"It is finished"

        Saturday of Holy Week.  Sorrow.  Defeat.  Despair.  Stillness. Quiet resignation.  
        Jesus' last words on Good Friday keep coming back to me on this day after the very worst--and yet best--day in the history of mankind:  "It is finished."
       That terrible afternoon on Good Friday, Jesus knew He had now fully completed the work His Father gave Him to do--the awful, bloody, beautiful work of our redemption.  The end had come.  And so the One born 33 years earlier in a lowly wooden manger prepared to finish and complete His mission on a rough wooden cross.
       "After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), 'I thirst.' A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.  When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished,” and He bowed his head and gave up his spirit." (John 19:28-30)
       Jesus had lived a perfect, sinless life--it is finished.  He had loved His own all the way to the very uttermost--it is finished.  Nothing more needed to be said or done to accomplish our redemption--it is finished.  Our sins had been completely paid for--it is finished.   It was, no doubt, a hoarse shout of victory, of mission accomplished.
       But for those looking on, for those who loved and followed Jesus, this was a horrific statement of fact.  Their beloved Lord was dead and gone--it is finished.  Evil had triumphed and good had been defeated--it is finished.  All their hopes and dreams utterly destroyed--it is finished.   All the joy, peace, wonder, glory, and light of their lives had been distinguished forever--it is finished.
      And so on this quiet Saturday while Jesus' body lay in that tomb, can you imagine their despair?  Their bewilderment.  Their numbing sorrow and utter hopelessness.  How could God let this happen?  What kind of Lord would allow this to happen?  How could they have been so mistaken?
      What a day this dark, despairing Saturday must have been for those disciples and followers of Jesus.  It. Is. Finished.
       And yet...
      And yet, contained within those same three words would be their--and our--greatest hope, wonder, and joy.  For salvation's work was finished and our redemption was secured.  Forever. They just couldn't see it...not yet.  But Easter's Sunday was coming.  Just a little while longer.
      I don't know what you might be enduring right now, but perhaps you're feeling stuck in a Saturday of dark discouragement or despair.  Maybe you're wondering what God's up to...or where He is...or if He'll come through.
      But Good Friday and this dark Saturday remind us--things are not what they seem.  Don't confuse your feelings with reality.  Even when nothing is happening...something is happening.  And God is hovering beneath the surface, always working and moving in a million different ways that we cannot see and do not know.   And Saturday's darkness will give way to Easter Sunday's unimaginable delight.  
      Death will be defeated...because it is finished.  Despair destroyed...because it is finished.  Sin and sorrow crushed...because it is finished.  And hope and joy and love reignited...because it is finished.
       So on the dark Saturdays of your life, remember...because Jesus said "It is finished," you'll never be.  Easter's coming.  Easter's coming.  Easter's coming.
       To God be the glory.