Good Friday 2025

THE REV. E. WAYNE ROLLINS

It is finished. Consummatum est. John tells us those were Jesus’ last words. It
seems so. His lifeless body hangs on a cross in the hot afternoon sun. For him, it’s all
over.

Others will come and remove his body, wrap it and place it in a cave prepared
for another. When it’s time, some will return to perform rituals that, in their own way,
prepare them for when it will be their time. Then, that will be finished.
But there remain some things undone, a list of incompletenesses that continue to
this day. One of the things on that list is a nagging question, the answer to which
continues to evade us.

Why? Not “why does the answer evade us,” but why was Jesus crucified?
We have the answers presented by his accusers, yet those didn’t really persuade
the judge, who ended up giving in to their demands, because political expediency was
more important than truth.

We have centuries of theories, trying to explain in one way or another not just
what happened, but why and its effect. But those aren’t as satisfying as we might have
hoped, even the one called the “satisfaction theory.”

So, it seems that it’s not quite finished just yet. Oh, in the minds of those who
opposed him, it might look like it’s done. They can go home and celebrate, pat each
other on the back and exclaim, “well done.”
But maybe it’s something else that’s finished.

Maybe what’s finished is the lesson on how to do ministry. Watch how those
who have experienced something care for those who do so for the first time. I first
learned this while standing outside before a funeral when a woman approached and
asked where the new widow was. I replied that she was in the church building. Then I
heard, “That’s where I’m going. You don’t know what this is like until you’ve lived
through it yourself.”

And maybe it’s more than that. It seems ironic, but the way God, through Jesus
of Nazareth, chooses to overcome death itself is by entering into it. By dying.
And the ultimate act of ministry is revealed, that by entering into death, Jesus
finishes the work that will end death itself. He does this for all, for all time, past,
present and future, and to do that must enter into their death so he might release them
from it.
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So maybe that’s what’s finished. If so, then it’s just getting started.