Life-Purpose
Good Friday
Daily Reading: John 19:17 – 30
Focus Passage:
Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." A 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. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (Jn. 19:28 – 30)
John editorializes about Jesus in verse 28: “knowing that everything had now been finished. . . .”
Then he writes of Jesus cry from the cross: “It is finished.” The words announce his death. They also make a statement about his life-purpose.
At other times in his ministry, Jesus claimed that his purpose was to complete the work God sent him to do. In John 4:34, for instance, when the disciples offered him food to eat, he said, “My food is to do the will of the One who sent me and to finish God’s work.”
The word “finish” means to bring something to completion, “to come full circle,” or “to make whole what has been incomplete.”
Thus, when Jesus said, “It is finished” from the cross, he referred to the purpose for which he had come, the purpose for which God had sent him. In other words, everything he was supposed to do, he did. All that he was to become, he became. He was the most fully human person ever to have lived. He was the blueprint for what it means to be a mature, whole, authentic human being.
It occurred to me several years ago that my own life had a purpose and a mission. I was created and given life in order to “complete” or “finish” something. I began to wonder about that life-purpose, the original intention God had in giving me life and sustaining my life.
“Why am I here?”
“What does it mean for me to finish my life-work as Jesus finished his?”
I spent considerable time and energy open to my own “why am I here?” questions. I began to sense some directions for my own life. I came to understand a small part of the journey toward my own life-purpose. If I could stay on an intentional path, perhaps I could come to the end of my life and say, as Jesus did, “It is finished. I’ve fulfilled the purpose for which I was created. I’ve become who I was supposed to become and done what I was supposed to do.”
Of course for me, unlike Jesus, there is a constant unfolding of my life’s purpose, for I never get all of it in one dose. The journey is an ever-evolving process of becoming, and just when I think I have it, something else unexpected appears.
Further, there also are long moments of forgetting who I am, living in ways that contradict my larger purpose . . . and so life is a constant remembering, being called back to my own truth in God.
I believe this path is the hope for all of us as we live God-connected lives. We want to live out the fullness of God’s original intention for us, even as we know it will be a life-long journey.
At his death, Jesus testified that he had done so. At my death, I want to say the same thing.
For Reflection:
How would you describe your life-purpose today? How has your understanding of your life-purpose unfolded?
And how is your understanding of your life-purpose today different than it was 5 years ago? 10 years ago? 20 years ago? You can be assured that just as your understanding has changed in days past, it will change as you journey on into the days ahead of you.
Daily Reading: John 19:17 – 30
Focus Passage:
Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." A 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. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (Jn. 19:28 – 30)
John editorializes about Jesus in verse 28: “knowing that everything had now been finished. . . .”
Then he writes of Jesus cry from the cross: “It is finished.” The words announce his death. They also make a statement about his life-purpose.
At other times in his ministry, Jesus claimed that his purpose was to complete the work God sent him to do. In John 4:34, for instance, when the disciples offered him food to eat, he said, “My food is to do the will of the One who sent me and to finish God’s work.”
The word “finish” means to bring something to completion, “to come full circle,” or “to make whole what has been incomplete.”
Thus, when Jesus said, “It is finished” from the cross, he referred to the purpose for which he had come, the purpose for which God had sent him. In other words, everything he was supposed to do, he did. All that he was to become, he became. He was the most fully human person ever to have lived. He was the blueprint for what it means to be a mature, whole, authentic human being.
It occurred to me several years ago that my own life had a purpose and a mission. I was created and given life in order to “complete” or “finish” something. I began to wonder about that life-purpose, the original intention God had in giving me life and sustaining my life.
“Why am I here?”
“What does it mean for me to finish my life-work as Jesus finished his?”
I spent considerable time and energy open to my own “why am I here?” questions. I began to sense some directions for my own life. I came to understand a small part of the journey toward my own life-purpose. If I could stay on an intentional path, perhaps I could come to the end of my life and say, as Jesus did, “It is finished. I’ve fulfilled the purpose for which I was created. I’ve become who I was supposed to become and done what I was supposed to do.”
Of course for me, unlike Jesus, there is a constant unfolding of my life’s purpose, for I never get all of it in one dose. The journey is an ever-evolving process of becoming, and just when I think I have it, something else unexpected appears.
Further, there also are long moments of forgetting who I am, living in ways that contradict my larger purpose . . . and so life is a constant remembering, being called back to my own truth in God.
I believe this path is the hope for all of us as we live God-connected lives. We want to live out the fullness of God’s original intention for us, even as we know it will be a life-long journey.
At his death, Jesus testified that he had done so. At my death, I want to say the same thing.
For Reflection:
How would you describe your life-purpose today? How has your understanding of your life-purpose unfolded?
And how is your understanding of your life-purpose today different than it was 5 years ago? 10 years ago? 20 years ago? You can be assured that just as your understanding has changed in days past, it will change as you journey on into the days ahead of you.
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