On John 13 and 19 and LSB 452

"It is finished." What, though? Well, we sing it: "O perfect life of love, all, all is finished now." The English disguises it a tad, but it's what John said in chapter 13, the Maundy Thursday Gospel: "having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them *to the end.*" (εἰς τέλος ἠγάπησεν αὐτούς). Love that goes the course, all the way, to the end. And so, of course, love that has no end, love stronger by far than sin or death. O perfect life of love, all all is finished. For once in human flesh and blood there was a life that was love 100% through and through, outside, inside, and everywhere in between. This is as human life was meant to be.  Unbroken love from cradle to grave, from manger to cross to tomb. And THAT is what burst the hole straight through death and set us free. A perfect life of love. A finished life of love. He reaches it to us to share. "Yet work, O Lord, in me / As thou for me hast wrought; / And let my love the answer to be / To grace Thy love has brought."