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| Jesus (John 13:34) Icon by Kreg Yngst |
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 command I give to you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." + Jesus, John 13:34), 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.
Today we remember that
God washes our feet.
God washes our feet.
The fingers that crafted the universe
scrub scum from between toes.
scrub scum from between toes.
The hands that painted the cosmos
wash feet painted with dirt and sweat.
wash feet painted with dirt and sweat.
The One before whom all angels bow
gets on his knees to labor as a slave.
gets on his knees to labor as a slave.
We become clean, He becomes filthy.
In doing this, Jesus our God
gives us a humble epiphany,
a revelation of who He is.
He is the God who makes His glory
visible in lowliness and servitude.
gives us a humble epiphany,
a revelation of who He is.
He is the God who makes His glory
visible in lowliness and servitude.
He is the God who gives:
His cheek to the betraying lips of Judas.
His face to the slapping hand of the high priest.
His countenance to the spit of the Sanhedrin.
He is the God who gives:
His head to the thorns,
His feet to the spikes,
His side to the spear.
He is the God who embraces
rejection, shame, torture, and death,
to give Himself to you.
rejection, shame, torture, and death,
to give Himself to you.
He is the God who is love.
He loves you by giving to you.
For God so loved the world that
He gave His only Son.
What He gives you is
nothing less than Himself.
He loves you by giving to you.
For God so loved the world that
He gave His only Son.
What He gives you is
nothing less than Himself.
He not only washes your feet;
He washes you clean, body and soul,
through the holy bath in His name.
He fills the baptismal font with water
from His spear-pierced side
and kneels there to wash off the dirt a
nd sweat and grime of your evil.
+ Chad Bird
He washes you clean, body and soul,
through the holy bath in His name.
He fills the baptismal font with water
from His spear-pierced side
and kneels there to wash off the dirt a
nd sweat and grime of your evil.
+ Chad Bird
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.
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).
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).
Jesus Instructs His Disciples
Peter and John to
Secure a Room for Passover
Peter and John to
Secure a Room for Passover
Jesus Washes the Disciples' Feet,
Interacts with Them, and
Delivers the Upper Room Discourse
Interacts with Them, and
Delivers the Upper Room Discourse
Jesus lays aside His garments and
takes the servants towel to bless
His betrayer, His denier, and
His weak-willed friends.
But the garment and the towel
tell a deeper story.
They preach the Gospel symbolically.
Jesus laid aside His divine rights
like an outer garment, and
He took up human flesh
much like He put on the slave's towel
(Philippians 2:4-11.
On this night, the One who
took the form of a servant
by becoming human, putting on flesh,
takes on the wardrobe of
a lowly slave,
putting on a towel
to stoop and to wash,
to serve and to die.
Just as He left the supper table
to wash and serve,
He left heaven to suffer and save.
Behold Jesus, who lays aside His glory
to take up our humanity to serve,
to love, to wash us by
His blood sacrifice to which
He is near to you as
the One who serves.
It is no surprise, then, that Jesus
says to Peter and to us:
"If I do not wash you,
you have no share with Me"
(John 13:8).
If self-giving sacrifice is
the heart of Jesus for us,
then to reject His service is
to be cut off from Him. ...
Once Peter gets over himself and
his eyes are opened to the true stakes,
He responds with true spiritual wisdom:
"Lord, not my feet only
"Lord, not my feet only
but also my hands and my head!"
Peter wisely thirsts for
grace upon grace.
He craves mercy from head to toe;
he wants Christ, the whole Christ,
and nothing but the Christ.
This is what you and I need.
+ Claude Atcho,
+ Claude Atcho,
pg. 160
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 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
