Maybe for those who focus much less on Jesus’ death on the cross as “the process of atonement” which he was working through, these kinds of elaborate interpretations of the word/phrase/passage seem a bit over-much?

Based on other phrases the gospels indicate that Jesus said while on the cross, it seems that he was much more caught up in his immediate, physical state of suffering and death than he was with some elaborate, cosmic, metaphysical balancing of the scales of sin and grace.

For all we know the “it” to which he is referring in “it is finished” is simply his own mortal existence.

I think maybe your question begs the semi-rhetorical question response: “Why does it matter so much what he meant by it?” Is it really worth so much scrutiny compared to other things he said?

~jhimm
—
nothing lasts.
nothing is finished.
nothing is perfect.