Only John records Jesus’ final words on the cross, “It is finished,” or more technically correct, “It has been brought to a completion/ finish” (perfect active indicative of teleo), meaning, “to bring to accomplishment, to bring to a finish, to bring to a completion.” Let’s look at the scene.

It is Finished

After Jesus altered the relationship between his mum and the beloved disciple to one of mother and son, John then stated that Jesus knew “that all was now finished.” (19:28). And, after receiving the fruit of the vine, Jesus then states: “It is finished.”

John portrays Jesus’ entire passion (betrayal, arrest, burial, death, resurrection; John 18:1; 19:41; 19:18; 20:15) as occurring in a garden with his cross in the middle of that garden. John’s portrait of Jesus’ death and resurrection is a reenactment of the events at the tree in the middle of a garden in Genesis 3. So, Jesus’ final words are spoken while hanging on a tree in the middle of a garden, a garden that reverberates with loud echoes of the first garden.  

What was Finished?

 So, we must ask, what does “it” refer to? What, specifically, was Jesus referring to? With Jesus’ death, what was now complete or finished? What had Jesus brought to a conclusion by his death? Here is where a mistake is commonly made. We attempt to define Jesus’ words in isolation from the rest of John’s Gospel. But Jesus’ words occur at the end of a “work week” played out in John. Does John, then, provide us with any clues? He certainly does.

Since the entire passion story is painted with the colors of the initial creation (that is a clue), Jesus’ words, “It is finished,” take us back to the evaluation made by God’s Firstborn at the conclusion of six days of working:

The same Greek verb teleo is used in Genesis 2:1-2[1]:

“Thus, the heavens and the earth were finished…And on the seventh day, God finished the work” Genesis 2:1-2

Jesus repeats the words of God’s evaluation after six days of work. That is another clue.

The sequence of the initial creation account (in Genesis) is reproduced at the cross and provides us with an additional clue: After God made humanity, a man and a woman, on the sixth day, his final action, his work was now finished. After Jesus made a new humanity at the cross, a man and a woman, his final act, on the sixth day, Jesus’ work was now finished.   

We also find another clue when we consider that throughout John’s Gospel that God was still working in Jesus, that God’s work was not yet finished.  

My food[2] is to do the will of him who sent and to finish his work. John 4:34

 But I have a greater testimony than John’s, because of the works that the Father has given me to finish. John 5:17

There is work to be done in John’s Gospel. That work is to be finished by Jesus whom God has sent into the world. Jesus’ task is to finish the job. Another clue as to the meaning of Jesus’ words.

There is yet another clue. Observe the intertextual link between Genesis 2 and John 19. After the initial creation of six days, there is a reference to the sabbath rest of the seventh day (Genesis 2:2-3). The same reference to a Sabbath—the seventh day—is cited after Jesus’ death on the sixth day (John 19:30-31).

So, let’s put all the clues together. We have work that is finished by God’s Firstborn (Genesis) and God’s Son (John), two sixth days, two gardens, two trees in the middle of that garden, two people—a man and a woman created as a family—both standing at the foot of a tree, and two sabbaths to follow.

What was Finished?

What was finished in Jesus’ mind? What had Jesus brought to a conclusion by virtue of his death on the cross? When we put all of John’s clues together, what emerges from that investigation is two- fold:

The First Creation with the First Humanity is Finished

The first creation, including the effects of the entrance of sin, was now brought to a conclusion. The first creation is finished. Jesus, the better Adam, in obedience to his Father, accepted the punishment for Adam’s sin as the Lamb of God (John 1:29, 35). The first creation was marred by sin and death at a tree in a garden. God’s creative work, marked by thorns, was now finished by a better Adam, who wore the agricultural curse as a crown of thorns on his head. But there is more.

A New Humanity, a New Family of God, is Begun 

With the completion of the first creation at the cross, the foundation is laid for a new creation to begin. But the new creation will consist of people, who like the first Garden, will bear fruit (John 15), beginning with a better Adam and Eve.

When Jesus breathed down the Spirit at the cross onto Mary and the beloved disciple, he changed their relationships. The disciple becomes a son to the mother of Jesus and thus he enjoys a family relationship with Jesus as a brother, a child of God. As John stated in the Prologue (John 1:1-18), the disciple is reborn, but not by blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man (John 1:13), but born as a child of God (John 1:12), born of the Spirit (John 3:10-8).

Jesus’ true disciples become his brothers and sisters,[3] a new family of God. The cross made is possible.

Thank you for reading.

NOTES:

[1] In in the Greek version of the Old Testament called the Septuagint or LXX.

[2] “Food” is an obvious link to Genesis 1-3. Jesus’ food stands in sharp contrast with Adam’s food.

[3] John 20:17. “Go to my brothers and sisters and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”