It is Finished!

Matthew 27:32-66New American Standard Bible (NASB)

³² As they were coming out, they found a man of Cyrene named Simon, whom they pressed into service to bear His cross.

The Crucifixion

³³ And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull, ³⁴ they gave Him wine to drink mixed with gall; and after tasting it, He was unwilling to drink.

³⁵ And when they had crucified Him, they divided up His garments among themselves by casting lots. ³⁶ And sitting down, they began to keep watch over Him there. ³⁷ And above His head they put up the charge against Him which read, “THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.”

³⁸ At that time two robbers *were crucified with Him, one on the right and one on the left. ³⁹ And those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads ⁴⁰ and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” ⁴¹ In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking Him and saying, ⁴² “He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him. ⁴³ He trusts in God; let God rescue Him now, if He delights in Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” ⁴⁴ The robbers who had been crucified with Him were also insulting Him with the same words.

⁴⁵ Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. ⁴⁶ About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” ⁴⁷ And some of those who were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, “This man is calling for Elijah.” ⁴⁸ Immediately one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink. ⁴⁹ But the rest of them said, “Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him.” ⁵⁰ And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. ⁵¹ And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. ⁵² The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; ⁵³ and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many. ⁵⁴ Now the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

Today's text from the One Year Bible, New Testament reading is so rich in truths we can apply to our lives and covers such a foundational event that surely we can not do it justice in this brief format. There should be no end to the time we reflect on the sacrifice Jesus made in going to the cross for our sin.

The text today begins with Jesus having been severely beaten, then required to carry His cross to the place where He would be crucified. Because Jesus was already so physically beaten the text says,  they found a man of Cyrene named Simon, whom they pressed into service to bear His cross. Scripture doesn't say much about this but there is a lot we can apply to our own lives from this one line. It brings to mind what it says in Galatians 6:2-5

  ² Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. ³ For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. ⁴ But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. ⁵ For each one shall bear his own load.

We are to bear one anothers burdens. We do this in the natural physical realm as we come along side of others and help with things that are difficult. Serving others is one of the greatest expressions of Christ's love. We also bear one anothers burdens in the spiritual realm as we pray and intercede on their behalf. Intercession is no small thing , it is to intervene on behalf of another, to literally put yourself between the other person and their "burden". Look what the Galatians text says though, we are to bear one anothers burdens but verse 5, each one shall bear his own load. Burdens and loads then are two different things. Each individual is responsible and accountable to bear their load, what they have been given in and by life.     2 Corinthians 12:9 says:

 “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”

We can only come along side and help others, whether physically or spiritually we can not take the load from them. They must bear it, not alone but by God's grace.     If we try to take their load it will overcome us and prevent them from experiencing God's all sufficient grace.

So we return to our text and we see Simon bearing the burden of cross of Christ. But he could only bear it to the place of  Golgotha or Calvary. There, Jesus was the only one who could bear the load of the cross. The load of the cross was the weight of all the sin of man past, present and future. It was for that reason that Jesus had come and He alone could bear the load. We can see in this an application for us as we bear the burdens of others. Whether physically or spirituall in intercession, we can only bear those burdens to the place of Golgotha. We need to carry those burdens of others to the cross of Christ and there we lay them down before Him. He alone bore the load all the sin and all the consequences of sin in this world were already borne on the cross. It is finished there is no reason to carry the burden any farther.

I want to briefly comment on verse 34,  they gave Him wine to drink mixed with gall; and after tasting it, He was unwilling to drink. Gall was a poisoning agent that was often given to those being cricified to numb them. Jesus refused to drink the gall because He wanted to bear the full weight and pain that the sin of man had caused. His work could not be diminished. We need to never diminish the price He paid. 

As we look at verses 45-47  Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. ⁴⁶ About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”   we see a three hour period when darkness fell upon all the land.     Jesus, the light of the world, was being physically taken out of the world. What also happened was that as Jesus bore the load of the sin of all mankind on and in His body, He could no longer be one with the Father. Sin causes separation from God. Remember what God had said to Moses, "You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!"     God had to turn and look away from Jesus, the sin of man caused God to look away from His Son. When I think about it I can't help but wonder how much more than just darkness was the earth experiencing? I am surprised that with God looking away the earth didn't just fall off it's axis or spin out of orbit.

Finally today in verses 50-53, we see probably the most important aspect of this text for application to our lives.

 ⁵⁰ And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. ⁵¹ And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. ⁵² The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; ⁵³ and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.

In John's account of the crucifixtion we read the words Jesus cried out, "It is finished!"  It is finished. Everything that Jesus came to do is complete and finsihed on the cross. All the work of redemption is finished, sin is defeated. All the work of restoration, Jesus came to restore, both man's relationship with God and all of the consequences of sin on creation, to God's original design. It is finished. We see also in the text that the power resurrection was complete and finished. Tombs were opened and dead were raised. Resurrection power was released because of the finished work of the cross.

We see also in the text that the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The temple veil is what separated sinful man from the holy presence of God. Because of the finished work of the cross, there is no longer a veil of separation between Man and God. Because it is finished we can, in Christ walk in the very presence of God. We can see His face. Because the veil was torn and there is no longer a separation between man and God, there is no longer a separation between heaven and earth. We walk under an open heaven, with all access to the realities of heaven for our circumstances on earth. It is finished. All the work of redemption. All the work of restoration, all healing, all provision even resurrection is finished. It is available to us on earth as it is in heaven. We may not always see the realities of heaven here on earth. But, that doesn't change the fact that it is finished. We should continue to seek all that Jesus completed, asking the Father that His kingdom come and His will be done  on earth as it is in heaven.