Maundy Thursday for Dummies

Well, I just learned something new. You've seen all the Dummies books, right? There's Personal Finance for Dummies, Excel for Dummies, Anatomy and Physiology for Dummies,  Digital Photography for Dummies and just about everything else for Dummies. While the titles are kind of rude, they are often very useful books. I just learned that there is also Christianity for Dummies. I've not read the book and am not endorsing it or anything but I was intrigued that there was such a thing.

The part of the book I did read was about Maundy Thursday. You see, today is Maundy Thursday. It is a commemoration of a really important day in Christian History. Here's what Richard Wagner says in Christianity For Dummies...

"Within the midst of the Easter season, Maundy Thursday — the Thursday before Easter — is one Christian holy day that many Christians and even many churches often overlook, yet it symbolizes a critically important truth of the Christian faith: Jesus as a suffering servant and the call for his followers to do the same. It also draws a connection between the Passover sacrifice, a Jewish tradition, and Jesus Christ’s sacrificial role on the cross."

As I mentioned before, this week is called Holy Week for many Christians. It starts with Palm Sunday when we are talking about Jesus returning to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, a Jewish day celebrating God's freeing of the Israelites (aka Jewish or Hebrew people) from slavery from the Egyptians. That event took place generations before, during Old Testament/Torah times. So, Jesus is in Jerusalem and he and his disciples had a Passover Supper together. They had probably each done this with their own families every year prior. This year it was to be much more than that, though they didn't really quite get it yet. You see, this event took place just the night before Jesus was to be crucified.

Jesus used this last night to give instructions to his disciples. He was preparing them for his death. I expect much of what he taught them didn't fully make sense until after the horror of his crucifixion took place. He told them more about his purpose and he prepared them for the Holy Spirit that would be with them when Jesus returned to heaven. He showed them how to become as servants to one another; he himself washed their feet. That takes real humility.

Tonight there will be many Christian Churches around the world who will be having foot washing ceremonies. It isn't really pretty. Humility isn't always pretty. 

Another very important thing he did, then, was to share the bread and wine with his disciples in a new way. This is where Christians get what we now refer to as communion. It is all about Jesus' sacrifice for us with the bread being his body and the wine being his blood. I know it sounds a bit ghoulish but it is really quite beautiful, a physical way to remember we have taken Jesus into ourselves. We refer to that event as the Last Supper. Christian churches around the world will also be serving communion tonight, as well as any given Sunday of the year.

It was also that night that Jesus gave a command (the word Maunday comes from the Latin word for command, mandatum) that is both beautiful and difficult to follow:

John 13:34-35

New International Version (NIV)

³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

I can't quite imagine what that night was like for Jesus. He loved these friends and he knew that they were going to have some rough times ahead of them, to say the least. He also knew that one of them was about to betray him. He knew that he was about to suffer a lot of physical and emotional pain. From the Bible we know that he didn't want to have to go through that. He did it out of obedience to God and out of love for us. That is such a great lesson to us for how we are to behave, basing our actions always out of obedience to God and love for one another. Easier to say than to do.

So you see, Maunday Thursday represents something very basic to Christianity. It ties together events from the Old Testament and the New Testament. It sets into motion changes that have a powerful impact on Christians now, all these years later. I've just barely touched on the main points. There is so much depth to the teaching from that night, I hope you will want to know more.

To read more about that Thursday, Jesus Last Supper and his instructions for his disciples and us, please click here, here, here or here. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John each wrote about that night.

photos from freedigitalphotos.net by Stuart Miles, Evgeni Dinev, Dan and Vichaya Kiatying-Angsulee

Avoiding My Husband

I am avoiding my husband.

As I write this I am in the guest bedroom. Nope. We are not having a spat. I am sick. Not to worry; it is just the usual kind of stuff that gets passed around.

I'm coughing and sputtering and don't have much of a voice but it will soon be a memory. It's not a big deal, except that this is Holy Week.

You see, because my husband is a pastor this is a very busy week for him. He has 4 services in the next 6 days, including a funeral, and he doesn't have a back-up pastor! As you can imagine, this would be a rough week for him to be sick! So, I am holed up in our guest room. I've got my juice, tissues, cough drops, fluffy pillows, computer, books and crocheting. If I need to use the restroom, I make sure Mike isn't in the hallway. I don't want him to breathe my air.

I'm avoiding my husband, but it is out of love that I do so.

Palm Sunday

(Triumphant Entry-Lift High the Lord Processional by Catbird SC)

Today is Palm Sunday. Do you know what that is?  Click here to read why I think we could also call it Cloak Sunday and here to read about a gentle donkey kind of King.

Palm Sunday is all about Jesus. It carries a lot of significance for Christians, marking the beginning of Holy Week. It is all about remembering something that happened a long, long time ago.

Near the end of Jesus' life on Earth, he and his apostles returned to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. Passover is a Jewish celebration. That makes sense because Jesus was Jewish. It is something done in remembrance of God saving the Jewish People from slavery. That event occurred many generations before Jesus lived on Earth. In fact, it is still celebrated even today.

So, as I said, Jesus and his disciples (special followers who helped with his ministry) were coming back to Jerusalem for the Passover. When they entered, it was like a glorious parade, all in honor of Jesus. One of the things his fans (followers) did was to lay palm leaves on the road for him. Even though he was being treated like a rock star, he entered on a donkey in a very humble manner. Here, I'll let you read an account from the Book of Matthew...

Matthew 21:1-11

New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King

21 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. ³ If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”

⁴ This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

⁵ “Say to Daughter Zion,
    ‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
    and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”^[a]

⁶ The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. ⁷ They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. ⁸ A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹ The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosanna^[b] to the Son of David!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”^[c]

“Hosanna^[d] in the highest heaven!”

¹⁰ When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

¹¹ The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

So, we begin Holy Week on a high note. Next Sunday will be Easter, my favorite of all holidays. In between, though, we will travel some pretty hard days following Jesus' path to the cross. I will try to explain it as we go along as I know not everyone has heard these stories. They have had a powerful impact on my life, though, and I'd like to share them.

Maundy Thursday

Holy Week continued...

Today is called Maundy Thursday.  I did not grow up in a church that used that term and it took me awhile to figure out that people weren't saying, "Monday Thursday", which sounded ridiculous.  I learned that it was  a name for the day when we commemorated Jesus' last meal with his disciples.  You've likely all seen artwork of Jesus at a big banquet table with them all seated on the same side of the table just as if they were on a sit-com.  When I went to Bing Images and Google Images I found a LOT of paintings of the Last Supper.  This one is by Da Vinci and likely the most famous...

The Last Supper, 1498 (post-restoration)

Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452–1519)
Scala/Art Resource, NY
Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan

As I continued browsing through the images I found a lot of renditions of Da Vinci's painting.  Some had the apostles as dogs, I'm not sure why.  Another was an impressive recreation by Laura Bell.  What's so impressive about it was that she did it with laundry lint!  Now that's an art form I'd not considered before!

  (by Laura Bell...made with laundry lint)

At that Last Supper, Jesus taught his apostles about communion.  He taught them to eat the bread and drink the wine together when he was gone, remembering him, taking him into themselves.  This was a big deal.  The apostles don't seem to quite get it yet, then.  They weren't catching on that Jesus was soon to die.  Jesus knew, though.  Jesus loved these followers and he knew they would soon be hurting.  He wanted them to know that he would always be with them.  I think much of what began that night was not understood until after his death.  I don't know, maybe we still don't quite understand it as well as we should.  What I understand, though, is that when I take communion, Jesus is with me.  What more could I ask?

What I learned from Wikipedia about the word, Maundy, kind of surprised me.  I expected it to have something to do with communion.  Nope.  It refers to washing, specifically Jesus' washing the feet of the disciples.  Well, what do you know?  We had yet more to learn from that night.

Yes, Jesus washed the disciples feet.  These weren't feet that had already soaked in a tub.  These were feet that had probably been walking dusty roads for miles in sandals.  This was not a pretty job.  Washing someone else's feet is a pretty humbling thing to do.  It is a true act of service.  

Jesus demonstrated humility as he showed his apostles how much he cared for them.  Humility is not something we talk about much these days.  I think we should.  I don't think being humble means we should have a low self-esteem.   As a Christian, I think it means we need to recognize that any goodness within ourselves comes from God.  Knowing that makes us want to share that goodness by serving others. It seems simple but humility is often a challenge to accomplish.  

Other names for this day include Holy Thursday, Covenant Thursday, Sheer Thursday and Thursday of Mysteries.  Not every Christian Church even names this day but they all talk about the lessons Jesus was teaching.  The first lesson that stands out to me is that we need to commune with one another as we take Jesus into our own beings.  The second lesson is that we need to be people of humility.  There are more lessons here, such as the lesson of obedience, as Jesus was obediently following God's plan for him.  What else?  What do you take from all this?  Do you do anything special on this day? 

Show Some Respect

If you just had a short time to live, what would be the most important thing you'd want to say to those you loved?  No, this isn't a post about my hospice work.  I was thinking about Jesus entering Jerusalem, knowing he just had a few days left to teach.  Since it is Holy Week, I thought I'd explore some of those last teachings.

One of the things he did was to try to clean up the temple.  He went there and found people using it as a place of shady business.  He was upset and said to them, "It is written,, My house shall be called a house of prayer; but you are making it a den of robbers."  He was so angry he overturned their tables and chairs!

All my life I've been told that the people are what is important at church, not the building.  I believe that.  I've even had some strong opinions about all the money that goes into a fancy church building that could've been used toward mission work such as feeding the hungry.  However, from this passage I also have come to believe that it is important to have such a space as a church or temple, set aside as a sacred place of prayer and worship.  Out of respect to God, that place is to be set apart and used to his glory.  By honoring the place, we are honoring our God.

Since Jesus used some of his precious last days of teaching to make this point, I think we are probably supposed to take notice.  What do you think about this?  

Cloak Sunday

What?  You never heard of Cloak Sunday?  Well, it is actually my own spin on an old idea.  I'm thinking it is really going to catch on quickly.  What do you think?  Here, to understand what I am talking about, read a prophecy from the Old Testament, written 500+ years before Jesus' birth.  Then, read about the fulfillment of that prophecy as written in the New Testament.

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Zechariah 9:9

Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! 

Shout aloud, O daughter

Jerusalem!

Lo, your king comes to you;

triumphant and victorious is he,

humble and riding on a donkey,

on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 

Matthew 21:6-9

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them.  A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,

"Hosanna to the Son of David! 

Blessed is the one who comes in

the name of the Lord!

Hosanna in the highest heaven!" 

(Biblical passages from the New Revised Standard Version)

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Today is the beginning of Holy Week for Christians.  Holy Week starts out beautifully as we remember Jesus returning to Jerusalem, being welcomed like a celebrity.  This is referred to as Palm Sunday because of the reference to people cutting branches from trees and spreading them on the road before Jesus.  They also put their cloaks down so I am thinking you could call it Cloak Sunday if you wished.  Don't you agree?  Many churches, like our's, order palm branches and we hold them up and sing, "Hosanna in the highest!"  It is kind of majestic and parade-like.  I wonder, if I hold up my coat (cloak) and wave it, will others join me?  I probably won't try it.  It could turn out like the year I heard that in Ireland on St. Patrick's Day the Catholics wore green and the Protestants wore orange.  I am a Protestant so....   well, let's just say that was a painful March 17 for me!

Seriously though, by next Sunday we will be celebrating Easter, which is my all-time favorite holiday.  Between now and then, however, we are travelling through the stories of Jesus' last days.  Most of the stories are really quite horrible and dramatic.  Without them, though, Easter means nothing.  For today, Cloak Sunday, we get to be jubilant.  We are welcoming the King!

(Yes, after seeing me haul coats out to our driveway, throw them down and try to snap a photo while the Wyoming wind tossed them about, our neighbors do indeed believe I am crazy.)

I will finish posting the ABC's of Bible Memorization after Holy Week.  Remember, I will make a prize for any of you who tell me you memorized them all!