FOCUS: Finished

Friday’s Reading: Matthew 26:47 – 27:51, Mark 14:43 – 15:38, Luke 22:47 – 23:49, John 18:3 – 19:37

“It is finished.”

-Jesus

~

It is noon right now. I am finished.

At noon on Friday, after suffering through an excruciating night of betrayal, arrest, beating, flogging, and suffering, Jesus gave up His Spirit on the cross and mouthed His final words:

It is finished.

Never before have I identified so closely with those words. Again, it’s a tiny droplet of the ocean Jesus experienced, but I’ve spent the last 7 days doing a liquid fast, focusing on Christ and praying specifically for three key things. I’ve never done anything like this before, and it’s humbling to confess how tremendously difficult it was for me, considering that millions of my brothers and sisters in Christ around the world never have enough to eat. My one-week challenge was their normal life.

When I felt too weak and exhausted to care for my children, I kept thinking of the millions of Mamas around the world who never have enough energy to care for their children.

When I drove by restaurants and supermarkets and couldn’t buy anything in them, I thought of all the homeless and poor in our city who never have the money to zip into a restaurant and order something to eat.

When I craved sugar, flour, and all the other addictive foods I usually fill my tummy with, I thought of all those craving for substances far more addictive, and their battle to overcome the bondage of meth or alcohol.

Nothing has ever cut to my heart so quickly, heating me up to a boiling point so all the dross could rise to the surface (Ugh, there was so much dross!). Day after day God kept bringing new things to the surface. Things to change, confess. Encouragement. Insights. Ways to identify with the weak and those on the margins. There were days I felt on a high–soaring with Jesus and hearing His voice so clear. There were days I wanted to yell at everyone who was chewing and curse every straw on the planet. NO MORE STRAWS! But truly, it was so powerful. In Christianity Today this month, leading Christian pastors were asked,

“What classic discipline needs the most renewal among American Christians?”

You know the #1 answer?

Fasting. 

Baptist radical Clarence Jordan was quoted as saying, “Fasting is the opposite of slowing. It is speeding up toward the kingdom.”

That has been my experience. And I need it. When I start not caring about the poor. When I quit being captivated by Christ. When I’m daydreaming through sermons or skimming through Scripture or bored by the gospel. 

I need to speed up toward the Kingdom. 

And while all this is well and good, you know what else I was speeding toward?

Finishing.

You better believe I had my eyes fixed on Friday. 🙂

On Friday at noon, when Jesus said, “It is finished,” I knew I would be finished. Although it is the tiny droplet compared to His ocean, I had been given a task of interceding and at noon on Friday, when Jesus was finished I would be finished.

Oh I have never focused on the words “It is finished” so much in all my life! (On Monday I already had Friday’s lunch planned in my mind. And it didn’t involve a straw!)

But early this morning, as I read through the gospel accounts of Jesus on the cross, I had to wonder: “Why did Jesus say, ‘It is finished,’ when it really wasn’t yet. I mean, it wasn’t really finished until He rose from the dead. So why did He say it on the cross.”

His work was finished.

The power of the FATHER raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus work was simply to accomplish what the Father sent Him to do, and surrender Himself to death on the cross.

The Father took it from there.

So too, certainly the three key things I prayed for aren’t finished. My mom’s not cured of Parkinson’s. Julie’s not freed from addiction. I don’t yet have a publisher.

But my work is finished. God gave me an assignment and I finished.

The Father will take it from here. 

And so we are simply called to obey whatever God calls us to do. To finish the work He gives us to accomplish. Then rest in knowing we’ll hear His words, “Well done, good and faithful servant …”

The Father will take it from there. 

Oh Jesus, we worship you today.

Thank you for finishing Your work on the cross.

Thank you for surrendering to the point of death.

Thank you for bearing my sin, my foolishness, my selfishness.

Thank you for your unconditional love that bears me up and carries me.

All I can say today is,

“I love you so much. Thank you.”

{Thank you for reading.}