High school graduation day is fast-approaching. I graduated from high school twenty-three years ago. But I still remember my graduation ceremony. There were six of us who went from kindergarten through twelfth grade together. On graduation night our parents lined up the six of us and took our photo. I remember marching into our school gym with the other twenty-five seniors. I remember listening to Melissa Smith give the Valedictorian speech and silently “booing” her because her GPA had beaten mine by one-tenth of a grade point. I remember walking across the stage and shaking the hand of Mr. Lane, our superintendent. And, I remember all twenty-six of us throwing our graduation caps into the air. Do you remember your graduate day? Let’s do a little poll: how many of you graduated from high school between 1 and 10 years ago—raise your hand? Between 11 and 20 years? Between 21 and 30 years? Between 31 and 40 years? Between 41 and 50 years? Now, raise your hand if you’ll be graduating from high school in a few short months. No matter how good or bad your high school experience was or is, graduation is an exciting day. And there is an ancient Greek word which, if we spoke Greek in Memphis, we might use on graduation day. The word is “tetelestai.” The word means “It is finished” or simply “finished.” Say the word out loud: tetelestai. It’s the word you might shout when you take your graduation cap off and toss it into the air: Tetelestai! It is finished!
It might also be a word used by the nearly twenty mothers who were represented at our Baby Blessing last Sunday. Raise your hand if you were one of those twenty mothers at the Baby Blessing. For some it was their first baby. For others it was their second or third baby. But for every one of them, the delivery and birth of that baby was the end of months of waiting. No matter how good or bad pregnancy goes, every mother anticipates the birth of her child. And after those long weeks of waiting, I could imagine all twenty mothers, on the day of their baby’s delivery, saying Tetelestai. It is finished! The waiting is finished.
It’s a word we might particularly shout at the end of a very painful time in life. A few weeks ago hundreds of us from Highland attended the Hope Works breakfast. Sally Shank was one of the speakers. Awhile back she was diagnosed with cancer. She’s been in chemotherapy for months. But as she took the stage that morning, she turned and said that she had just completed her last chemo treatment. She said, “I’m finished.” And we all clapped. Had she spoken Greek that morning, she might have said, Tetelestai. It is finshed. The burden of that cancer treatment was finally finished.
I could imagine the slaves who passed through Slave Haven uttering this word. Slave Haven, or the Burkle Estate, is a small house near downtown Memphis. It was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Slaves would find rest there as they travelled north to freedom. And you can imagine, after their long journey, after years of enslavement and oppression, when they finally got to their destination, when they finally found freedom, those slaves shoutin Tetelestai! It is finished. The burden of slavery is finally finished.
It is certainly a word which could have been used by the Hebrew slaves in Ex. 12. For hundreds of years Egyptians have forced the Hebrews to labor. Ex. 1:13-14 says the Egyptians worked the Hebrews “ruthlessly” and that the Egyptians made the lives of the Hebrews “bitter with harsh labor.” We are told in Ex. 2:23 that “The Israelites groaned in their slavery…” They endured hundreds of years of agony. But then God sent Moses. Through Moses God turned the water to blood, made frogs appear, sent swarms of gnats, then flies, caused a plague to fall on the Egyptian livestock, made festering boils appear on the Egyptians and their animals, rained down hail, brought in ravenous locusts, and caused darkness to fall. With each plague the enslavement of the Hebrews came closer to ending. But finally God brings the last plague—the death of the firstborn. And in Ex. 12 God commands the Hebrew slaves to take a lamb, slaughter it, dip a hyssop plant into the blood, then paint the blood on the doorframe of their house. Then they were to eat the lamb along with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast. This would become an annual rite, a yearly celebration called Passover—when God passed over the houses of the Hebrew slaves. After that first Passover meal, Pharaoh summoned Moses and tells him to take his people and go. The enslavement was over. And I can imagine those Hebrew slaves, having slaughtered the Passover lamb and painted its blood on their doorposts, and having been told by Pharaoh to go, now shouting Tetelestai. It is finished! The burden of slavery is now over. And I can imagine each year when they celebrated the Passover, and slaughtered that lamb, the families saying together, Tetelestai. It is finished. The burden is no more.
In John’s account of Good Friday, the day of Jesus’ death, this Greek word tetelestai is the last word on Jesus’ lips on the cross. In our series called “Passion” we’ve been walking with Jesus through the Passion Week, the week in the Gospels that runs from Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday. We’ve welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem as the long-awaited king (Monday), watched him fight in the temple for a sacred place of prayer and a special place of belonging (Tuesday), witnessed him anointed extravagantly by a devoted woman (Wednesday), and listened to him call us to be a foot-washing community of sinners and servants (Thursday). Today, Friday, Jesus is on the cross. Here is how John describes the scene: 28 Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (Jn. 19:28-30 TNIV). Three times John uses a version of the word “tetelestai”: twice in vs. 28 and once in vs. 30. John literally writes that Jesus knew everything was “finished”; and so that Scripture would be “finished”; and then Jesus said, “finished.” John wants there to be no mistake. Jesus’ death on the cross was the finish of something very important.
But what did Jesus’ death finish? An important clue is found in the details of John’s account. As in other gospel accounts, John tells us that someone takes a sponge, soaks it with wine, and lifts it up for Jesus to drink. This is actually the second time a drink has been offered the Jesus. The Gospels tell us that at the beginning of the crucifixion wine was offered and Jesus refused it. That first offering was the kind of strong wine what would have been used as a sedative to dull the pain of the cross.[1] Jesus refuses that drink. But the word used here for the second offering refers to a cheaper wine used for quenching thirst. So, a thirst-quenching drink is lifted up to Jesus. And John is the only writer to say that this drink was lifted to Jesus on a hyssop plant: A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. (Jn. 19:29). None of the other gospel accounts give us the detail about the hyssop plant. Why is John so interested in that detail? What does it mean?
There is no doubt that the most famous biblical reference to hyssop is in Ex. 12 which commands that the hyssop plant be used to spread the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorposts of the Israelite homes. John wants us to think of that Passover lamb when we witness the death of Jesus. The same hyssop that was used to spread the Passover lamb’s blood is now used to lift up a drink to Jesus. Earlier in John’s gospel, Jesus is similarly connected to the Passover Lamb: 29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (Jn. 1:29). John wants us to think of Jesus as the Passover Lamb. He includes the detail about the hyssop plant because he wants us to think of the lamb’s blood sprinkled on those doorposts. That blood was part of the final night through which God brought an end to the slavery and oppression of the Hebrews. Similarly Jesus’ blood now was bringing an end to the slavery and oppression of sin. When John the Baptist says “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! he is saying that Jesus’ blood will deliver us from the power and domination of sin. Like the Passover lamb, this lamb named Jesus will be the way in which God brings an end to the oppression caused by sin. And that’s why Jesus shouts “Tetelestai!” Our enslavement, our captivity to sin and its power is now finished. Our Passover has come. Our deliverance has come. So Jesus shouts, “Tetelestai!” It is finished!
One of the symbols of the captivity and oppression of the Hebrew slaves was bricks. We are told that the Egyptians made their lives bitter with harsh labor in bricks and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields (Ex. 1:14 TNIV). When Pharaoh wanted to deepen his oppression of the slaves, we are told that he commanded the slave drivers to no longer supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. (Ex. 5:7-8 TNIV). One of the symbols of the burden of the Hebrew slaves was bricks. But once that Passover lamb was sacrificed, there were no more bricks. The burden of the bricks was finished.
There is a sense in which we all carry bricks.[2] Last October Highland conducted a congregational survey with the help of Agape and Baylor University. Part of that survey asked you to identity stressors in your life. We could picture stressors as bricks—the things that weigh us down; the things that burden us. Some of the stressors that you listed have nothing to do with the power of sin. But some of the stressors you listed are directly related to the power of sin. It those sin-stressors which I want to talk about.
This pile of bricks [VISUAL] represents some of those sinful stressors and burdens which you listed. I’ve written down on each brick one of those sin-stressors. I’ll read them out loud and place them in this wheelbarrow. As I do, consider, Which bricks are yours? Which burdens have you carried—in the past or even right now?
According to our congregational survey, some of us at Highland carry the burden of the brick of parent/child conflict. Sin is creating division between us and our parents or us and our children. We’ve been unkind to our kids. We’ve neglected our parents. Are you carrying this brick?
Some of us carry the burden of the brick of alcohol or drug abuse. We’ve allowed those substances to rule our lives. Is this your brick?
Some of us carry the burden of the brick of marriage conflict. We are insensitive to our spouse. We are harsh with our spouse. We bicker all the time. Is this brick yours?
Some of us carry the burden of the brick of sexual addiction or pornography. We can’t seem to put it down. We’re always logging on. Is this brick yours?
Some of us carry the burden of the brick of a sexual affair. We’ve been unfaithful to our spouse—physically or emotionally.
Some of us carry the burden of the brick of an unplanned pregnancy. Are you carrying this brick?
What’s on your brick? We’ve all got them. They weigh us down. Like the bricks of the Hebrew slaves, these bricks represent the burden and power of sin in our lives.
But here’s the good news about those bricks: at the cross, they are finished. When Jesus said “It is finished” what was “it”? “It” was this brick, and this one, and this one, and this one. Just as the sacrifice of that Passover lamb meant the end of those bricks of oppression in Egypt, so the sacrifice of Jesus our Passover lamb means the end of these bricks of sin and their power in our lives. Whatever is on your brick, the burden of carrying it is over. It is over. Conflict—finished. Drugs—finished. Pornography—finished. Tetelestai. It is finished. We are to take these bricks and dump them at the foot of the cross, to carry them no longer. We are to be finished with them.
Last Wednesday was the anniversary of my baptism. I grew up in an unchurched home and it wasn’t until high school that I had any real exposure to Christianity. A friend reached out to me, befriended me, shared the story of Jesus with me, and in 1984 I was baptized. And I still remember that clean feeling I had when Marlon McWilliams pulled me up from under the water. Just weeks earlier I had committed sexual immorality. And I hated myself for it. It was a tremendous burden. It had been a consuming weight in the weeks leading up to my baptism. But I remember in that small country church coming up out of the water and feeling so clean. Feeling as if a weight had been lifted. I had dropped those bricks at the feet of Jesus, and my burden was finished. Had I known the word back then, I would have said Tetelestai. It is finished.
Good Friday is about two things. First, it’s about bringing those bricks to the cross and leaving them there. It’s about finding freedom from the power of sin. It’s about being liberated from enslavement to sin. Some of you need to do that for the very first time. You’ve never been baptized. As a result, you’re still carrying around those bricks. You’re still living under the power of sin. It’s time to bring those bricks to Jesus. It’s time to be liberated. It’s time to be baptized. In addition, some of you need to do this again. You’ve been baptized but you either still carry around the guilt of past sins long-gone, or you’ve fallen back into sin. Either way, you’ve picked up some bricks again. It’s time to put them down. It’s time to leave them at the cross. It’s time to repent. Good Friday is about bringing those bricks for the first time or the fifth time and leaving them at the cross.
Second, Good Friday is about celebrating the bricks we’ve left behind long ago and the freedom we now enjoy. Some of you have no bricks this morning. You’ve left them with Jesus and there they have remained. Good Friday is about celebrating that. It’s about gathering around the table and eating the body of the lamb and drinking the blood of the lamb and saying victoriously, “It is finished! Praise God, it is finished!”
[1] D. A. Carson The Gospel According to John (IVP 1991), 620.
[2] Inspired by Kevin Miller, executive vice president, Christianity Today International @ preachingtoday.com.
