1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word as we continue our Lenten Midweek series on St John’s Passion is taken from John 19:28-42, it’s entitled, “Jesus Finishes the Battle for Your Salvation,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Behold his hands and his side, and do not doubt, but believe. Behold his last breath. We come, tonight, to the end. Jesus announces it: “It is finished” (John 19:30). But what is he talking about? What is finished? His life? Certainly. But there’s more. His suffering? Yes. But there’s more. His work? Yes, this is what Jesus is talking about. This cry, “It is finished,” is a cry of triumph, a shout of victory. The battle to save sinners is finished on the cross.
3. But to understand what is finished, we must go back to where it all began. Which takes us to the Garden of Eden. On the sixth day, God created Adam and Eve, in his own image and likeness. It was very good. And God planted a garden for this first family and gave them every kind of fruit tree for food. There was only one exception, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That tree was not for eating but for believing. God attached a dangerous promise to that tree: “On the day that you eat of it, surely you will die” (see Gen 2:17). But Adam and Eve did not believe that promise. The devil tempted them to doubt God’s word and then disobey that word. They took the fruit, they ate, and with that faithless and rebellious meal they started a war between creation and the Creator. There was enmity between God and man. Sin, corruption, death, the devil—these now ruled over Adam and Eve.
4. But the Lord wouldn’t have it. Even though they justly deserved his temporal and eternal punishment, the Lord does something astonishing. He comes down from heaven, comes into the garden looking for Adam and Eve, finds them wrapped in fig leaves and hiding in the bushes, and the Lord promises deliverance.
5. “I will put enmity,” the Lord says to the devil, “between your seed and her Seed. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.” This promise (see Genesis 3:15) is the first promise of the Gospel. The Lord, standing in the Garden of Eden, looks at the enmity between himself and Adam and Eve, and says, “No. I will not be at war with humanity. I’m putting the enmity between humanity and the devil. And I myself will take up the battle. I will fight for Adam and Eve and all their children. I will become a Man, the Seed of the woman. The devil will crush my heel, but I will crush his head.”
6. It turns out that it is not just Adam and Eve who will die because they ate the fruit. “Because you have eaten the fruit, I also,” says the Lord, “will die. And my dying will be your rescue and salvation.” Jesus’ “It is finished” recalls all this. Back when the Lord declared war against sin, against death, against the devil. Back when the Lord planned the devil’s overthrow and his grand rescue of Adam and Eve and their children. It started in the garden and continued through Noah and Babel. The promise came to Abraham and Isaac, to Jacob and Judah. The Lord was working this promise though Moses and David and preaching this deliverance through the prophets, through the generations who were waiting and praying and watching, until at last, in Bethlehem, the Savior is born.
7. Jesus, the Son of God, becomes flesh, the Seed of the woman, to destroy the works of the devil. He preaches, he works, he prays, he performs signs and wonders, he declares that the kingdom is come. He lived the perfect life. He is betrayed, arrested, beaten, mocked, accused, convicted, stripped, pierced, lifted up. All the sins of all the world, from Adam and Eve to you and me, are all placed on him. He is stricken and smitten, afflicted and forsaken, cursed and crushed in our place. The curse that Adam and Eve and you and I invited and deserved is taken by Jesus so that we might be blessed. But now, “It is finished.” His suffering is our salvation. “It is finished.” His sorrow is our joy. “It is finished.” His death is our life. And our peace. And hope. And confidence as our last hour draws near.
8. Johann Sebastian Bach, in his marvelous St. John Passion, meditates on the dying of Jesus, and especially the moment when Jesus’ head drops in death. Bach sees this as a silent nod. Imagine it! We sinners are watching the King of glory breathe his last, wondering if this is our salvation, and Jesus, bowing his head, nods his head to you: “Yes!” My beloved Saviour, let me ask you, Since you have now been nailed to the cross And you yourself have said: “It is accomplished,” Have I been set free from death? Through your pain and death can I inherit the kingdom of heaven? Is this the redemption of the whole world? You can indeed not speak for anguish; But you bow your head And silently say: “Yes!” Your deliverance? Your forgiveness? You salvation? “It is finished.” God be praised! Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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