Our Bucket List and Jesus
A few years ago, I came to a sobering life realization: I was not going to live long enough to accomplish everything on my bucket list. I was in fact going to have to be more intentional with my prioritizing and cross some things off my long list of goals.
Crossing things off my list was disconcerting because I hate giving up anything.
One of my favorite movies is a classic called “The Bucket List,” which tells the story of two terminally ill men from very different backgrounds and financial statuses. They make a list of things they would like to do before they “kick the bucket.” The movie follows their journey as they are confronted with their mortality as well as having to come to terms with the purpose of life, friendship and love.
As I thought about “the list” and the journey of life, I was reminded that at the end of His life, Jesus was able to say the words “it is finished.” He doesn’t say “I have finished” in the sense of having checked off all the things he wanted to do on His bucket list. Nor does He say “I am finished” in resignation to the inevitability of his death. When Jesus says “it is finished,” He is referring to God’s agenda – the work His Heavenly Father sent Him to do.
The crucifixion was not a one-off event for believers. As believers we should daily die to sin and self, allowing Christ to live His life through us. Our goal should be like Jesus in John 8:29 when he says, “I do always the things that please Him.” When we live like John 8:29, we cease checking off the boxes and are more concerned with the surrender of our lives to God’s agenda. Then and only then can we say at the end of our day, and ultimately our life, “It is finished.”
That is when we are finally released from our own demands, urgencies, and the judgments of other people. We are freed from the guilt of not measuring up to the false expectations we created for ourselves. We find we have freedom in Christ.
When the Son said “it is finished,” He had completed all that was required to provide the way to restore our broken relationship with God.
He took us from a life without hope to a place where we are free to live the complete life He always intended. He has freed us from being slaves of our list to being a loving, yielded servants to the Father’s agenda.
(Thanks to Mark Finger of Melbourne, Australia. whom I met while speaking in his church. Mark graciously gave me permission to use his original content as a springboard for this blog.)
