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The lyrics to this song were written by my friend Doug Boemler Wareing, and handed off to our circle of college friends in 2004 as a songwriting/recording exercise. My take on it was much more aggressive than the others, though I thought it matched the intensity of the words quite nicely.
“Tetelestai” is a Koiné Greek word, translated loosely as “Complete”, or “Paid in Full.” The word itself was frequently used in the business connotation of a bill being paid in full. It appears exactly twice in the Christian Bible, both times referring to Christ’s words on the cross and what they signified, “It is finished.”
The payment of that bill isn’t something that I deserved, nor was it something I could’ve ever earned. And yet it was paid anyway. That thought makes me feel like I should be a better person; like I need to love others more like *that*. Perhaps they don’t deserve it, but neither do I, and it was given to me anyway.
Tetelestai
VERSE 1:
I am an empty earthen vessel
I am a dry and dusty land
I am the son of Cain and Jezebel
I am the blood on Pilate’s hands
I am salt that deeply seasons
I am light unto the lost
And I have killed the unrepentant
While I pretend to count the cost
CHORUS:
There’s nothing I can do
And nothing I can say
To make you love me even more
Than you do today
I don’t deserve your kindness
For I’m filled with so much blame
But I am not why you have loved me
And why you called me to your name
VERSE 2:
You knew me in my mother’s womb
You knew the paths I’d take
The choices made to bring you joy
All the horrible mistakes
And you always run to hold me
Though I often walk away
You were the cost to bring me home
The debt I could not pay
CHORUS
BRIDGE:
May grace abound that sin should die
May blind receive your sight
One man’s choice has brought us death
One death assured us life
CHORUS