Finished
John 19:28-30
[28] After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” [29] A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. [30] When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Freedom has a cost.
In WW2 the US had over 16 million to serve in the military. Over 400,000 died in WW2 (our bloodiest outside of the Civil War). Our freedom was paid for by their blood.
Yet…..Some don’t ever seem to be freed.
It’s been 51 years since a Japanese soldier was found in the jungles of Guam, having survived there for nearly three decades after the end of World War II. He was given a hero’s welcome on his return to Japan – but never quite felt at home in modern society.
For most of the 28 years that Shoichi Yokoi, a lance corporal in the Japanese Army of world War II, was hiding in the jungles of Guam, he firmly believed his former comrades would one day return for him.
And even when he was eventually discovered by local hunters on the Pacific island, on 24 January 1972, the 57-year-old former soldier still clung to the notion that his life was in danger.
“He really panicked,” says Omi Hatashin, Yokoi’s nephew.
Startled by the sight of other humans after so many years on his own, Yokoi tried to grab one of the hunter’s rifles, but weakened by years of poor diet, he was no match for the local men.
“He feared they would take him as a prisoner of war – that would have been the greatest shame for a Japanese soldier and for his family back home,” Hatashin says.
As they led him away through the jungle’s tall foxtail grass, Yokoi cried for them to kill him there and then.
Yokoi’s long ordeal began in July 1944 when US forces stormed Guam as part of their offensive against the Japanese in the Pacific.
The fighting was fierce, casualties were high on both sides, but once the Japanese command was disrupted, soldiers such as Yokoi and others in his platoon were left to fend for themselves.
“From the outset they took enormous care not to be detected, erasing their footprints as they moved through the undergrowth,” Hatashin said.
In the early years the Japanese soldiers, soon reduced to a few dozen in number, caught and killed local cattle to feed off.
But fearing detection from US patrols and later from local hunters, they gradually withdrew deeper into the jungle.
There they ate venomous toads, river eels and rats.
Yokoi made a trap from wild reeds for catching eels. He also dug himself an underground shelter, supported by strong bamboo canes.
Keeping himself busy also kept him from thinking too much about his predicament, or his family back home, his nephew said.
Yokoi’s own memoirs of his time in hiding reveal his desperation not to give up hope, especially in the last eight years when he was totally alone – his last two surviving companions died in floods in 1964.
Turning his thoughts to his aging mother back home, he at one point wrote: “It was pointless to cause my heart pain by dwelling on such things.”
And on another occasion, when he was desperately sick in the jungle, he wrote: “No! I cannot die here. I cannot expose my corpse to the enemy. I must go back to my hole to die. I have so far managed to survive but all is coming to nothing now.”
Two weeks after his discovery in the jungle, Yokoi returned home to Japan to a hero’s welcome.
He was besieged by the media, interviewed on radio and television, and was regularly invited to speak at universities and in schools across the country.
———————
He didn’t know or acknowledge that the war was over; he kept fighting a war that was done. It was finished.
John 19:1-30
[1] Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. [2] And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. [3] They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. [4] Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” [5] So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” [6] When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” [7] The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” [8] When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. [9] He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. [10] So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” [11] Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”
[12] From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” [13] So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. [14] Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” [15] They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” [16] So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.
So they took Jesus, [17] and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. [18] There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. [19] Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” [20] Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. [21] So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” [22] Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”
[23] When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, [24] so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says,
“They divided my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.”
So the soldiers did these things, [25] but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. [26] When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” [27] Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
[28] After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” [29] A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. [30] When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
———-
Jesus’ reception of the sour wine did not relieve His pain, though it did moisten his parched throat so He could speak.
“The ‘vinegar’ was probably the cheap sour wine the legionnaires drank. Though it provided some refreshment, it was a strong astringent that could contract the throat muscles and prevent the condemned victim from crying out with pain.
Nevertheless Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “It is finished” (Gr. tetelestai). He probably shouted with a cry of victory. The word denotes the completion of a task. Jesus was not just announcing that He was about to die. He was also declaring that He had fulfilled God’s will for Him. This signifies that Jesus had finished His work of providing redemption completely and that it presently stands finished. Nothing more needed or needs to be done. This finished work of Jesus Christ is the basis for our salvation (cf. 2 Cor. 5:21).
“Papyri receipts for taxes have been recovered with the word tetelestai written across them, meaning ‘paid in full.”
******SLIDE
What is finished? The debt. The price. The penalty. The bondage.
“It is accomplished,” “It is finished,” or “It is ended.”
The Japanese soldier didn’t know or acknowledge that the war was over; he kept fighting a war that was done. It was finished.
Is that what you do? Do you keep letting the deceiver remind you of past sins? Do you keep reliving them yourself? Some sort of self punishment?
“Self-harm is “an act which involves deliberately inflicting pain and/or injury to one’s own body, but without suicidal intent” . It affects men, women, and children, from all races, cultures, and backgrounds (including Christians).
Self-harm has links to suicide, but the two are not the same. Those who attempt suicide are trying to end their life. Those who are self-harming, guided by horrific and wicked lies, are trying to make theirs better. On a deep level, those who self-harm are trying to heal themselves — through punishing themselves. They are treating one sort of pain (emotional) with another (physical). The behavior seems like a contradiction to others, but the temptation may not be as foreign as it sounds.
Imagine that you’re running late for a meeting and have lost your house keys. How might you respond? On the outside you might seem calm. But internally you can hear yourself saying: Idiot! How could I have done that? I’m so stupid. Why do I keep making the same mistakes? Berating ourselves doesn’t make the keys suddenly appear and it certainly doesn’t get us to our appointment any sooner.
If our spouses or friends spoke to us in this way, we’d challenge them. Yet we are routinely tempted to tell ourselves the same things — sometimes worse. Perhaps you can relate to self-harm more than you realized. Of course, there are degrees of self-harm; and most of us won’t qualify for a diagnosis. But as Christians, we are especially aware of and awake to brokenness and sin. We know that, apart from Christ, all sinners will seek to make life work outside of God. Self-harm is just another example of a universal problem — and not a modern example, but an ancient one.
The prophets of Baal slashed themselves before their God (1 Kings 18:28). The man inhabited by demons injured himself while he lived alone among the tombs (Mark 5:1–20). The 5th century Stylites exposed themselves to the elements for decades atop pillars. Catherine of Siena, a 14th century nun, whipped herself with chains and deprived herself of food and sleep. She died of starvation, but was revered for her holiness.
The practice of self-harming as a misguided form of self-healing or self-redemption is as old as history. It’s been around since sin and shame entered the world” ————
But it is not needed, it is not necessary. Should we be convicted of our sin? Yes. Should we feel it when we are straying from God? Yes.
Should you beat yourself to a pulp over something you’ve confessed and the Lord has forgiven you of yesterday or 20 years ago? No.
It is finished.
1 I hear the Savior say,
“Thy strength indeed is small,
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.”
Refrain:
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.
2 Lord, now indeed I find
Thy pow’r and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots
And melt the heart of stone. [Refrain]
3 For nothing good have I
Where-by Thy grace to claim;
I’ll wash my garments white
In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb. [Refrain]
4 And when, before the throne,
I stand in Him complete,
“Jesus died my soul to save,”
My lips shall still repeat. [Refrain]
