrase or an idea is that it keeps the readings ever new, and it keeps the readings-- allows the readings to keep speaking into our heart, into our lives, into what is happening in our lives. The first thing that strikes me today is that the Pharisees have learned nothing. I mean absolutely nothing. And they are arguing with Pilate over the words that are on Jesus' cross. Jesus has written Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, and they're like, "Well, it should be he said he was the king of the Jews." And we see this, right? We see this insanity all around us in lots of different arenas. In lots of different arenas all the time. We're like, we're so far away from the main thing, and we're arguing about something that is of no consequence, and we're ignoring what is of monumental consequence. And this is what we see in the Pharisees, even as Jesus is suffering and carrying his cross and being crucified, the coldness of these people's hearts is staggering.

And then two other things strike me. The first one is Jesus saying, "I thirst." We all do. True God, true man. If he wasn't true man, he wouldn't thirst. And so even at the end, he's embracing and proclaiming his humanity. He says, "I thirst." And today's a great day of reflection for us. What are you thirsty for? What are you thirsty for? And go a few layers down? Sometimes you ask people like, "If you don't have anything, what do you want?" They say, "Oh, I want to be happy." Okay, no, that's just a vague generalization. Let's go deeper into that. What are you really thirsty for?

What do you think you're thirsty for? What are you afraid to be thirsty for? Afraid to admit you're thirsty for. Let's really get to the heart of the matter today. And then the other phrase that jumps out at me is, "It is finished." And Jesus says, "It's done. I've given my whole self. I've loved completely. I've loved in self-donation absolutely and totally and completely. It is done. The phrase sort of struck me in a different way today, and that is, there's probably something in your life that you need to be finished with. There's probably something in your life that you need to be like, it is finished. We're done with that now. Take this opportunity today to find the courage to say, that's finished. We're moving on. Have a great day. It's a somber day, but have a great day. It's a powerful day. And it's an invitation, as always, not just to be an average, second-rate, mediocre version of ourselves, but to be all God created us to be. The very best version of ourselves.