Salt + Gold's The Footwashing Series
And having loved His own,
Jesus loved them to the end.
+ John 13:1
Maundy Thursday: The English word "Maundy" is derived from the Latin mandatum, the first word of the phrase "Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos" ("A new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you"), when Jesus explained to His disciples the significance of His washing their feet, and how this displays the good news of how He, and we, are blessed to love others.
Here He shows the full extent of love
To us whose love is always incomplete,
In vain we search
To us whose love is always incomplete,
In vain we search
The heavens high above,
The God of love is kneeling at our feet.
Though we betray Him,
The God of love is kneeling at our feet.
Though we betray Him,
Though it is the night,
He meets us here
He meets us here
And loves us into light.
+ Malcolm Guite
This post features artwork and the manuscript for the Maundy Thursday video produced by Crossway and included in the book, The Final Days of Jesus. For a previous video reflection on Maundy Thursday, check out:
+ Facebook Live 2020
Maundy Thursday Devotional:
John 13:1-17, 34-35:
Jesus' Love is Powerful,
Complete, and New for You
And here is one way anyone can join with Jesus in "washing another's feet" this week:
+ Potential Maundy Thursday
Participation with Jesus:
Order a take-out meal
to be delivered to a neighbor’s home
as a way to serve them /
get them off their feet
(i.e. wash feet from afar).
+ Facebook Live 2020
Maundy Thursday Devotional:
John 13:1-17, 34-35:
Jesus' Love is Powerful,
Complete, and New for You
And here is one way anyone can join with Jesus in "washing another's feet" this week:
+ Potential Maundy Thursday
Participation with Jesus:
Order a take-out meal
to be delivered to a neighbor’s home
as a way to serve them /
get them off their feet
(i.e. wash feet from afar).
 |
| The Significance of Jesus Washing Feet of His Disciples |
Jesus Instructs His Disciples
Peter and John to
Secure a Room for Passover
Peter and John to
Secure a Room for Passover
Jesus Eats the Passover Meal
with the Twelve,
Tells Them of the Coming Betrayal,
and Institutes the Lord's Supper
with the Twelve,
Tells Them of the Coming Betrayal,
and Institutes the Lord's Supper
Jesus Washes the Disciples' Feet,
Interacts with Them, and
Delivers the Upper Room Discourse
Interacts with Them, and
Delivers the Upper Room Discourse
Jesus and the Disciples
Sing a Hymn Together,
then Depart to the Mount of Olives
Sing a Hymn Together,
then Depart to the Mount of Olives
Jesus Issues
Final Practical Commands
About Supplies and Provisions
Final Practical Commands
About Supplies and Provisions
Jesus and the Disciples
Go to Gethsemane
Go to Gethsemane
It's Passover week, so Jesus instructs his disciples to secure a Pascal lamb and go and get an upper room in the city of Jerusalem so that they can celebrate their own Passover supper together. Later that evening, Jesus is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane and so begin the Jewish trials of Jesus.
So as we explore this day,
we can ask a few questions:
we can ask a few questions:
+ Was it significant that
Jesus' last week took place
during Passover week?
+ What is the relationship
between the Last Supper and
the Passover meal?
+ And why couldn't the Jewish leaders
simply handled this all on their own?
+ Why did they need to go
and get the Roman governor,
Pontius Pilate, involved?
Jesus Celebrates Passover
with His Disciples as a Family
with His Disciples as a Family
The celebration of Passover was one of the great moments of the Jewish religious year. They were celebrating their deliverance from Egypt. God brought them out of their slavery, created them as a people, and started them on the road to their own land.
It was important to be in Jerusalem because only in Jerusalem and the temple could you actually have Passover lambs slain that were the centerpiece of the Jewish family meals. The lambs were slain the day before the Passover and then eaten that evening just as Jesus and his disciples celebrated their own Passover meal as a family of people together during that Thursday evening meal.
Jesus Celebrates Passover
with His Disciples as an
Anticipation of Yahweh's Rescue
with His Disciples as an
Anticipation of Yahweh's Rescue
Passover was a celebration and an anticipation of Yahweh's rescue of his people's redemption from the hand of Pharaoh. Typically, the Jews ate at a table to eat, but not at Passover, one of the most festive meals. They would recline on the floor with pillows. Why? During the Exodus when they came out of Egypt, they didn't have tables to sit at. They laid down on the desert floor and ate. Lying down while eating became an expression of your freedom. So when the disciples take the Passover with Jesus, they're lying down looking forward to that day when Yahweh would finally grant freedom to his people.
So it's looking back to Exodus in the past and looking ahead to the Exodus to come. Now Jesus is saying this is the new covenant, the new way of God relating to his people through my death.
Bonus
The Four Cups
(Sanctification, Proclamation,
Blessing, Praise),
the Last Supper,
and the Cup of Consummation
(stirs additional wonder for the Passover meal)
(Sanctification, Proclamation,
Blessing, Praise),
the Last Supper,
and the Cup of Consummation
(stirs additional wonder for the Passover meal)
Jesus is Arrested and
Tried for Blasphemy
Tried for Blasphemy
When Jesus was arrested late on that Thursday night, a series of judicial proceedings unfolded. During the nighttime, there was a gathering of the Sanhedrin, the high Jewish authority where all the Jewish officials were gathered together interviewing Jesus, perhaps with a view to formulating an official charge. What can we charge this guy with that's going to stick? What's going to work?
This might have been an unofficial proceeding because at nighttime usually the Jews were forbidden from holding official trials. And in that context, Mark 14 tells us that they think Jesus has committed blasphemy. So that gave them their official basis to go ahead.
It turns out that three years before the first Good Friday, Pontius Pilate removed from them the right of execution on orders from an anti-Semitic patron of his in Rome. For this reason, now Pilate and the Romans alone had the right of capital punishment.
Previously, the Sanhedrin would not even have taken Jesus' case to Pilate. But now, he had to hear it.
Maundy Thursday
Here is the source of every sacrament,
The all-transforming presence of the Lord,
Replenishing our every element,
Remaking us in his creative Word.
For here the earth herself gives bread and wine,
The air delights to bear his Spirit's speech,
The fire dances where the candles shine,
The waters cleanse us with his gentle touch.
And here he shows the full extent of love
To us whose love is always incomplete,
In vain we search the heavens high above,
The God of love is kneeling at our feet.
Though we betray him, though it is the night,
He meets us here and loves us into light.
+ Malcolm Guite
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