Jhimm, I agree that when Jesus said, ‘It is finished’, he was not thinking of ‘some elaborate, cosmic, metaphysical balancing of the scales of sin and grace’, and it’s certainly possible that he had in mind nothing more than the end of his own life. But if, for example, he quotes the opening line of Psalm 22 (‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’), we are bound to ask what significance he saw in that text for his suffering. Similarly, if John highlights the Old Testament background to the offer of vinegar to drink, we should ask what significance John, and perhaps Jesus himself, saw in Psalm 69. Repeatedly the Gospels ask us to interpret the events that are being related in light of key Old Testament narratives. So it seems likely to me that the words ‘It is finished’ in some way mark the fulfilment of that interpretation.

If Jesus lived out of the scriptures, it shouldn’t surprise us that the psalms were on his mind during his protracted death.

The reason I think it is worth the scrutiny is that it is indicative of, and determinative for, how we tell the whole story about Jesus. In itself it’s only a small detail, but it is out of these details that we construct the larger narrative about Jesus that shapes are worship, discipleship, mission, etc. - as, perhaps, a cynic philosopher or apocalyptic oddball or Israel’s deliverer or universal redeemer or my personal lord and saviour.