Tetelestai. With this one word, right before he gave up his life, Jesus said it was all completed. It was fulfilled. It was finished. All that he had set out to do, and all that the Father had planned for the greatest and most momentous mission in history, which he had been working out since the very beginning, was finished. And this accomplishment was the hinge of human history, ushering in a brand new age. Tetelestai.
In one sense, Jesus had completed the fulfillment of the picture of the Messiah that the Jewish Scriptures had been presenting for the Jews, little by little, increment by increment. Anyone who listened to the Word of God was waiting for a Savior who would be born of a virgin, come from Bethlehem, live in meekness, reign over his enemies, be a king of peace, be ill-received by his own, be betrayed for silver, have his clothes divided between others, and even be given sour wine in his last moments, to name a few. God had been preparing a proof of Jesus’ identity for thousands of years, and Jesus had just fulfilled it, down to the minutest detail.
Better yet, Jesus had also completed the mission to take on the holy wrath his people deserved and so save the world from sin and death. Jesus paid the price we could never pay and took on a humiliation none of us would ever want. And because of that, our record is washed white as snow, and God has swung the gavel and declared us righteous. In this, Jesus made the ultimate display of love for us his people, and in this we have eternal life with the one who loves us so.
As we approach Christmas season, we are reminded that we celebrate the birth and life of Jesus because of the mission he came to ultimately fulfill. And his completion and accomplishment of that mission is something to celebrate indeed. His perfect fulfillment of the law, of the prophets, and of the divine mission ended the former days of death and brought in the current age of life and glory—that’s why we call it Good Friday. Because in the death of Jesus Christ, sin and death really are finished, once and for all.
