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Have you ever heard of parents having the gift of the “stink eye?” That means that when a child is acting up, his parent can look all the way across a crowded room with a very specific look and the child knows exactly that he better stop, or else! Parents also have the gift of using just one word to convey a whole lecture full of truth. My dad could say the word “Now!” with a stink eye and boy did I totally get what he was meaning! There is a scene in John 19 where Jesus is on the cross and obviously is not speaking much. In the very last minutes of his life the scripture says that he looked toward heaven and victoriously cries out “It is finished!” This one word conveys so much more than what we normally assume when we read this story. He is conveying that he has now accomplished everything that the Father had given him to complete in order to bring the Creator and the Created back into fellowship again. Nothing more needed to be done, said, or accomplished. He had fulfilled all of the prophecies, symbols and fore-shadowing in the Old Testament—over 300 of them. He had been sent to seek and save the lost, and it was now completed. Atonement was needed, and he brought about reconciliation between God and man through his death. It truly was finished. I would encourage you to prepare for Sunday’s message by reading the crucifixion story in John 19.