The service was recorded in the chapel at Bishopthorpe Palace, with music from the Ebor Singers. You can read Archbishop Stephen's reflection below.
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When a great artist completes their work and steps back from the canvas, or a writer puts down her pen, or presses save on the keyboard; or think of Bach adding the final achingly beautiful notes to the Chorale which concludes his setting of the St John Passion, or Bob Chilcott finishing the powerful setting of the American Spiritual we have just heard, they might say - either quietly to themselves, or aloud triumphantly (or even with relief) ‘It is finished.’
These words don’t simply mean ‘it is over’, or ‘it is ended.’ For a work of art, they mean ‘it is ready’; ‘it is beginning.’ For the great music, the great poetry, the great painting now lives and speaks, over and over again, to all who come into its orbit.
So, I’m on the side of the painter, Jenny Savile, who said that for her, she knows when one of her paintings is finished when it starts to breathe. When it begins a life of its own.
In St John’s gospel, when Jesus dies his final words are these: ‘It is finished.’ Or as some translations have it: ‘It is accomplished.’
And yes, these words do mean that the cruel agony of his tortuous death is over. The struggle and the passion are done.
But Jesus’ death is God’s greatest work of art. Like the great artist stepping back from the canvas, like the great composer putting the final notes on the manuscript, like the great poet putting down his pen, Jesus says ‘It is finished’ because now, out of his death, something beautiful is born. And the beauty and goodness of the cross speak today to all who come into its orbit. For this cross, placed at the heart of the world is the source of goodness and beauty, the goodness and beauty of God.
By his death, Christ has reconciled us to God. The eternal truth of God’s great love for us – God’s passion – is revealed.
To make sure Jesus is dead, the soldiers pierce his side with a spear. And from his wounded heart flow blood and water, the sacramental signs of life and peace: water for baptism, blood for the Eucharistic meal. The means whereby we receive the life of Jesus, and the fruits of our redemption.
It is finished. Jesus has died.
It is beginning. New life flows from the crucified saviour.
It is accomplished. The dead wood of the cross has become the tree of life. Where life was lost, there, life has been restored.
As one of the chorales in Bach’s St John’s Passion puts it:
For now, by faith depicted, the saving truth I see,
How thou, O Most afflicted, hast shed Thy blood for me.
