Dear Friends,
It’s Maundy Thursday – the day when Christians remember Jesus’s last supper with his disciples in an upper room in Jerusalem. This day is called by different names throughout the many branches of Christendom. Roman Catholics call it Holy Thursday; Eastern Orthodox Christians call it Great and Holy Thursday; the Coptic Orthodox Church refers to it as Covenant Thursday; and many in our Protestant branch of our faith call it Maundy Thursday. Maundy comes from the Latin, mandatum, which means commandment and reflects Jesus’s words, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” (John 13:34)
With the exception of Judas, none of Jesus’s guests at the dinner knew what was to come. None had an inkling that this was to be their last meal together with their beloved teacher. This was their last gathering with the one they had followed for more than three years, a man who had changed their lives and who was about to change them even more radically – indeed, unimaginably – in only a few days. Please read the account of this last supper, found in John 13:1-17, 31b-35.
We are intimately familiar with the Last Supper because it is a regular part of our worship experience. Every time we celebrate communion, the liturgy re-enacts many parts of the Last Supper. As reflective and enlightening as communion is meant to be, today’s reading makes it even more so. This reading gives us a deeper understanding and a more vivid image of the final meal shared by Jesus and his disciples in the upper room. Two aspects in particular stand out for me.
The first is the story recounted in John 13:4-11 about Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. Peter is at first horrified that Jesus would so debase himself as to systematically wash and dry the disciples’ feet. Unable to fully explain at that point, Jesus says to Peter, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” (John 13:7) Peter continues to protest, but Jesus cannot specify what is to come; he knows his followers won’t believe it. Jesus tries to soothe Peter by telling him, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” (John 13:8)
Peter begins to have a glimmer of understanding; maybe more than a glimmer, because only moments after protesting Jesus’s humble act, he is emboldened enough to ask Jesus to wash not only his feet, but also his hands and head. I can almost see the light beginning to dawn in his eyes, but he’s clearly still unaware of the magnitude of what is to come. He and the disciples may be wondering at Jesus’s words, and certainly at the depth of his humble servanthood when he washes their feet, but they’re still savoring the welcome they received in Jerusalem. They’re likely still basking in the glow of the giddy enthusiasm of the crowds gathered around Jesus. And now, here they are, safe and together, celebrating one of the most festive holidays in Judaism.
“Later,” says Jesus, “You will understand.” Peter could not possibly have imagined that in less than fifteen hours, Jesus would be hanging on a Roman cross, that he would die in agony, and that he would be resurrected by God three days later. Peter, the disciples, and all who followed and were to follow Jesus would thenceforth look back on the night of Jesus’s last supper as the beginning of a new beginning. It would forever color their, and our, understanding of Jesus’s teachings, miracles, and ministry. This is one of many reasons the events during this final meal, this last supper, continue to engage our attention and faith.
Many writers refer to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus as a “hinge” event in Western civilization, a “before and after” event that separates what happened previous to the event from everything ever since. On a vastly smaller scale, the World Wars have been hinge events, as was 9/11, and, I am sure, as the corona virus pandemic will be. But the Christ event that unfolded in Holy Week is a hinge event for all time; it even changed how we measure time. The world’s most generally used calendars refer to history as either BCE (Before Common Era, whose meaning is the same as BC, Before Christ,: both refer to the time prior to AD 1)) or as CE (Common Era) or AD (anno domini, Latin for the Year of our Lord).
Peter could not conceive of how the events he was so much a part of would shatter history, because on that night he stood on the “before” side. In three days, and for the remainder of his life, he stood and lived on the “after” side. We live our lives on the “after” side. Whether or not we think deeply about Easter as a hinge in human history, all of us, including Peter after the Easter event, can’t help but see all of Jesus’s actions and all of history itself in light of the resurrection. People of faith never cease to wonder and analyze this hinge event; we continuously seek to more fully understand it even as we proclaim it with the boldness of our faith.
Second, I would like to call our attention to the new commandment that Jesus gave his disciples, and I certainly include us among his disciples. “Love one another” (John 13:34) is the compelling new mandate.
John’s gospel is known as the gospel of love primarily because it is in this gospel that Jesus gives us this new commandment. We are to go further than the essential and necessary mandates, like doing to others as we would have them do to us or turning the other cheek, which he gave us in his Sermon on the Mount. Here, Jesus gives us another deceptively simple but rigorous instruction: we are to love one another. In his last earthly hours, Jesus raises the bar for us all.
Jesus goes on to say, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples.” (John 13:35) And just as he said that to his disciples, so does he say it to us.
I know that you are disciples of Jesus Christ. I know this of you as a congregation and as individuals. Ultimately, it is not what we think or how we worship; it is our love for one another that makes us known as followers of Jesus Christ. Your ministries to one another and to the greater society are abundant, and so is your love.
Let us pray together this evening,
God of the covenant, as we celebrate the beginning of the paschal feast, we come in humility and hope to the table of the Lord in whom we know we have salvation, life, and resurrection. Renew the power of this mystery as we serve one another and you. Share with us the power of your love, that we may share that divine gift with one another, both with those we know and love, and with the stranger we do not yet know but love nonetheless. Grant that we may enter into this time of reflection and thought with open hearts and minds, so that with Christ, we will more fully comprehend your purposes for us. Amen.