by Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch
Maundy Thursday, 2014
John 19: 21-30
There is a plan.
The whole Gospel of John operates around it.
The Plan has existed from the beginning. The Plan shapes the direction of history. The Plan shaped and guided the life of Jesus.
According to John, Jesus was aware of The Plan from the beginning. And when John says beginning, he means, BEGINNING. He presents Jesus as the pre-existent Word of God, who was there at Creation itself: “In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God… And the Word took on flesh, and dwelt among us…” (john 1:1, 14). It is because of The Plan that Jesus came to the earth and performed His ministry. Jesus was always aware of this plan, but others didn’t understand it. That’s why He tells others, “I know where I have come from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going” (8:14). This plan from the beginning of time shaped Jesus’ day-to-day choices, and he knew the consequences of every one of them. When the disciples say that they wish to follow Him, Jesus turns it around on them, as if it was His decision, not theirs: “Did I not choose you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil” (6:70). Jesus even knew, when He chose Judas, that Judas would betray Him!
Because the bad things were also part of The Plan. According to John, Jesus knew that he was to be betrayed, he was to be killed, and he was to die, all before it happened. Now, all the Gospels acknowledge that Jesus had this kind of foreknowledge beforehand, but they don’t present it the same way. The other gospels present Jesus as aware, but anxious. For instance, we all know the story of Jesus praying in Gethsemane, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; but not what I want, but what you want.”
But in John, He says something quite different. “Now my soul is troubled. And what shall I say—Father, save me from this hour? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify thy name.” It’s not so much that they are different, as it is that tone has changed. Jesus in John isn’t hesitant, doubtful, or afraid. He’s marching straight to the cross, and beyond it to the resurrection, with absolute confidence that everything will work out just fine. This is because, says Jesus, “Now is the judgment of the world. Now the ruler of the world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12: 31-2).
The cross of Jesus will be His coronation as King of the World. In fact, according to Jesus it will be JUDGMENT DAY—but not of you and me, or of the nations. It will be the judgment and expulsion of “the ruler of the world”—of Satan. The Old Age will have ended and a New Age will begin, with Jesus as Lord and Savior.
The cross will not be a condemnation of humanity but an invitation to them, drawing them to Jesus and thus into the New Age of the Reign of God. As Jesus tells Nicodemus, “The Son of Man came into the World, not to condemn the world, but that through Him the World might be saved”(John 3:17). The cross is not a condemnation, but an invitation to participate in the salvation of the world through Jesus Christ.
According to God’s plan, Jesus has a particular job to do. “I glorified you on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do,” Jesus says in John 17:4. Jesus’ job, in The Plan, is to be God in human form in the world, to suffer and die and rise again, and so complete the judgment of Satan and the Beginning of the New Age. The work of the New Age, the present Age, becomes the job of the Holy Spirit. And this is what the prophets predicted: In the New Age, everyone who believes will have the Spirit of God living within them. They’ll have knowledge of God’s will and the ability to act upon it. In the New Age, humans will return to the deep relationship with God that once was theirs in the Garden of Eden, before the Fall.
In John, Jesus knows all this, too, and is therefore highly motivated to go to the cross, because He knows it’s all part of The Plan. The crucifixion is not just a terrible event, it is the whole point. It is a cosmic battle, in which the forces of evil think they’ve won, they’ve beaten God Himself; but in reality the complete opposite has happened, and God has completely, unequivocally won, and Satan is defeated forever. It is the central point, the focal point of the universe, the locus around which time and history whirl, and God’s saving love of the world and redemption of all humanity is made complete.
That’s what Jesus means by, “It is finished.” The Plan is finished. It’s complete. The battle is over, the victory is won. The birthpangs are over and New Age has begun. It’s finished.
I heard an interview with a woman who was a half mile out from the finish line of the Boston Marathon last year when the terrorist bombs went off. She is running this year, and this time, she says, she’s scared, but she says this time she intends to cross that finish line. Like a lot of people who are running on Monday, crossing the finish line is more than just a personal goal—it’s a victory in the battle between Good and Evil, a way to say to the terrorists, “You don’t win.”
That’s what Jesus means by “It is finished.” He means, “I’ve won. God has won. The whole world has won.”
We have won.