IT IS FINISHED … (Tetelestai)
BUT YOU MUST MAINTAIN IT!
His name was L. B. Lloyd … and I don’t know what his first name really was …normally we referred to him as L. B. Lloyd … informally and personally we referred to him as “Lloyd”.
Lloyd was employed at Denver Wood Products … there he did custom work … and when he retired, he set up shop to continue to do “custom work”. I was in need … of a cabinet – with special shelves, drawers and holders. I asked if he could do it … he said “yes” … I said I want it of knotty pine, good quality, something like no one has ever seen before. He smiled … and said, “I’ll draw it up”. He did. And after some weeks of sweat and long and tedious hours … he called me and said … Yeah … he said, It is finished” … but it is a detailed work of art … custom made … and perfect in every way …
I said, “I’ll pick it up” … He said, “No, I’ll deliver it. You might scratch it.” He did … and with it had a list of instructions … “just in case,” he said, “someone should scratch or mar it, intentionally or unintentionally. And even if someone should gouge it … here is how the repair is to be done. And then it will be good as new.” And I said, “I’ll guard it carefully …” “But” he said, “even with just the everyday use – the wear and tear will require some maintenance” … and “here is how you maintain it” … When I gave the case away in 1983 … it was in good condition for I maintained it … as he said.
Some of the accounts say “Jesus cried with a loud voice … some say “great cry” … others say He shouted … “IT IS FINISHED” … that was not with resignation or defeat … He was shouting “The Job is Done”! … it was for the world to know.
“It is finished” in English is three words … but in Greek it is one. “Tetelestai” … it is also one word in Aramaic … it is the victor’s shout … the cry of the man who has completed his task … it is the cry of the man who has won through the struggle … it is the cry of triumph …
He came to do something … He did it … It is finished!
But there is more … THE VEIL OF THE TEMPLE IS RENT … torn, from top to bottom … Now, the veil was a large curtain that hung in front of that part of the chancel, if you will, which was called the Holy of Holies ( a room in which was kept the ark of the covenant – a room ten cubits square in the tabernacle and 20 cubits in the Temple) (this says the veil of the temple) … a cubit was considered 18 inches … that would make the temple Holy of Holies 30 feet square … so the veil or curtain was sizeable … it was there to keep the average worshipper from looking at the sacred presence of God …
Now … with the finished work of Christ … it’s as if God’s Presence is thrown open to all … the birth, life and death of Jesus tore apart the veil which had concealed God from man … remember Jesus’ words … “He who has seen Me has seen The Father” … Now, on the cross, as never before and never again, we saw the Love of God!
And He died with a prayer on His lips … “Father, into your hands I commend My spirit.” That comes from Psalm 31:5. It was the prayer every Jewish mother taught her child to say at night … as you remember the child’s prayer, “Now I lay me down to sleep … I pray the Lord my soul to keep … “Tetelestai” … “IT IS FINISHED!” …
Oh, but one thing more … though we live that kind of faith … we will get marred and scarred and gouged … we have to be maintained … even the normal wear and tear of the day takes its toll …
So, maintain … clean with confession, repair with repentance, and use the caulking of love and polish with forgiveness and lubricate with good deeds and … well … senseless acts of kindness and random acts 0f …………… -LJS
