"It Is Finished"

1Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they struck him in the face.

4Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, "Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him." 5When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!"

6As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, "Crucify! Crucify!"

__________________

16Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18Here they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.

___________________

28Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." 29A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. 30When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Jason Tuskes was 17 years old. He was close to his mother, his father, and his younger brother, Christian. Jason was an expert swimmer who loved to scuba dive.

He died while scuba diving on his mother's birthday.

Art Tuskes said his son was an honor student and athlete who often stayed home on weekends to help his disabled father, who is confined to a wheelchair. Jason had taken up diving and loved the sport. He had completed almost 100 dives.

''My son, he feared nothing,'' Mr. Tuskes said. ''He died doing something he loved. When he looked at sinkholes, or springs, it was another challenge. He was willing to challenge the springs. He was fearless.''

Mr. Tuskes, 51, said that morning started out happily. It was his wife's 42nd birthday and a party was planned for that afternoon. Jason had planned to go on a diving trip in the Gulf of Mexico.

But when the diving trip was canceled, he called his father for permission to go diving in a small spring in Jenkins Creek. A friend had lost a diving knife there and Jason was going to help him find it. He said he would be back by 2 p.m. for the party.

His father gave permission because Jason had dived in the same spring a few months ago.

''If I had known it was so dangerous, my son never would have been there,'' Tuskes said.

Jason was exploring an underwater cave, but became wedged into a narrow passageway. When he realized he was trapped, Jason shed his yellow metal air tank and unsheathed his diver’s knife. With the tank as a tablet and the knife as a pen, he wrote one last message to his family: “I love you mom, dad, and Christian.” Then he ran out of air and drowned.

''It was a personal message from my son,'' said Mr. Tuskes ''his last words that he carved underwater will be part of the decor of the house.''

His father keeps the tank with the message scrawled on it in his Brooksville home as a memorial.

A man’s dying words – something communicated in the last few seconds of life – is a message we must pay special attention to.

I would like us to go back in history this morning.

Back nearly 2000 years ago to the city of Jerusalem and consider the dying words of Jesus of Nazareth.

As we do, I want you to use your imagination.

 Imagine yourself a Jew, living in the region of Judea.

 It’s the week of Passover.

 You and your family have journeyed to Jerusalem for this special event.

And now – as the week ends, we have been caught up in an event that you would never have imagined – we are witnesses to a crucifixion – not just any crucifixion – but the crucifixion of Jesus.

As you stand there, looking at his beaten, battered, torn and blood soaked body – you hear Him speak His last words: “IT IS FINISHED” and breathes His last.

His last words.

 Powerful words.

 “It is Finished”?

 What do they mean?

 What was finished?

As a Jew, you had hoped it would be a special week for you and your family.

 Passover is the greatest anticipated event of the year.