Introduction:
Today, the Thursday before Easter is traditionally called Maundy Thursday. This is pretty much the only context in which the word “maundy” is used in English. So, what does the word mean? Well, it comes from the Latin word “mandatum” which means “command.” This Thursday is called Maundy Thursday because we are meant to remember that we are a people under a commandment.
Silent Reflection:
The command that is being referred to is the one that Jesus issued to his disciples on that Thursday before his death. We find it in John 13:34-35. “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. But this all people will know that you are my disciples, that you love one another.” [ESV]
Spend a few moments reflecting on the love that you have experienced from Jesus.
Prayer of Confession:
Lord Jesus, I have taken your love for me for granted. I have thought of myself as far more loveable than I am. Help me to recognize how difficult to love can be and how conquering and unconditional your love really is. Amen.
Devotional:
In our modern world, we tend to think of love as being an emotion or a feeling. But that doesn’t seem to be the way Jesus is thinking of love. After all, how can you command someone to feel something? For Jesus, love seems to be something you do. For Jesus, loving someone means actively seeking that person’s well-being, actively doing good in their lives.
In fact, just before he gave his disciples that new commandment on that first Maundy Thursday, Jesus gave them an example of that active servant love. He washed their feet (see John 13:1-11). That act of foot washing was something a household servant would normally have done. But on that night of his betrayal and arrest, the Lord of heaven and earth knelt down and washed the filthy feet of twelve men, one of whom would betray him, one who would openly deny him three times, all of whom would abandon him in his time of most dire need. He knew all of that was coming, yet still he performed this simple act of loving service.
Loving others is at the very heart of the Gospel and at the heart of the Christian faith. But loving others can be hard, very hard, gut-wrenchingly hard, and costly. Foot washing is a little picture of the love Jesus was about to live out. In less than a day after he knelt washing the feet of all those men who would run away, Jesus would pick up the sinfulness of the whole world, carry it up onto a Roman cross, and kill it there for us. He would do that even though it cost him the most horrifying physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering. He did that because he too was under command (Philippians 2:5-8).
In the Garden of Gethsemane on that first Maundy Thursday, Jesus knelt down, dripping bloody sweat, and wrestled with the command he had received from his loving Abba in heaven. That command was that he should love the world by saving it from its slavery to sin and death. Obedience to that command was not easy or without cost. But because that command came from the loving heart of the Father, it echoed loudly in the loving, self-sacrificing, obedient heart of Jesus, who loved the world, even through betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion.
That love is the very core of the Christian faith. Just as the love of the Father shines out in Jesus’ life of obedient love, so also Jesus calls us to live our lives in such a way that God’s love shines out from us into this dark and troubled world (Matthew 5:14-16). Living out that love often won’t be easy. People might not always understand it or accept it. But the command remains. And behind the command is a promise, namely that God will use our loving obedience and obedient love as an agent of his redemption, co-worker in the new creation.
Questions for reflection:
In what ways have you experienced unconditional love in your life?
Resentment, judgmental attitudes, indifference, and other such states of mind can inhibit our ability or willingness to love others. What interferes with your willingness to love others?
What are some ways can you practice the habit of saying no to yourself and yes to God by showing active love to someone in the coming days?
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, thank you for the costly love you have shown in my life and the assurance that nothing will ever separate me from your love (Romans 8:38-39). Enable me to overcome anything that might interfere with my obedience to your “new commandment” so that others might experience your love through my actions today. Amen.
Photos by GAC, from the cemetery and sanctuary at Venice Presbyterian Church in suburban Pittsburgh.
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