“And bowing His head, Jesus gave up His spirit” (John 19:30). His head did not fall forward or slump – He bowed his head. Jesus was no exhausted, swooning sufferer. “No one takes it [my life] from me,” he had promised, “but I lay it down of my own accord” (John 10:18). The man on the center cross commanded center stage. He was sovereign, even in—especially in—death. The family business to which he referred as a boy was finished some twenty-one years later and half a mile to the west, on the hill of Golgotha.
Exactly what was finished? Well there is one task to which he no longer needs to tend, and that is the redemption of humankind. Jesus, God’s sinless Son, absorbed in himself our sinful state. And we, his rebellious creation, can receive the goodness of Jesus Christ. Remember, my friend, you are never alone.
