Title: Jesus Cancels Your Debt
Intro: Have you ever been in debt?
Scriptures:
Isaiah 52:13-53:12,
Hebrews 4:14-16;
Hebrews 5:7-9,
John 18:1-40,
John 19:1-42.
Reflection
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
"When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, 'It is finished,' and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit." (John 19:30)
Have you ever been in debt? I am not just talking about money, though many of us know what that feels like. I am talking about the kind of debt that weighs on your soul—the mistakes you have made, the people you have hurt, the things you wish you could take back but cannot. That feeling of owing something you can never repay.
Today, I want to talk about a single word that changes everything. One word spoken by Jesus as he hung on the cross. In English, we translate it as three words: "It is finished." But in the original Greek, it was just one powerful word: tetelestai.
A few years ago, archaeologists made a fascinating discovery in the Holy Land. They uncovered a tax collector's office that was remarkably intact. Among the findings were two stacks of tax records. One stack had a word stamped across the top: tetelestai. Do you know what that meant? "Paid in full."
Can you imagine the relief those people felt when their debts were marked tetelestai? No more sleepless nights worrying about what they owed. No more fear when the tax collector came knocking. Their debt was paid, finished, complete.
When Jesus uttered this word from the cross, he was not just saying his life was over. He was declaring something much more profound: the debt of our sins has been paid in full.
This idea of sin as debt was not new. Throughout his ministry, Jesus often spoke of sin as a debt we owe to God. Remember the parable he told about the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18? A master forgave his servant an enormous debt—something the servant could never hope to repay in several lifetimes. But then that same servant went out and demanded repayment of a tiny debt from a fellow servant.
The message was clear: we have been forgiven an unpayable debt by God, so how can we not forgive the relatively small debts others owe us?
Even in the Lord's Prayer, Jesus taught us to pray: "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" (Matthew 6:12). We understand this as "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." Sin is a debt. Forgiveness is cancellation of debt.
Isaiah foresaw this moment centuries earlier when he wrote of the suffering servant: "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities... the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:5-6). The debt of our sins was transferred to Jesus.
Let us be honest about the size of this debt. Every hateful thought. Every selfish action. Every moment we have turned away from someone in need. Every time we have put ourselves first. Every lie we have told. Every promise we have broken.
If we were to count them all up, how massive would our debt be?
Think about it like this: Imagine if every sin in your life added up to a financial debt. How much would you owe? Thousands? Millions? More than you could pay in a lifetime?
The writer of Hebrews reminds us that Jesus "offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears" (Hebrews 5:7). Why such anguish? Perhaps because he truly understood the weight of the world's sin—your sin and mine—that he was about to bear.
And yet, knowing the cost, Jesus willingly went to the cross. In the garden of Gethsemane, when the soldiers came to arrest him, he did not run. John tells us: "Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward" (John 18:4). He stepped toward his suffering, not away from it.
Picture the scene at Calvary. The sky has grown dark. Jesus has been hanging on the cross for hours. His body is broken, bleeding. The crowd that had shouted "Crucify him!" now watches, some mocking, some weeping.
In John 19, we read how the soldiers divided his clothes, how his mother stood nearby with the disciple whom Jesus loved, how Jesus was thirsty and was given sour wine on a hyssop branch.
And then comes the moment: "When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, 'It is finished,' and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit" (John 19:30).
Tetelestai. Paid in full.
That single word changed everything. In that moment, the debt of all humanity—past, present, and future—was canceled. The ledger was wiped clean. The account was settled.
This was not a promissory note saying, "Your sins will be forgiven someday." It was not a conditional statement: "Your sins are forgiven if you do this or that." It was a declaration: "It is finished." Complete. Done.
But what exactly did Jesus pay? What was the price?
Isaiah 53 gives us a glimpse: "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief... he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows... he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53:3-5).
The price was his body, broken. His blood, spilled. His relationship with the Father, temporarily severed when he cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46).
Hebrews tells us that Jesus, "the great high priest who has passed through the heavens" (Hebrews 4:14), can sympathize with our weaknesses because he "in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). He knows what it is like to be human, to suffer, to be tempted. Yet he remained sinless—the perfect sacrifice, the perfect payment.
The price Jesus paid was not just physical suffering, though that was excruciating. It was also spiritual suffering—taking on the sins of the world, experiencing separation from God. A price we cannot even comprehend.
So how do we respond to this incredible gift? To this declaration that our debt has been paid in full?
First, we simply say, "Amen. So be it." We accept that these words apply to us personally. No matter what you have done, no matter how far you have strayed, no matter how massive your debt seems—it has been paid. All of it.
I do not know what you are carrying today. Maybe it is guilt over something you did years ago that still haunts you. Maybe it is shame over a habit you cannot seem to break. Maybe it is regret over relationships you have damaged.
Hear me now: Jesus says to you, tetelestai. Paid in full.
Will you believe that? Will you accept that gift?
Second, we say, "Thank you." We live lives of gratitude. That is what the word "Eucharist" means—thanksgiving. Every Sunday when we gather, we are essentially saying "thank you" to Jesus for what he did on the cross.
Think about it: if someone paid off your mortgage today—completely wiped out that debt—would not you be overwhelmingly grateful? Would not you want to thank them every chance you got? How much more should we thank Jesus, who paid a debt we could never repay ourselves!
Third, we pay it forward. Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:8, "Freely you have received, freely give." If Jesus has been so loving and kind to us in such a magnificent way, should not we try to be loving and kind to others in the small things of everyday life?
Remember the parable of the unforgiving servant? After being forgiven a massive debt, he refused to forgive a small one. His master was furious: "Should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?" (Matthew 18:33).
When we truly understand the debt that has been canceled for us, we cannot help but extend that same grace to others. The person who hurt you, the colleague who betrayed you, the friend who disappointed you—their debt to you is nothing compared to what Jesus has forgiven you.
Finally, we try to avoid accumulating new debt. Paul asks in Romans 6:1-2, "Shall we go on sinning so that grace may abound? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?"
If Jesus has paid all the debt I owe to God, I must avoid piling up more debt through continuing in sin. Not because I am afraid God will not forgive me—the cross settled that once and for all—but because I am grateful for what Jesus has done.
When we truly grasp the meaning of tetelestai, it changes everything about how we live.
We no longer carry the burden of guilt and shame. We have been set free. As Hebrews 4:16 tells us, we can now "with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."
We are motivated by gratitude, not fear. We serve God not to earn his love—we already have it—but because we are thankful for what he has done.
We extend grace to others because we have received such extraordinary grace ourselves.
We live differently, not to earn salvation but because we have already received it. As Paul says in Ephesians 2:8-10, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works."
The power of tetelestai continues to transform lives today. I have seen hardened criminals weep when they realize their debt has been paid. I have seen people carrying decades of guilt finally set their burden down at the foot of the cross. I have seen marriages restored, addictions broken, and hatred turned to love—all because of this one word: tetelestai.
Listen to the words of Isaiah 53:11: "Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities."
Jesus saw you from the cross. He knew your name, your struggles, your sins. And he declared, "It is finished." Your debt is paid.
When we look at the cross, we see many things. We see suffering. We see sacrifice. We see love beyond measure.
But let us never forget that we also see victory. Tetelestai is not a cry of defeat but a shout of triumph. It is Jesus declaring, "Mission accomplished. Debt paid. Salvation secured."
As we commemorate Jesus's passion and death today, let us look up to the cross and contemplate what he did for us. Let us thank him from the depths of our hearts. Let us promise him that our whole lives will be one unbroken song of thanksgiving to him who gave his life to cancel the immeasurable debt we owe to God.
Let these three words—"It is finished"—or better yet, this one word—tetelestai—echo in your heart today and every day. Your debt has been paid in full.
And all God's people said, "Amen."
"Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:16)
May the heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all...amen.
