The Cross. The Lamb Slain, the Curtain Torn, and the Words “It Is Finished”

Read the passage first

Read Luke 22:14–20, the last night before the cross. Then read John 19:16–30 and Matthew 27:45–54. Finish with Luke 23:32–47.

Read slowly, and stop whenever you want to stop. This is the lesson every earlier lesson has been leading to. There is no hurry. If it feels heavy to read, that is normal.

What happens in this passage

The last supper on Passover night (Luke 22:14 to 20). After three years of work, Jesus travels to Jerusalem in Passover week, the same week the whole city killed lambs in memory of the night death passed over in Egypt. That night he eats the Passover meal with his disciples, but he changes its whole meaning. He takes bread, breaks it, and says this is his body given for them. Then he takes the cup of wine and says this is his blood, which brings about a new covenant (verses 19 to 20). For a thousand years Passover had told of a lamb that died in people's place. On this night Jesus says that lamb is himself.

Arrested, condemned, crucified (John 19:16 to 24). That same night one of his disciples betrays him. He is arrested, tried unjustly through the night, and flogged, and in the morning the Roman governor, Pilate, sentences him to be crucified, even though he himself says he finds no guilt in him. Crucifixion was Rome's cruelest and most shameful way to execute someone: nails through the hands and feet into wood, then left to die slowly in front of everyone who walked past. The soldiers cast lots to divide his clothes. John points out that this matches Psalm 22, which we read in lesson 8 (verses 23 to 24).

Darkness and the cry (Matthew 27:45 to 46). At noon, darkness falls over the whole land for three hours. Then Jesus cries out loudly with the first words of Psalm 22, asking God why he has forsaken him. This is the deepest moment in the Bible. The Son who had never been apart from the Father is taking what sin does to human beings: being cut off from God. He takes it in our place, so that we will not have to.

It is finished (John 19:28 to 30). Before he dies, Jesus speaks one last word. In your Bible it is probably rendered "it is finished." In the original language it is a single word, the word people of that time wrote on a bill when it had been paid in full. It can be translated "paid in full." It is not the word of a defeated man saying "I have no strength left." It is the word of someone who has completed his work: "the work is done." Then he dies. Jesus had said beforehand that no one could take his life from him; he was the one giving it (John 10:18).

The curtain torn, and the centurion (Matthew 27:51 to 54). The moment Jesus dies, the thick curtain in the temple that had closed off God's room for a thousand years tears in two from top to bottom. Remember lesson 6? That curtain said "keep out." Now God tears it himself. The earth shakes, and the Roman centurion in charge of the execution, a man who had watched countless people die on crosses, stands looking and says that this man really was the Son of God.

The thief beside the cross (Luke 23:32 to 43). Two other men are crucified beside Jesus, criminals. One mocks him. The other turns to Jesus. He admits that he deserves to die, and asks only that when Jesus comes into his kingdom, he would remember him. He has no time to do anything good. No way to make merit. No way to be baptized. No way to put right what he has done. His hands are nailed to the wood. But Jesus tells him that today he will be with him in paradise (verse 43).

How this points to Jesus

Every picture we walked past in ten lessons meets on this afternoon. Go through them one by one.

• The clothes of skin in Eden (lesson 2). A life died to cover human shame, and God provided it. On the cross God provides the life of his own Son, and those who believe are clothed with Christ (Galatians 3:27).
• The ram that died instead of Isaac (lesson 4). A father took his only son up a mountain, but that time a voice called a halt. This time there is none. God really gives his only Son, and this time there is no ram in his place, because Jesus is the lamb.
• The Passover lamb (lesson 5). Jesus dies in Passover week, not a bone broken (John 19:36), and his blood makes judgment pass over everyone who is under that blood. Paul calls him our Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7).
• The Day of Atonement (lesson 6). The high priest carried blood behind the curtain once a year. Jesus carries his own blood in once, enough forever (Hebrews 10:10–14), and the curtain tears as the proof. As for the goat that carried sin far away: Jesus has carried ours.
• The serpent on the pole (lesson 7). Jesus himself said he would be lifted up like that serpent, so that everyone who looks in faith would live. The thief beside the cross was the first to look and live that day.
• Psalm 22 (lesson 8). The cry of being forsaken, the mocking, the pierced hands and feet, the clothes divided by lot. All of it in one afternoon, a thousand years after David wrote it.
• Isaiah 53 (lesson 9). Beaten beyond recognition, silent, condemned unjustly, dying with wrongdoers, buried in a rich man's tomb, and God laying the wrong of us all on him.
• It is finished. This word matters most of all for someone who grew up with the idea of merit. It means there is nothing left to add. No more merit to make until it is enough. No ceremony to repeat every year. No outstanding balance. The price of sin has been paid in full by the one who owed nothing. The only thing left is to receive it.
• The thief on the cross is the proof. He came with empty hands, no time to do anything, only faith, and Jesus received him. That is grace. But notice too that the thief did not wait. He turned the moment he saw. This story does not say we should wait until our last day. It says no one is too late, and no one is too low.

Words to know

The word สิ้นพระชนม์ is royal register for "died," used of Jesus. Your Bible uses it to honor him, but I want you to remember that Jesus really died, the way human beings die. It was not a performance, and not a trance.

The words พระโลหิต and พระกาย are royal register for the blood and the body of Jesus. When you meet them in your Bible, think of the real blood and real body of a man who was crucified.

The word redeem (ไถ่), or redemption (การไถ่บาป), means to pay a price to set someone free, like paying money to buy a slave out of slavery. The Bible says Jesus redeemed us with his life (Mark 10:45). Unlike making merit to reduce your own karma, redemption is something someone else pays for you.

The word cross (กางเขน) means the two pieces of wood Rome used to execute people. In those days it was a symbol of shame. No one wore it as jewelry. Christians began to use it as a symbol later because of what Jesus did on it. The wood itself has no power, like the bronze serpent we talked about in lesson 7.

The phrase เมืองบรมสุขเกษม in Luke 23:43 is the Thai Standard Version's word for paradise, the place where those who die in Jesus are with him. It is not a heavenly realm from which one must return to be born again, but being with God with nothing to separate you ever again.

Reflect

1. When Jesus said "it is finished," what do you think was finished? And if that work really is done, is there anything you are still trying to add to it?
2. The thief on the cross had nothing to give Jesus except faith. How do you feel about Jesus accepting him? Does it seem fair?
3. The curtain tore from top to bottom. Now nothing stands between you and God. If you were to say something to him directly right now, what would you say?

Pray

"Jesus, I see now that every picture since the garden of Eden points to you on the cross. You took in my place what I deserved, and said it is finished. I do not understand all of it, but I thank you. Help me receive what you have already finished. Amen."