Easter means a lot of different things to people …
To believers in Jesus Christ, it means in a simple way: “It is finished.”
Those are words spoken by Jesus Himself as He hung on a Roman cross and was crucified, although He was innocent of the crimes brought against Him.
I was reminded of those words by a fellow designer and believer today, on Good Friday … it is a good reminder.
What did He finish?
The work He was sent here to do … to live a perfect, sinless life … to die for our sins … to be resurrected from the grave … and to redeem us (to buy us out of our slavery to sin by dying on a wooden beam).
He finished His work … for my sins. For yours.
He took my place on the cross.
He can take away, forgive, forget, remove … your debt of sin against God too.
… you know … recently I saw a trailer of a movie … in the movie, a young girl looks upon a statue of Jesus with His hands open wide and welcoming. A young man whispers in her ear: “Those arms were meant for you.”
The hands of the LIVING Savior are meant for you too, my friend.
Call out to Him … the resurrected King … the Crucified God … the Good Shepherd.
… He is welcoming, indeed.
Amen. We went to the Good Friday service last night, and it was a good time to reflect on Christ’s finished work on the cross. The word used in the gospels when Christ spoke “it is finished” on the cross is “tetelestai” which means “paid in full”. I’m so grateful my sin debt has been paid in full!
The gospels also present him as calling out to God: “Why have you forsaken me?”
Christianity traditionally teaches that Jesus was fully human and fully God. I feel that the human side is sometimes downplayed, especially in the events leading up to Easter. Even the term “Good Friday” seems a bit of a gloss-over to me. Not, of course, that it isn’t good in terms of what it anticipates. But with Wordsworth, I see faith as “looking through” death rather than around it.
(From his Intimations of Immortality ode – “in the faith that looks through death…”)
Praise God that Jesus came and paid our debt in full. He is the propitiation for our sins. May Jesus’ precious blood cover the lives of all who seek His face.