It is finished.

John writes in Greek and Jesus utters one word: τετελεσται. It can sometimes sound ‘as if it were a sigh of resignation, the last whisper of a man who has given up on life’ (Sadgrove, The Eight Last Words, 102).  And yet, such a perception does not begin to do justice to the careful way in which John’s gospel has been crafted by the evangelist. This gospel begins with the words ‘In the beginning…’ – there is a direct echo of the Book of Genesis and the story of creation. As John’s gospel unfolds, he describes a series of events which take place ‘on the next day’ and ‘on the next day’ and ‘on the next day’ – again an echo of the days of creation. The Word made flesh is the Word of Life, the one who brings the whole of creation into being. 

 

This is the work which Jesus comes to accomplish and so in this final moment, the darkest moment when everything appears to be lost, everything has turned to dust, he says ‘It is finished!’ ‘It is accomplished!’ Of course, we know that according to Genesis, God rested on the seventh day, the Sabbath. And yet, this rhythm of rest and recreation seems so counter-intuitive, particularly to those of us who find ourselves seduced by the myth that the world is in a rush. There is no time to rest. We no longer work to live. We live to work. Surely we can work out our own salvation through sheer hard graft? 

 

As we live through the Sacred Triduum, Good Friday turns to Holy Saturday. The sixth day turns to the seventh day. We await the eighth day, the day of new life, the day of resurrection. Ambrose, who was Bishop of Milan in the fourth century, picks up on the resonances between Genesis and John, between creation and recreation. ‘The sixth day’, Ambrose writes ‘is now completed: the sum of the work of the world has been concluded….Surely it is time now for us to make our contribution of silence, for now God rests from his work of making the world. He has found rest in the deep places of humanity, in humanity’s mind and will and purpose, for he made humanity with the power of reason, he made humanity to imitate himself, to strive after virtue, to be eager for the grace of heaven. God finds comfort here, as he himself witnesses when he says, ‘In whom shall I find rest other than in him who is humble and peaceful and who is filled with awe at my words?’ I give thanks to the Lord our God who has made a work of such a kind that he could find rest in it. He made the heavens, but I do not read that he then rested. He made the earth, but I do not read that he then rested. He made the sun and the moon and the stars, but I do not read that he found rest there. What I do read is this: he made humanity, and then he found rest in one whose sins he would be able to forgive’ (Fathers of the Church, Vol. 42, 282). And following that day of rest in the depths of God's mercy, we turn to the first day of the week.... and the promise of the resurrection.