THE
WORD OF VICTORY
“It Is Finished” (Accomplished)
PS
51:1-17; JN 17:1-8; JN 19:30-37
What
was it that was finally finished or accomplished at Calvary?
Since
God is outside of time, we must understand the cross, and what happened there, while really happening in history, to also
be outside of time. This being true, what was accomplished and what was said there encompasses every activity
of time or history. It was all accomplished that Friday.
Jesus
reached into the garden, into the promise of the woman’s seed, Who, though His heel was bitten by the serpent, would
crush the serpent’s head. IT IS ACCOMPLISHED. He reached into
the barren desert where God’s friend Abraham heard Him say, “Through your seed all peoples will be blessed”
and announced IT IS ACCOMPLISHED. In that moment Christ gathered up every promise made
to Isaac and Jacob and to the twelve Patriarchs and announced IT IS ACCOMPLISHED. The
freedom signified by the Exodus, the salvation promised by the law, the nourishment pictured in the manna, the refreshing
implied by the water from the rock and the deliverance shown in Rahab’s scarlet cord were all embraced in His crucified
arms and He announced IT IS ACCOMPLISHED.
He
took the promise of the roasted lamb and the unleavened bread, the picture presented by the Tabernacle and its furnishings,
the sin rolled ahead by every sacrificial lamb and carried away by every scapegoat and pronounced “no more”; IT
IS ACCOMPLISHED. He laid His mutilated body on the brazen altar, washed it in the brazen laver,
placed it on the table of shewbread, poured His prayers on the altar of incense, poured His blood as oil in the golden lamp
and threw Himself upon the mercy seat. He tore down the curtain that separated man from God and announced
IT IS ACCOMPLISHED.
He ran through
the Old Testament checking off each item on the “to-do list” of the prophecy. IT WAS
ACCOMPLISHED. He fulfilled the meaning of the name Joseph was told to give Him. “God
has become our salvation.” IT WAS ACCOMPLISHED. Every thing that
Mary treasured in her heart was open for the world to see and partake. IT WAS ACCOMPLISHED.
The sins David cried about were paid for. The hour of glory had come. IT
WAS ACCOMPLISHED.
At every Passover from Moses
until then a priest would raise the sacrificial lamb for the people to see. 3 ½ years before a priest
turned prophet, John the Baptist, had pointed Him out proclaiming “Behold the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of
the world.” This day IT WAS ACCOMPLISHED. He looked forward to the upper room where the New Kingdom would come in the form of a Church and declare IT
IS ACCOMPLISHED. He saw every person who would believe and who would need to be seated with Him
in heavenly places and declared IT IS ACCOMPLISHED. He looked to the end, to the destruction
of Satan, to the fullness of His Kingdom, to all of His people being in the beatific vision and declared IT IS ACCOMPLISHED.
He looked to every broken heart that needed mending,
every sickness that would need to be healed, every discouraged one that would need to be lifted up, every battle that would
need victory and declared IT IS ACCOMPLISHED.
On God's side it is done.
All that is left is for the trembling soul who dares to enter the mystery of the Eucharistic Table; for "mustard seed
faith" to reach out from our feeble time into His limitless eternity and count it all as its own. At that moment
His Kingdom comes, His will is done and those words are manifested again. IT IS ACCOMPLISHED.
Have a Blessed Easter.
He is Risen!
Fr. David A. Barrett
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