Maundy Thursday - Washing Thursday

Tonight we observe Maundy Thursday at our church. The word "Maundy" is about "washing" as tonight one of the things we read about is Jesus washing his disciples feet. This occurred the night they were celebrating the Jewish Passover. This is such a powerful passage with so many lessons within!

When Jesus was washing his disciples feet, Peter at first refused. I expect he felt that it was wrong for the Son of God to be bent down over his own dusty, dirty feet. At his refusal, Jesus told him that if he wasn't washed by Jesus, he would have no part of him. That must have sounded mysterious to Peter but he immediately agreed to the washing and in fact, offered his entire body for Jesus to wash!

These guys did not yet understand what all was going on there. How could they? But Peter knew he wanted to be totally washed by Jesus if that was what would draw him nearer. Isn't that what we all need, to be totally washed by Jesus? Not only for the cleansing of our sins, but to draw us near to him, to be a part of him.

John 13:1-17

New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet

13 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

9 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

10 Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was going to betray him,and that was why he said not every one was clean.

12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

This is one of my favorite songs and it goes well with these verses. I hope you enjoy it as well.

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

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? 

Won't You Let Me Be Your Servant?

It is Holy Week.  We are thinking of the last days of Jesus life before his capture and crucifixion.  Maundy Thursday marks the day Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples.  After his 3 year ministry, travelling and eating with these guys, this was to be his last meal with them.  He knew this.  He had this one last night to teach them what he thought was most important.

One of the things Jesus did that night seems kind of weird to us in this day and age.  He washed his disciples feet.  These guys walked around a lot in hot weather, probably wearing sandals.  I really can't think that was a very pleasant job.  In fact, it probably put Jesus into a position of kneeling before them, a submissive position. 

I think I've heard this story all my life but for some reason, this year, it is really meaningful to me.  Again, what a demonstration of humility he gave us!  What a lesson in what it means to serve others!  I happen to know that in one of the songs we will be singing tonight at church we will be saying, "Won't you let me be your servant, too?"  I want to really mean it when I sing it, but I don't really like the idea of being a servant.  Sure, I don't mind so much serving my family, but serving people with dirty feet?  EEEW!

I don't think I yet have a servant's heart.  Our society doesn't really promote such an attitude.  I'm going to try, though, to think more in terms of being a servant to others... less of me, more of others.  It is so much easier to say than to do.

Tonight, my husband is going to demonstrate Jesus' servant attitude by washing someone's feet.  He's going to wash my feet... in front of everyone!  I am kind of nervous about it but I agreed because I think this is such an important lesson Jesus was trying to teach his disciples... and us.

So, I am going to challenge you now.  First, read John 13:1-15.  Then, I want you to try to think of at least one way to be a servant to someone today.  Consider having it be something quiet, something that does not bring honor to yourself.  Then, try to do it again tomorrow, and then the next day.  I want to consciously do it each day until at some point it just becomes a way of life, something I don't have to think about.

"For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you."  John 13:15 NRSV