The Church Fathers on this verse
THEOSIS
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John 19:30Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Jesus therefore, when he had taken the vinegar, said: It is consummated. And bowing his head, he gave up the ghost.

Douay-Rheims

οτε ουν ελαβεν το οξος ο ιησους ειπεν τετελεσται και κλινας την κεφαλην παρεδωκεν το πνευμα

Greek (Byzantine text)

The Church Fathers on this verse

12 Church Fathers comment on this verse

John Chrysostom

4th centuryChurch Father

“When He had received the vinegar, He said, ‘It is finished.’” Do you see how He did everything without agitation and with authority? The same is evident from what follows.

When all had already been accomplished, Christ, “bowing His head,” since it had not been nailed, “gave up the spirit,” that is, He breathed His last.

Usually people do not give up the spirit after bowing the head. Here it was the opposite.

Christ did not bow His head after He had given up the spirit, as usually happens with us. Rather, He gave up the spirit after He had bowed His head.

By all this the Evangelist showed that He is Lord of the whole world.

What then does this word, “It is finished,” mean? The prophecy concerning Him was fulfilled: “They gave Me gall for food, and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink” (Ps 68:22).

Theophylact of Bulgaria

11th centuryChurch Father

“When Jesus had tasted the vinegar, He said, ‘It is finished!’” After the drink had been given, He said, “It is finished,” that is, this prophecy, together with all the others, has been fulfilled. Nothing remains. All is complete.

He does all things without agitation and with authority. This is evident from what follows.

“And bowing His head, He gave up the spirit.” For when all had been accomplished, He “bowed His head,” since it had not been nailed, and “gave up the spirit,” that is, He breathed His last.

With us the opposite happens. First our breath ceases, and then the head bows. But He first bowed His head, and then gave up the spirit.

From all this it is clearly revealed that He was Lord of death and did all things by His own authority.

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The Lord gave up His spirit to God and the Father to show that the souls of the saints do not remain in tombs, but ascend into the hands of the Father of all.

The souls of sinners, however, are dragged down to the place of torment, that is, to Hades.

Cyrill of Alexandria

5th centuryChurch Father

"When Jesus had received the vinegar, He said, 'It is finished.' And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit."

After this report, joined to the other narratives, the Savior says that it is "finished." He means the utter impiety of the Jews and their excessive madness against Him.

Indeed, what remained undone by the Jews? What form of extreme inhumanity had not been devised? What manner of mockery had been left unused? What did they appear to have left unaccomplished in displaying the utmost insult?

Therefore He rightly says, "It is finished." The time now called Him to preach even to the spirits in Hades (1 Pet 3:19). For He came to have dominion over the living and the dead (Rom 14:9).

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He accepted death itself for us and submitted, according to the flesh, to this condition common to our nature. Yet by nature He is Life, as God. He did this so that, emptying Hades, He might prepare for human nature an ascent to life.

According to the Scriptures, He appeared as "the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Cor 15:20), and as "the firstborn from the dead" (Col 1:18).

He therefore bowed His head, as usually happens with the dead, because the bodily powers had ceased their activity. The spirit or soul, which governed and strengthened the flesh, had already withdrawn from it. The Evangelist speaks in a way adapted to our manner of speech.

Likewise the other expression, "He gave up" the spirit, is not foreign to our ordinary speech. For the people say in this way, "He expired and died."

Yet it seems that the holy Evangelist, again with a necessary purpose, did not simply say that He died, but that He "gave up His spirit." Clearly, He gave it into the hands of God and the Father.

This accords with what is said as if in His person: "Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit" (Ps 30:6; cf. Lk 23:46). For us as well, the meaning of these words laid the foundation and beginning of good hope.

We must think, I believe, and with complete reason, that the souls of the saints, when they depart from earthly bodies, are as it were delivered by the goodness and love for mankind of God into the hands of the all-loving Father.

They do not wander around tombs while awaiting funeral libations, as some unbelievers suppose. Nor are they cast, like the souls of those who love sin, into the place of most dreadful punishment, that is, into Hades.

Rather, they hasten into the hands of the Father of all, since our Savior Christ renewed this path for us also. For He gave His own soul into the hands of His Parent.

Thus we, receiving in it and through it a kind of beginning, might have bright hope. We are firmly persuaded and believe that, after undergoing bodily death, we shall be in the hands of God and in a state incomparably better than when we were with the flesh.

For this reason the wise Paul writes to us in his Epistle that it is better to depart and be with Christ (Phil 1:23).

"And when He had yielded up His spirit, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom" (Mt 27:51; Mk 15:38; Lk 23:45).

The "veil" in the temple was a cloth which hung down whole and unbroken in the very middle inside the building. It covered the inner, rear part, making the inner tabernacle accessible only to the high priest.

For it was not permitted to anyone who wished to enter it with unclean feet, nor carelessly to behold the Holy of Holies. Thus Paul also, showing us the complete necessity of dividing the tabernacle by veils, said in the Epistle to the Hebrews:

"For the first tabernacle was prepared, which is called the Holy Place. But behind the second veil was the tabernacle called the Holy of Holies, having the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold.

In it were the golden vessel holding the manna, the tablets of the covenant, and Aaron's rod that budded" (Heb 9:2-4).

Into the first tabernacle, he says, the priests enter, performing the divine services. Into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people's ignorance.

By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the Holy Place had not yet been opened while the first tabernacle still had standing (Heb 9:6-8). For a veil was undoubtedly spread at the first doors of the temple.

Therefore this was considered the first tabernacle and was called the Holy Place. In view of this, no one should assert that there was any place in the temple that was not sacred. He would be mistaken, for the whole temple was holy.

After the first tabernacle, the inner veil formed, as it were, the second, that is, the inner Holy of Holies. But as blessed Paul said, through these figures the Spirit indicated to us that the way fully fitting for the saints had not yet been opened.

The people were still kept away, and the first tabernacle still existed. This was because the mode of life given by Christ to those called through the Spirit to holiness had not yet been manifested.

The mystery concerning Him had not yet been revealed. The commandment enclosed in letters still had force. Therefore the Law places the Jews in the first tabernacle.

For the Law is a kind of preliminary entrance and, so to speak, the vestibule of the Gospel teaching and life. The Law consists in figures, while the Gospel looks upon the Truth.

The first tabernacle is certainly holy, for the Law is holy, and the commandment is just and good (Rom 7:12). But the inner tabernacle is the Holy of Holies.

Those who received righteousness according to the Law were holy. Yet they become holier still when they receive faith in Christ and the anointing from the divine and Holy Spirit.

Thus righteousness through faith is higher than righteousness according to the Law, and its holiness is far greater. Therefore the most wise Paul says that with greatest joy and complete readiness he suffers loss in the righteousness under the Law.

He does this in order to gain Christ and be found "in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the Law, but that which is through faith in Jesus Christ" (Phil 3:8-9).

Some turned back and were checked in their eager movement toward faith. These were the Galatians, who after righteousness through faith returned to the commandment of the Law and again turned to life in figures and letters.

Paul testified to them with perfect justice: "If you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. You who are justified by the Law have been severed from Christ; you have fallen from grace" (Gal 5:2, 4).

To disclose usefully and fittingly the meaning of this passage, let us point out that the temple veil is torn "from top to bottom." God was, as it were, already opening the Holy of Holies and at last making the inner tabernacle accessible to those who believe in Christ.

For knowledge of the divine mysteries now lies before us. It is not clothed with the coarseness of the legal letter, as though with some veil. It has no historical covering.

Nor does it raise before our spiritual eyes, like a wall, the obscurity of figures. Rather, in the simplicity of faith, and in very few words, it says:

"The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith which we preach. "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom 10:8-10). Yes, in these words the whole mystery of religion is opened to us.

But until Christ completed the contest for our life and underwent bodily death, the veil was, as it were, still spread out. For the commandment of the Law still ruled.

Since all the crimes against Christ committed by Jewish impiety were finished, and Emmanuel, having endured this, at last yielded up His spirit for our sake, the time had now come for that ancient and broad veil to be torn.

That veil is the immobility of the legal letter. The time had come for the beauty of the truth to be revealed to those sanctified by faith in Christ.

The whole veil is torn, for what else can the expression "from top to bottom" indicate to us? For what reason did this occur? Because the saving proclamation contains no partial revelation, but grants us the most perfect illumination of the divine mysteries.

Therefore the Psalmist once said to God, as if in the person of the new people, "You have made known to me the secret and hidden things of Your wisdom" (Ps 50:8).

So also the divine Paul writes in his Epistle to those who have believed in Christ: "I thank my God always for you, for the grace given you in Christ Jesus, because in everything you were enriched through Him, in all utterance and all wisdom and all knowledge" (1 Cor 1:4-5).

Thus the veil, torn not in part but wholly, indicated that the worshippers of the Savior were to receive knowledge of the mystery concerning Him in perfect purity and freedom from every darkness.

They were to be enriched with all wisdom, all knowledge, and all utterance. This is what "from top to bottom" means.

We call the most fitting and most proper time for the revelation of the divine mysteries the moment when the Savior laid down His soul for us. For Israel had already thrust grace away from itself and wholly departed from love for God.

It did this through its mad acts against Him and its unheard-of crimes. Indeed, everyone who sees the Author of life brought even to death will understand from this that nothing more remained for their evildoing.

I consider what we have already said sufficient, and not departing from the proper meaning in explaining the divine revelations. Yet the divine Evangelist seems to speak with special foresight when he says, "When He had yielded up His spirit, the veil of the temple was torn."

By this he necessarily points out to us the timeliness of the event. Therefore to what we have just said we shall add another consideration.

It seems to me to contain no little subtle insight, and it will by no means be without the benefit and delight belonging to necessary matters.

Among the Jewish people and their rulers the following custom prevailed. If they observed something being done which seemed gravely offensive to the Lawgiver, or heard something dreadful, I mean words containing blasphemy, they tore their garments and assumed a sorrowful appearance.

By this they in some way justified themselves before God. By appearing unable to endure the offense, they assigned punishment for madness to those who sinned and placed their own head, as it were, beyond all responsibility for it.

So also the Savior's disciples, Barnabas and Paul, acted when some who had not yet believed regarded them as gods. For they called Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes (Acts 14:12).

Together with the priests they brought sacrifices and garlands, and were already intending to honor them with sacrifices. Since divine glory would have been insulted if sacrifices were offered to mere men, the Apostles rushed out of the house into the crowd.

They tore their garments, as it is written (Acts 14:13-14), and by fitting words turned away the senseless intention of the idolaters.

And when the Jewish teachers were judging our Savior Christ and demanded that He answer who He was and whence He came, He said clearly, "Truly I say to you, from now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven."

Then Caiaphas, springing up from the sacred seat, "tore his garments, saying, 'He has blasphemed'" (Mt 26:64-65).

Thus the divine temple itself, as it were, made use of the custom prevailing among them. It tore its veil like a garment as soon as our Savior yielded up His spirit, because it condemned the impiety of the Jews against Him.

And certainly this too was done by divine power, to show us that the holy temple itself mourned over Israel.

Ephraem the Syrian

4th centuryChurch Father

And since the kingdom and the priesthood had been anointed and sanctified by the same Spirit, the Spirit went forth and returned to the source of both. Thus it was made clear that both had been dried up by Him Who abolished them both.

Euthymios Zigabenos

11th centuryChurch Father

"When Jesus had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished": everything has been done, and nothing has been omitted. "And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit." Jesus Christ did not bow His head after He had given up the spirit, as happens with us. Rather, after He bowed His head, He gave up the spirit, so that we might know He died when He willed. When everything had already been fulfilled, then He gave up His spirit into the hands of the Father, as the Evangelist Luke noted: "And Jesus cried with a loud voice and said, Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit" (Lk 23:46).

Cyrill of Jerusalem

4th centuryChurch Father

“I gathered My myrrh” (Song 5:1), when He drank wine mixed with myrrh and vinegar. Having received this, He said, “It is finished.”

For the mystery was fulfilled, the Scripture was fulfilled, and sin was destroyed.

“For Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.

Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood, He entered once for all into the Holy Place.

For if the blood of goats and calves, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the defiled, sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ?” (Heb 9:11-14).

And elsewhere: “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holy Place by the blood of Jesus Christ, by a new and living way which He opened for us through the veil, that is, His flesh” (Heb 10:19-20).

Isaiah the Hermit

5th centuryChurch Father

[...] That after the darkening of the sun He gave up His spirit is an indication to us. If the mind is freed from every hope in this visible world, this serves as a sign that sin has died in you.

Dimitri of Rostov

17th centuryChurch Father

When Jesus had received the vinegar, He said, “It is finished!” Remembering this word, speak thus:

“Christ, our Savior and Redeemer! Make us perfect before You, so that, walking in the path of Your commandments, we may be perfect in good works.

May we hear this most desired summons: ‘Come, blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’ (Mt 25:34).”

Christ, stretched upon the Cross like a string upon a harp, what sweet and pleasant song He gives forth!

Behold, He prays for those who kill Him: “Father! Forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34).

Behold, He makes the thief saved: “Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise” (Lk 23:43).

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Behold, He entrusts His Mother to John and cries to God the Father: “He cried out with a loud voice” (Mt 27:50).

At this sweet song the earth trembled: “The earth shook” (Mt 27:51). Stones, hills, and mountains were shattered. The dead rose from the tombs: “Many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised” (Mt 27:52).

The gates of Hades were opened.

But the playing is now at its end, when the strings break, when the soul is parted from the body.

The bloody labor is at an end, when night comes. The pains are at an end, when healing comes through death.

The sufferings are at an end when He says, “It is finished!” It is as though He were turning to God the Father: “I have finished the work which You gave Me to do” (Jn 17:4).

No one will now say, “This man began to build and was not able to finish” (Lk 14:30).

“It is finished!” Now He bows His head, He who bowed His head to the Forerunner. By this bowing He gives thanks, as it were, to God the Father for the cup of the passions.

He bows His head, pointing to His heart, that it too will be tormented after His death.

It is as though He said to the Jews: “There is no longer One over whom you can mock and jeer, for into the hands of My Father I have committed My spirit.

And behold, I bequeath to you for tyranny and amusement My heart, which does not die at once, just as it first receives life.

Display yourselves against it also, and finish your fierce tyranny. Pierce it with a spear, so that blood and water may come forth from it as true testimony that I am the Son of God.”

“And bowing His head, He gave up the spirit.” God the Father gave all things into the hands of the Son. Now the Son commits His spirit into the hands of the Father.

“A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit” (Ps 50:19). For us He offers His spirit as a sacrifice: “Into Your hands I commit My spirit” (Lk 23:46).

After many sufferings, our Lord closes His eyes and dies upon the bed of the Cross, wishing us rest, as though saying, “Good night!”

And indeed it was as though night had come: “There was darkness over all the earth” (Mt 27:45).

Nicephoros (Theotokis)

18th centuryChurch Father

[...] "It is finished. And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit" (Jn 19:30). "It is finished": the enmity between God and men has come to an end. "It is finished": the dominion of sin and the power of death have come to an end. "It is finished": the work of mankind's salvation has been accomplished. The Resurrection, the Ascension, the sitting at the right hand, and the descent of the Holy Spirit were the consequences and fruits of the life-giving sacrifice accomplished on the cross. Therefore whoever boasts in the Cross of Christ boasts in all the mystical works of God accomplished for our salvation.

Tichon of Zadonsk

18th centuryChurch Father

Let us stand a little longer on Golgotha and look upon the end of this dread and saving spectacle.

And now we see that our Defender, the Son of God, has finished the struggle in which He strove for us.

“When Jesus had received the vinegar, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And bowing His head, He gave up the spirit,” proclaims His beloved disciple and bosom friend, holy John.

Behold, Christian, with what Christ finished His struggle. With death, and with death on a cross, He finished it (Phil 2:8).

Let us look more attentively upon the cross-death of the Son of God, on which our life depends. For He laid down His soul for us (cf. Jn 10:15, 17-18).

We who sinned were bound to die not only temporally, but eternally. “For the wages of sin is death,” says the Apostle (Rom 6:23).

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But Christ, the Son of God, died on the cross so that by His death He might put our death to death.

By His death, He gives life to us who were dead.

“God shows His love for us,” says the Apostle Paul, “in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8).

Believers in His name still die temporally. Yet since Christ destroyed “the sting of death,” which is sin (1 Cor 15:56; Col 2:14; 1 Cor 15:55), this death is not death for those who die in the Lord.

It is a passage from temporal life to eternal life.

Though the earthly tent of their body is destroyed, their holy faith comforts and strengthens them.

It assures them that “they have a dwelling from God in the heavens, a house not made with hands, eternal” (2 Cor 5:1).

And as “a grain of wheat, falling into the earth, dies and bears much fruit” (Jn 12:24), so it is with the bodies of those who have fallen asleep in the Lord.

Buried in the earth and corrupted, they will hear the command of God and the voice of the Archangel (1 Thess 4:16).

Like sown seeds, they will come forth from the earth, from the graves. “For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible” (1 Cor 15:52).

Strengthened and comforted by this hope, the faithful dare to say with the Apostle Paul: “Death is swallowed up in victory.

O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” (1 Cor 15:54-55).

They leave this world, fathers, mothers, brothers, and relatives, but acquire what is incomparably greater and more perfect.

For they come to God the Father and appear before His most holy Face (cf. Ps 41:3), that they may see Him face to face (1 Cor 13:12).

They find a blessed fellowship with the holy Angels, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and the whole heavenly assembly.

There shines the beautiful Sun of Righteousness, Christ. It never sets, is never covered by clouds, and is never darkened by gloom.

It always shines in its strength, creates joy, and gladdens His saints.

There they inherit the good things which “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor 2:9).

There they receive incorruptible glory and riches from the hand of the Lord.

Faithful reflection on this comforts the faithful and tempers the bitterness of death. It even makes death desirable.

Thus, with holy Simeon, they meet it with a joyful spirit and say: “Now let Your servant depart, Master, according to Your word, in peace.

For my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared before the face of all peoples” (Lk 2:29-31).

And with the great Apostle Paul they say: “I have a desire to depart and be with Christ” (Phil 1:23).

“Thus Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor 15:3), “that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.

And that He might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to bondage throughout their whole life” (Heb 2:14-15).

Behold, Christian, how dearly our salvation cost Christ, the Son of God.

By the most severe suffering, the deepest humility, ineffable dishonor, shameful death, and death on a cross, our Redeemer redeemed us from death, Hades, and every misery.

He restored to us the salvation which we had willfully lost.

Michail (Lusin)

19th centuryChurch Father

He said, "It is finished," that is, the work of the Messiah was completed: the work of redeeming mankind and reconciling it to God through the death of the Messiah. He gave up His spirit with the words, "Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit" (Lk 23:46).

Philaret (Gumilevski)

19th centuryChurch Father

There were moments on earth like which there have never been and never will be. There were moments for which the ages had waited. There were moments in which the destiny not only of mankind, but of the whole world, was being decided.

They were the most solemn moments in the history of mankind, the most solemn for earth and heaven. These are the moments when it was proclaimed on Golgotha: "It is finished."

"When Jesus had received the vinegar, He said, 'It is finished.'"

When one more thing had been fulfilled, which the Messiah had to fulfill according to the word of the Prophet, and when the drink appointed by the heavenly will had been received, then Christ Jesus said, "It is finished."

What exactness in the fulfillment of everything determined from above. And what majesty after the deepest humility.

"It is finished." First of all, one sees that this is a voice of triumph, all the more wonderful because it was uttered just before death, before Jesus "gave up His spirit" (Jn 19:30).

"It is finished." What a meaningful word this is, what a word beyond the mind's grasp.

"It is finished." What has been finished? This is the mystery set before us to be opened. The history of the world and the history of mankind must show this, as history before Christ's coming showed it.

Faith must recognize it. The soul seeking God (Ps 68:7) will seek and find the revelation of Christ's mystery in its own heart, as also in Holy Scripture, which now appears as fulfilled prophecy.

The disciple of heavenly love said that everything was accomplished in which Scripture had to be fulfilled (Jn 19:28). Therefore all was accomplished that the patriarchs and Prophets awaited. All was accomplished that had been foretold, prefigured, and promised.

"All things concerning Me have an end," the Savior had said earlier (Lk 18:31). Everything that had to be came to pass. Everything the Law required was completed. Everything prophecy indicated was fulfilled. Everything promised was given.

"It is finished." The work entrusted by the Father to the Son, the work which the Son so desired to fulfill out of love for the Father (Jn 17:2), is completed.

What had to be expected from the Messiah? The salvation of men? It has been accomplished. The mysteries of the Kingdom of God have been proclaimed to men. The law of love has been revealed and explained.

The path of self-denial has been shown in word and life. The Godhead has been revealed to men as no one could reveal Him except the Son of God.

The Son completed the work of His love for fallen mankind. Heaven has been opened to the earth, which until then was guilty. Entrance has been opened into the blessed eternity from which the descendants of transgressing Adam had been deprived.

Everything lost by the first Adam has been gained by the second (1 Cor 15:45). One might think that not everything had yet been accomplished, since Christ's Ascension into heaven had not yet taken place and the Spirit of grace had not yet been sent.

But what remains depends on the moment at which it was said: "It is finished." Christ Jesus had spoken of this even earlier (Jn 16:7).

It must be noted that when the Lord Jesus says, "It is finished," He repeats the words of David's prophetic psalm. At the end of his psalm, David speaks of the great consequences of the sufferings of the Sufferer whom he depicts.

"He has done this," says the royal Prophet (Ps 21:32), after having spoken just before of righteousness being obtained for men by the Sufferer. On the lips of the Sufferer of Golgotha, Who suffers for the sins of men, the word "It is finished" undoubtedly refers above all to His sacrifice on the Cross and to its consequences.

Thus everything was accomplished on Golgotha. No other salvation for men, no other revelation, no other manifestation of God to sinful men may be expected.

The sacrifice of Christ is an eternal sacrifice. The Kingdom of Christ is an unshakable Kingdom, and cannot be replaced by any other (Heb 6:20; Heb 7:28; Heb 12:27).

"Christ will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but for salvation to those who wait for Him" (Heb 9:28).

To whom does Christ Jesus say, "It is finished"? Before this, on the Cross, He spoke to God for men. He spoke to the repentant sinner of the Paradise prepared for him. He spoke to men about their mutual love.

He spoke to the Father about His suffering. He spoke of His thirst in the hearing of men. Now He embraces everything: "It is finished," He says for the Father, for Himself, and for the world.

Before the Heavenly Father, the word "It is finished" is the voice of joy over the fulfillment of the will of the Heavenly Father. All has been accomplished, O Heavenly Father, that You awaited from the Son.

Everything hostile to You has been conquered. The serpent's head has been crushed, though the serpent struck the Victor in the heel. The darkness of superstition and impiety must be scattered.

The power of sin, which condemned men, has been destroyed. Life will appear from the tomb and give life to all who are dying.

In relation to the Sufferer Himself, "It is finished" is the voice of a rejoicing traveler who has happily completed his journey. By Him everything has been completed that the Savior of the world had to complete.

The Apostle says that it was fitting to perfect the Author of faith through sufferings (Heb 2:10). And now, "It is finished." It remains for the Heavenly Father to glorify the Son for the labors of His love.

"It is finished," Jesus says to the whole world, and especially to believers. Peace of conscience concerning life has been obtained by the bloody labor. The curse of the Law has been removed from sinners (Gal 3:13).

The righteousness of God has been reconciled with guilty men. By one offering, all have been sanctified once for all (Heb 10:14). What can the world still expect from Jesus that He has not done for it?

What did He not sacrifice for men? Glory, rest, honor, life, everything was given to the world. Jesus Christ shed sweat like an ascetic. He was seized like a rebel. He was beaten like a prisoner.

He was mocked like a false Prophet. He was spat upon and dishonored like a false King. He was crucified like an evildoer.

Now His breath is stopping from His torments. In His heart no sign of life is noticeable. What more should He have done and did not do?

My listeners, our Savior has done everything for us. From the Cross He says that He has fulfilled everything He had to fulfill for us. Do we understand and feel what this voice of heavenly love expects from us?

It expects, it demands from us grateful love. Oh, how can we not be thankful for such love? How can we not repay boundless love with at least the weak love that sinners have?

What wisdom can present a stronger or more just motive for love? What do all abstract reasonings about morality fitting for man mean in comparison with the voice of Love dying on the Cross for us?

How can we not be zealous against every sin? How can we not fear every impurity of heart, when we have before our eyes the Love that bought us for Himself by blood?

What labors, what works for the Lord can be called heavy when we think of what the Son of God accomplished for us? What can be dear in our eyes, so that we could rightly spare it for the Lord?

Riches, honors, reputation, health, life, everything dear to our heart, do these mean anything before the price of the love of the Son of God on the Cross?

Oh, how guilty we are, how criminal we are, what torments we deserve, if we remain insensible to Love crucified for us.

How vividly and deeply the chosen disciples of Christ felt the power of the love of the Cross. "We love Him, because He first loved us" (1 Jn 4:19), Saint John testifies.

The Apostle of the Gentiles proclaims, "Walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave Himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a fragrant aroma" (Eph 5:2).

"You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your bodies and in your souls, which are God's" (1 Cor 6:20). "Christ died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves" (2 Cor 5:15).

Oh heavenly Love, breathe into us love for You, if only so that we may guard our hearts from every impurity and keep ourselves from attachment to the world. Amen.

"And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit."

Here is yet another sign of the will's complete authority over death. One who is dying usually inclines his head only after he has given up the spirit.

The Sufferer of Golgotha, immediately after speaking with a loud voice that showed so much life and strength in Him, first inclines His head and then gives up His spirit.

It is clear that this bowing of the head was a sign of obedience not to the violence of death, but to the will of the Heavenly Father. This is the same as obedience to His own divine will.

What majesty in the moment of death. "Who falls asleep when he wishes," says blessed Augustine, "as Jesus dies according to His will? Who lays aside a garment by his own will as He lays aside the flesh according to His desire? Who has died when he wished, as He died only when He Himself willed?"

How much is extraordinary in the death of our Savior. He died at the ninth hour on the fourteenth day of Nisan, according to our reckoning at the fourth hour after noon.

This was the very time when, according to the Law, the Paschal lamb was slain. Thus even the time of His death showed that He is the Lamb of God, slain for the sins of the world.

My listeners, there is very much that is extraordinary and inaccessible to men in the death of our Savior. But is everything in it inaccessible to us? Ah, let men at least learn what must be done in order to die peacefully.

He fulfilled everything that the will of the Heavenly Father appointed Him to fulfill on earth, and He died peacefully. Do we think that we shall meet the peace of death, the peace of eternity, by another path?

We must not live for ourselves. We must live for the glory of God. "A son honors his father, and a servant fears his master. If then I am a Father, where is My honor? And if I am the Lord, where is My fear?" (Mal 1:6).

Thus the Master of earth and heaven spoke to us with sorrow. The will of God has appointed for us with such exactness what we must do on earth.

It has determined all our relations: to God, to ourselves, and to our neighbors. It has shown us everything needful on our path to eternity. Can all this be in vain?

The time will come when our body will return to the earth, and our spirit will go to God Who gave it. What will it be like for the soul to appear before its Lord, if its earthly life was forgetfulness of God?

"Amen, amen, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word, he shall never see death," said the Son of God (Jn 8:51). This means that spiritual death awaits the one who does not keep His commandments.

What a terrible vision will open before the sinful soul when it meets death and eternity. During earthly life, amid the ceaseless influx of outward impressions, even the soul most attentive to itself does not see much, very much, within itself.

But when the sinful soul's bonds with the world are broken and it remains with itself, it will see only its deeds and the dread righteousness of God.

Ah, one who has not lived as a Christian cannot die peacefully. Will conscience be silent in mortal illness, when one did not care for its peace during health?

How can the soul feel the consolation of prayer in the hours before death, when it was unacquainted with prayer before those moments? How can it find rest and comfort, during the struggle with death, in a faith it neglected throughout life?

Oh, one must live as the will of God commands, in order to prepare for oneself a peaceful death and a peaceful eternity.

Fathers and mothers, fear failing to fulfill the heavenly will concerning you. If, through your negligence, your children are not raised in the fear of God, how will you appear before the Heavenly Father?

He will require their ruin from you, because He gave their souls to us for safekeeping for Him.

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Cross references

Passages read together with this verse.

The original text

Greek text, 16 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.

  1. ὅτε
    hote
    when
    G3753 · ὅτε
  2. οὖν
    oun
    therefore
    G3767 · οὖν
  3. ἔλαβεν
    elaben
    I receive
    G2983 · λαμβάνω
  4. τὸ
    to
    the
    G3588 · ὁ
  5. ὄξος
    oxos
    vinegar
    G3690 · ὄξος
  6. ὁ
    ho
    the
    G3588 · ὁ
  7. Ἰησοῦς
    iēsous
    Jesus
    G2424 · Ἰησοῦς
  8. εἶπεν
    eipen
    to say
    G2036 · ἔπω, ἐρῶ, εἶπον
  9. Τετέλεσται
    tetelestai
    I end
    G5055 · τελέω
  10. καὶ
    kai
    and
    G2532 · καί
  11. κλίνας
    klinas
    I rest
    G2827 · κλίνω
  12. τὴν
    tēn
    the
    G3588 · ὁ
  13. κεφαλὴν
    kephalēn
    the head
    G2776 · κεφαλή
  14. παρέδωκεν
    paredōken
    I hand over
    G3860 · παραδίδωμι
  15. τὸ
    to
    the
    G3588 · ὁ
  16. πνεῦμα
    pneuma
    wind
    G4151 · πνεῦμα