I know it’s strange, but I enjoy mowing the lawn.

Earlier this week I mowed our yard for the first time this year.  Those of you who live in other parts of the country won’t have to worry about that particular task for a while yet, but here in the Pacific Northwest spring arrives early.  The daffodils are starting to bloom, and the grass is beginning to grow in earnest.  Which means lawns need to be mowed. 

Fortunately, I enjoy mowing the lawn.  Well, technically I enjoy viewing the mown lawn afterwards.  I don’t mind mowing the lawn, but what I really appreciate is seeing the finished product.  And especially if I trimmed along all the borders!  When the job is completed, the grass blades are all nicely snipped off at a uniform height.  The lawn looks like a lovely, living green carpet … delightful to the eye! 

If I’m able, I celebrate the completed job from my deck by reclining in a deck chair where I can soak in the view and drink in the smell of the cut grass.  The appearance is extremely satisfying!  There is nothing quite like a manicured lawn to foster contentment in a job well done.  There on the deck I bask in the knowledge that the lawn mowing is finished.

But the lawn mowing isn’t finished.  In just a few days during the height of growing season the fine, finished appearance morphs into a rather untidy view.  Even when the grass transitions to dormancy in the winter months, the spring brings new life again, and the mowing resumes.  (Case and point: me mowing the lawn earlier this week!)  The sad reality is that the lawn mowing is never finished.

And that’s how it is with so many things, isn’t it?  The house repairs and house cleaning, the car maintenance, the work responsibilities, even our relationship adjustments are never, ever finished.  Restocking the pantry, washing and folding the laundry, paying the bills … also never finished.  Gleaning insights, becoming wiser, learning and growing into a better person is a life-long venture and is never completed.  Indeed, the list of unfinished business is a long one.

Which can be a rather depressing thought.  Wouldn’t it be nice if something worthwhile could truly be finished once-and-for-all?

Well, there actually is something wonderful that is finished.  Totally, completely, irrevocably, once-and-for-all finished!

No, it’s not taxes.  Not bills either.  Neither is it work or life-struggles.  Nor shady politicians.  Or aging ungracefully.  I’m sure we could make a lengthy list of issues that we would like to see brought to an end, but which won’t truly end until we die.  (And that’s an altogether different finish!)

Unfortunately, this aforementioned “once-and-for-all” finish isn’t an end to our sinfulness either.  Our faults and flaws will remain with us until, well … our ultimate finish, the moment we die.

So then, what is this thing that is totally, completely, irrevocably, once-and-for-all finished?  It’s not our humanness, our frailties and mistakes, or our utter sinfulness – but the atonement for our sinfulness!

That atonement was procured by God’s holy Sacrifice.  By Jesus, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”  (John 1:29). 

It wasn’t pretty.  It didn’t catch the eye and elicit a lingering gaze like a newly mown lawn.  People had to look away in horror and revulsion.  The very Son of God hung naked, beaten and bleeding on a Roman device of torture and death.  He had done nothing wrong; committed no crime.  But he bore all our wrongs and was punished for our countless crimes; crimes that were committed against him.  (Consider that concept a moment.)

Jesus didn’t miss a one.  There wasn’t a single sin we have tallied that he did not cover completely.  Not our secret sins.  Not our horrible sins.  Not our repeated sins.  Not those sins we are most ashamed of now.  All were included in his all-sufficient sacrifice. 

How do we know?  How can we be confident of this beyond a shadow of a doubt?  Because he said so himself!  “It is finished,” proclaimed our Savior from the cross.  (John 19:30)

When he announced, “It is finished,” Jesus wasn’t speaking about his suffering being over or his life being finished by death, though he died shortly after uttering those words.  No, what was finished was the payment for our transgressions.  It was a debt that was fully paid; a spiritual lien that was completely removed from our record. 

It was a job that wasn’t presumably or partially finished, or finished temporarily, but completely and certainly finished.  That is, finished finished.

How incredible!  How wonderful!  There really is something that is completely completed!  We are redeemed and restored through Jesus. 

“Is the payment for our sins really and truly made?” we timidly ask.  To which the Lord Jesus answers assertively, “Yes, it is finished!”