2026 Midweek Lenten Sermon D
Rev. Rolf Preus| March 18, 2026| John 19:28-30
“After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!” Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.” (John 19:28-30)
Jesus had finished his work. He had done everything the law required of us. He had suffered everything the law threatened against us. He had taken the place of sinners and redeemed the world by his obedience and death. He had crushed Satan’s head. He had reconciled this world to God. It was indeed finished. But not quite. Not yet. One more thing had to be done. While suffering the torture of the cross, and bearing the judgment of the law, and dying for sinners, Jesus was careful to fulfill everything the Bible said and to neglect nothing. It was Psalm 69 that Jesus had in mind. In Psalm 69:20-21 we read:
Reproach has broken my heart,
And I am full of heaviness;
I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none;
And for comforters, but I found none.
They also gave me gall for my food,
And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
They would not give him vinegar to drink unless Jesus asked for it. So, he did. “That the Scripture might be fulfilled,” he said, “I thirst!”
“I thirst.” He’s not complaining. Jesus suffered without complaint. We sing,
A Lamb goes uncomplaining forth, the guilt of all men bearing,
And laden with the sins of earth, none else the burden sharing
Goes patient on, grows weak and faint
To slaughter led without complaint, that spotless life to offer
Bears shame, and stripes, and wounds and death
Anguish and mockery and saith, “Willing all this I suffer.”
Isaiah wrote,
He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth. (Isaiah 53:7)
Jesus was thirsty. He was thirsty physically, from the pain of the cross. He was thirsty spiritually, in his desire to obey his Father whom he loved. His love for his Father, his love for us, and his love for the Holy Scriptures combined to evoke from his lips the words, “I thirst.” The words of the psalm had to be fulfilled. After he said, “I thirst,” he was given vinegar to drink. Then, when the final prophecy was fulfilled, he was ready to die. “It is finished.”
What is finished? His suffering on the cross is finished. After saying, “It is finished,” he commended his spirit to God and breathed his last. He’s done doing the work he did on the cross. It is finished. He will never suffer and die again.
What is finished? His humiliation is finished. Christ’s humiliation was when he chose not to use all the divine powers that his humanity had. He emptied himself, took on the form of a slave and became obedient all the way to the death of a cross. He did not take advantage of all his divine powers and prerogatives when he lived among us for those thirty-three years. His humiliation was evident on the cross, as they told him to come down from the cross and mocked him when he didn’t. They thought he was weak. But Jesus had the almighty power to come down from the cross. His love for his Father and for us kept them there. Now he would be exalted. His humiliation is finished.
What is finished? Our redemption is finished. We owed obedience to God. He paid that debt. We had earned punishment from God. He bore that punishment. We owed love. As the hatred of all haters in history was poured upon him, he loved purely and completely. He paid the debt of love humanity owed to God. He paid it in full. His love defeated hate. Only Jesus could have loved so thoroughly. He paid what we owed to God. It is finished.
What is finished? Our sin, our guilt, our alienation from God and one another, our sickness, our death, and everything evil that could befall us. It is finished.
Here we need to step back and consider the difference between faith and experience. Our experience will always contradict our faith. You experience sin. Indeed, you sin every day. That makes you guilty. That separates you from God and your neighbor. That causes death. And the sin you do every day is no different than the sin done by the very worst sinners out there. So, you might ask, what is finished? All these things that Jesus overcame are present with me. What is finished?
Here we latch on to faith. We hold on in faith to the faith. Faith isn’t imaginary or uncertain or vague. It doesn’t bebop here and there looking for some kind of proof or ecstatic experience to validate itself. Faith is clearheaded and focused. Consider the hymn we’ve been singing every Sunday during Lent.
On my heart imprint your image
Blessed Jesus King of grace
That life’s riches, cares, and pleasures
Never may your work erase
Let the clear inscription be
Jesus crucified for me
Is my life, my hope’s foundation
And my glory and salvation.
Jesus crucified for me means that the sin that clings to me, the guilt that distresses me, the alienation I feel, have all been overcome. The sin is not counted against me. The guilt is gone. I am in fellowship with the God who made me because Jesus did and suffered everything God required of me. It is finished means a new life has begun. I am no longer controlled by sin, no longer tormented by guilt, no longer a stranger to God, but I am God’s dear child, holy and pure, washed from all sin in the blood of the Lamb.
It is finished. Pay attention to the tense of the verb. Not, it will be finished. Not, it was finished. But it is finished. Is finished is in the perfect tense. The perfect tense in Greek is a completed action that has continuing results. It’s not just something that happened then. It’s not as if Jesus finished what he set out to do then, but perhaps something more might have to be done in the future depending on circumstances. It is finished means that it will always be finished until the end of time. It cannot be unfinished.
That’s the foundation for our life. There are many things we must do. There are tasks we must perform. There are duties we must fulfill. We Christians are called to serve God in whatever vocation he has placed us. As a citizen, a husband or wife, a son or daughter, a father or mother, an employer or employee, a neighbor, or a friend. Things need to be done. Jobs completed, obligations fulfilled, favors granted, appreciation shown, and the list goes on and on. Most of the time we don’t get to half of the things on our plate. Or, we get distracted from our duties and must return repeatedly to the same task. Looking at what we must do we see that nothing is finished.
And during this time of our lives when we can’t get it all done, we rest our souls in what has already been done, what is the most important thing that could be done. The most important thing in our life is not what we’ve done or not done. The most important thing in our life is what Jesus has done. It is finished.
We live our lives sheltered by the cross. The weaknesses, flaws, and sins that corrupt our every good effort are all forgiven. Not to be forgiven someday. They are all forgiven, because it is finished. Our standing with God is secured. Because of what is finished on the cross, because Jesus completed the work he set out to do, our future is bright. The deep darkness of Christ’s suffering led to the glory of his resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven to rule over us as our King. We look back to his cross and see what he finished. Then we look forward to his glorification and see its result. We live here under the cross. We bear the cross that God sends us. While we must daily repent of our sin and be reminded that we aren’t in heaven yet, we know that Christ’s glory is ours. Should we doubt this is so, we need only listen once more to our Savior’s cry, “It is finished.” Everything that we needed to be done has been done. In Jesus we find rest and peace. Amen