The Darkest Day
There was one more thing that was finished that day, and that was the separation between Jesus and God. In John's gospel the distance was mostly physical and it was only temporary, but when Jesus gave up his spirit, he was not thirsty anymore. He dove back into the stream of living water from which he had sprung and swam all the way home.

Those whom he left behind saw nothing but his corpse. He was not a teacher anymore. He had become a teaching instead--a window into the depths of God that some could see through and some could not. Those who held out hope for a strong God, a fierce God, a God who would brook no injustice--they looked upon a scene where God was not, while those whose feet Jesus had washed, whose faces he had touched, whose open mouths he had fed as if they were little birds--they looked upon a scene in which God had died for love of them.

He had put his own body between them and those who meant to do them harm. He had demolished the rock around their hearts. He had shown them a dangerous new way to live.

It was dark by the time they got him down and found a place to lay him. It was the Sabbath, his turn to rest. His part was over. His work was done.

--The Rev. Dr. Barbara Brown Taylor
from “"It is Finished"”

Join our mailing list