“It is finished” John 19:30

If it is finished, why do we wander? After the first exodus, the Israelites had the opportunity to march into the promise land and to live the abundant life God had promised them so that they would be agents of true humanity for their world. Standing at the border to their promise land, they woosed out. Like so many of us they saw the giants, and were overwhelmed. It was to big a task for them, but also like us they forgot who God is and what his covenant with them truly was.

We are the new covenant faithful people. Jesus initiated the second exodus through his life and ultimately on the cross. He fulfilled the old covenant and wrote a new one with his blood so that we might live in the promise land now. Knowing that he has done this, that we are his new creation meant to bring about and live out the redemption of the world, why do we wander?

What is finished? Clearly the problem of sin is not finished, because I still screw up and sin. Clearly the eschatological hope is not finished, because we still hope for the new heavens and the new earth. What is finished is the power the world had over us to hold us as slaves. We are now set free to head towards the promise land. This is the final plan of God’s creation, the final culmination of his covenant with Abraham. All people can now live free. Easter Sunday is the first day of the new creation, and all men are given the right to follow Jesus into the promise land and experience new creation. Yet, so few lives seem transformed, so few people live in that freedom, so few people see past their own narcissistic agendas. The cross brought us to the border of the promise land and invited us in, but history shows that we have continued to wander in the desert. Why do we wander?

Rather than be a part of God’s redeeming work of new creation, we have huddled together in the desert of our own self absorption and built religious fortresses. Instead of the covenant faithful community living out and bringing new creation to a hurting and broken world, we have set up church organizations and sanctified the idea of being “Purpose Driven”. Instead of an intimate relationship with our creator we have chosen to make an idol out of the canon and allow that to be the only way God speaks, for fear of what he might say outside of those human limitations. Instead of bringing our light into the darkness, we have learned to network our lights together so that we might encourage one another. If we united and marched into the promise land with all of our resources and under the banner of the crucified God we could eradicate aids, we could demolish wars with peace, we could offer a hand up to the poor; instead we spend millions on giant building that don’t even reflect the beauty and glory of our Living God, but serve our mega-church agendas quit well. We are the salt that should preserve the world, the light that should bring healing; instead the world seems almost unchanged by our existence. Pain and suffering seem unaffected by the truth we claim to hold. The promise land still sits there waiting for God’s people to live out His reign as King. But we huddle together, point fingers at immorality, give abstract spiritual reasons for real physical need we should be meeting, and we wander in the desert, why do we wander?

When Jesus spoke these words, when he declared “it” finished, he opened up what Hebrews calls the “new and life giving way” (Heb. 10:20). Which means that as we seek to follow His way, we should be giving life to this world; not to be confused with building big churches, or having lots of good Christian friends. There is a new way, and if we can walk in it our world (all of creation) will be blessed with true life. This becomes an easy way to see if we have become part of that new creation, if we have truly joined the covenant faithful community, because we need only look around and see if our faith has made the world a better place. What would our neighbors say? What would people of other sexual orientations say? What would people of other religions say? What would people of other socio economic backgrounds say? If the rocks and trees could speak, what would they say? What would children dieing of aids say? What would citizens of war torn Iraq say? These are not just abstract question, but revealing truths about what we have allowed the church to become. It is in the promise land that we experience what Jesus meant by “it is finished”, it is there that we live in a different way. “We are able so to live not because we have answers to all the world’s troubles, but because God has given us a way to live without answers” (Hauerwas). Wandering in the desert we find ourselves trapped by the need to find answers, in the promise land of new creation we can live without answers. We are free to live without the need to convince the world that we hold the absolute truth, because we have a true relationship with the one who is absolute truth.

It is scary standing at the border, knowing that there are giants in there that we can not overcome, knowing that we will be asked to live without answers, knowing that we will be called to sacrifice everything for those who may hate and mock us. But there is a land overflowing with beer and thai food (or something like that), and on the cross Jesus finished our spiritual exodus, he put an end to our wandering. All we have to do now is put down all of our selfish desires and institutional agendas and follow the rejected and crucified Messiah into the beautiful dark mysteries of our Creator God.

So why do we wander?