Finished

Read John 19:28-30

“Yummmm! Pie!” exclaimed Eric, coming into the kitchen where his mother and sister Kari were working. He looked longingly at the fluffy, yellow mixture Kari was stirring.

“Go away,” said Kari. “This isn’t finished.”

Eric left, but the smell of lemon followed him. When he came back later, Kari had poured the lemon filling into the pie shell. “Can I have a piece?” he asked.

“No,” Kari told him. “The filling is still hot.”

Some time later, Eric again eyed the pie on the counter. “Can I have a piece now?” he asked.

“Not yet,” replied Kari. “I baked the pie for dessert tonight. Besides, it’s lemon meringue pie, and it doesn’t have any meringue yet. It isn’t finished.”

Eric checked back one more time before dinner. “It’s finished,” Kari told him, “but I told you—it’s for dessert.”

They did have the pie for dessert. Eric carefully scooped up and swallowed every crumb on his plate. “Now the pie is really finished,” he said, patting his stomach. “It’s all gone.”

When it was time for devotions, Dad read from the Gospel of John. “Some of the words I heard around here this afternoon reminded me of Jesus’ words on the cross,” he said. “The words It is finished are the ones I’m thinking of. A couple of times I overheard Kari tell Eric that the lemon pie was not finished yet. Finally, she said it was finished, but even then it didn’t do Eric any good. Why didn’t it?”

“Because I didn’t get to eat it yet,” Eric promptly replied.

Dad smiled. “Jesus came into the world to take the punishment for our sin. His good work is finished. But why won’t some people believe it?”

“Because they won’t accept him as Savior,” suggested Kari.

“That’s right,” said Dad. “To receive the benefit of the finished pie, we had to take it for ourselves and eat it. To receive the benefit of Christ’s finished work, we have to take it for ourselves, too.”

How about you?

Have you accepted what Jesus did for you? He finished the task of dying for your salvation, and he offers it to you right now. Today is a great day to accept it!

Memorize:

“The Lord laid on him the guilt and sins of us all.” Isaiah 53:6