"It is finished."

The hour of his glory is the hour of his death. At the end of the first creation God said it is finished. Now at the beginning of the new creation, Jesus says it is finished. The sting of death is removed. The gift of new life with God begins.

It is now nearly six hours that Jesus has been hanging on the cross. This is the end of a long night of suffering beginning with his agony in the Garden, where he sweated tears of blood. The pain and suffering that has wracked his body, draining his blood and sapped his life breath has taken its toll.  This was the cup of baptism that he had spoken of to his disciples. "But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! (Luke 12:50) This was the cup that he asked John and James if they could share with him. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?" (Mark 10:38)

At the Last Supper, which was the Passover Supper, there are four cups of wine that are taken. The third cup was the wine that was consecrated into the Blood of the new and eternal covenant. But instead of consuming the traditional fourth cup at the conclusion of the Passover meal, Jesus says: “Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God” (Mk 14:25)

He had just cried out, "I thirst." And they gave him a sponge soaked in wine. Having tasted it (the fourth cup). He cried out, "It is finished."