Holy Week - Thursday
MAUNDY THURSDAY
The New Commandment
Servant love, the Lord's Supper, and Gethsemane
JOHN 13 / LUKE 22:14–20 / MATTHEW 26:17-30 / MARK 14:12-31
John 13: 21 After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” 22 The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. 23 One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus' side, 24 so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. 25 So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, “Lord, who is it?” 26 Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27 Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” 28 Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him.29 Some thought that, because Judas had the moneybag, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor. 30 So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.
31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. 33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
REFLECTION
Thursday night is the most intimate and most agonizing night of Holy Week. In the Upper Room, Jesus washed His disciples' feet, crossing every social boundary of His day. Almost immediately the scene shifts and Jesus, knowing Judas’ intentions, puts the spy on blast. Judas then takes off. In leaving, Judas misses some of the most clear and powerful teachings of Jesus over the next 3 chapters of John. John spent three full chapters on Jesus’ teachings during the last supper.
This is where Jesus gave them the new commandment: love one another as I have loved you. This night is when Jesus instituted what we call the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper. “Then He gave them bread and wine and said: this is my body, this is my blood, given for you.” It is where Jesus tells us that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. It is where Jesus promises the HolySpirit. It is where we learn that He is the True Vine and where we are taught that it is okay if the world hates us because the first hated Him.
Once Jesus was concluding these teachings, He told the Disciples that they would soon not see Him, and that sent them into an emotional confusion and distress. Sometimes we get in a sad emotional state when life sends its trials, but here’s how Jesus encouraged the Disciples:
John 16: 20 I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn over what is going to happen to me, but the world will rejoice. You will grieve, but your grief will suddenly turn to wonderful joy. 21 It will be like a woman suffering the pains of labor. When her child is born, her anguish gives way to joy because she has brought a new baby into the world. 22 So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy.
Don’t let anyone or any circumstance rob your joy!
The word 'Maundy' comes from the Latin mandatum which means commandment. This evening, Jesus issued the definitive mandate of the Christian life. Not merely love your neighbor as yourself (that was Tuesday's commandment) but love one another as I have loved you. The standard has been raised impossibly high yet made possible through the very Holy Spirit Jesus would send.
Then… Jesus went to Gethsemane. Here the Wesleyan doctrine of prevenient grace meets its most profound expression: the God who comes to us in our darkness, sweating drops of blood, crying out 'not my will but yours.' This is not a passive God watching from a distance. This is God in the dust with us, choosing the cross freely and fully. This is a God, who was the only one who could make such a move, who is making the move to reach out to a lost creation. All because He loves us.
What do the historians have to say about the scene on Maundy Thursday?
VOICES FROM THE TRADITION
John Wesley -Founder of Methodism (1703–1791)
"The Lord's Supper is not merely a memorial but a means of grace — a place where the risen Christ truly meets His people. Come, then, with expectation. Come, thou hungry soul, and eat."
Thomas à Kempis - Devotional writer (1380–1471)
"What does it profit thee to enter into deep discussion concerning the Holy Trinity, if thou lack humility? Verily it profiteth thee more to wash one another's feet than to debate the highest things."
John Fletcher - Wesley's designated successor (1729–1785)
"In Gethsemane our Lord demonstrated that grace is not the absence of suffering but the presence of God within it. He who said, 'not my will' opens the way for us to pray the same, and to mean it."
APPLICATION
Tonight, if possible, participate in or reflect on the Lord's Supper. If you cannot take communion tonight (we will tomorrow night at our Good Friday Service), spend time in the broken bread and poured-out cup of your own life. Ask yourself, “where are you being called to give yourself for others?” Where is your own Gethsemane right now?
And perhaps the more challenging questions, “Am I loving my fellow believers?” “Do people know I am a Christian by my love?”
TODAY'S PRAYER
Jesus, You knelt before Your disciples with a towel. You wept in a garden with a cup. You held bread in the same hands that would be pierced and said: given for you. We receive what You gave and understand it was not because we deserve it, but because You loved a fallen and broken creation more than we could ever understand. Thank You. We receive You, and we will do a better job of stewarding that sacrifice. Amen.