The Seven Words of the Cross #6

[HKHaugan]

The Seven Words of the Cross #6

 “It is finished (John 19:30).”

 If you want to understand understand these last words, you have to look at them in the context of Jesus’ mission as He saw it. "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work (John 4:34)."  The Greek word for finished is tetelestai. The word for work is ergon. Jesus eats physical food, but that sustains Him for His spiritual work which is to do His Father’s will. That’s His ongoing food. The whole meaning here is that our physical bodies are the containers to enable the spiritual body within to be conscious of and do the will of God in the world. It is to use our physical brain, heart and body, to think, trust and act spiritually.

 There are human parallels here. When someone really likes their job, the doing may cause them to miss meals, maybe snack while they are working and not even know what time it is. “I’ve got an idea I’m working on. I’ll take a break later, but right now it’s something I’ve got to finish.”  The usual picture we have of musicians and artists spending hours perfecting their craft. The business man who loves what he does. The mother who devoted herself totally to her children and their raising. The father who labors harder to provide for his family. The scientist on the edge of a discovery. Seeing a believer sold out to his Lord.

 When you see Jesus, you see His Father getting Him to reverse the world order through faith. Being consumed with, having a passion for, being drawn by, lost in, totally absorbed, just about covers the attitude driving Jesus’ desire to serve His Father. “When you see me, you see the Father (Jn.14:9).” That total unifying work is what His work in us is. Being unified with Him restores our confused mind, encourages our frightened heart and melts our frozen spirit to work and act together. Confidence within shines in confidence without. Then we seek that experience for others by sharing Jesus with them because He is healing our broken and lost nature.

 Jesus also uses another word for work when He says, “Come unto me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest (Mt.11:28).”  The Greek word is the word kopiontas from the verb kopos. Here the word literally means weariness, trouble. So, if you were going to your job when this word was used, you would actually be saying, “I’m headed to my trouble and weariness. Have to be there by 8am.” For many, that inner condition is reflected in their sullen depressing submission to their daily ‘weariness,‘ their daily ‘burden,’ their ‘rat race.’ Our task is to be a witness for Jesus, to help them move off the treadmill of their discontent.

 Therefore, what we have been given in Scripture are two words, labor and work. The first is what we do for a living to survive physically and socially. The second is why we do it. It’s the idea of having a purpose and striving to achieve what the purpose demands.

 Jesus was consumed with doing His Father’s will. His Father’s will was His work. That’s why He said His food was to work at His Father’s will. Every step He took, every place He went and every person He met, was an opportunity to work at His Father’s will. From the moment He was baptized He knew he didn’t have that much time. Scripture outlined the opposition and He could see His end. His labor is rarely mentioned. We assume He was a carpenter because that was Joseph’s trade (Mt.13:55) and Jewish sons traditionally followed their father’s skill. So, Jesus did labor but that was to support His work. Paul labored as a tentmaker and little is mentioned about that, but his work was all about sharing Jesus.

 Understanding the difference between labor and work gives us a new perspective. As disciples of Jesus we are called to labor in order to support our work. But sin has placed the emphasis on labor and nothing on work. When Adam was expelled from the Garden, he lost his work and labor meant his survival and his and our relationship with God diminished in human history. Labor replaced work and work became labor. Working the lush Garden was a joy with God, but now work was and is weariness and trouble without God. Tilling the barren land was filled with ‘thorns and thistles,’ the spirits of fear and pride driving them from one day to the next.

 But when Jesus came He turned all that around. He reintroduced real work. “The work of God for you is this: to believe on the One Whom He has sent (Jn.6:29).”

 Think of the areas this difference between labor and work brings us. Our identity is no longer defined by our labor (job description), our social or economic status, our trophies or degrees but by our work. We are now children of God first. Our work is being a witness of the Lord Jesus. Everything else provides an opportunity to be faithful. Where we labor is an opportunity to be His light, offering our best effort but at the same time, work to share Jesus when the occasion calls. Our emphasis is taken up growing spiritually Jesus whenever and wherever.

 Summarizing our work as disciples, we have three basic goals; the spiritual growth of our mind, heart and spirit.

First, our mind starts its renewal with Scripture to displace the world’s godless standards. We replace them with the leading of the Holy Spirit when they emerge (1Jn.2:13-17).

Second, the attitudes of our heart, which were formally shaped by ‘fitting in’ to the attitudes and opinions of others, are reduced to one attitude, the attitude of Jesus (Php.2:5-11).

Third, our spirit is restored by the Holy Spirit who motivates us to approach every next moment as a witness for Jesus. Every choice, every decision, every action we make and take, is submitted to the Holy Spirit. We are partners with the Spirit to make Jesus known.

 Now we are working and our work is to reconcile that part of the relational world in which we live (2Cor.5:19). This is how the world, secular society, changes the way it functions. This opens us to be more confident, more creative and more productive in every field of endeavor. Changed hearts change the world.