Holy Thursday--or Maundy Thursday--traditionally seems to the start the same way every year, with this question: what in the heck does 'maundy' mean? I like this tradition. Let's keep it. It's good to ask questions.
When you get out your wikipedia app, you'll find most scholars agree that the word maundy is derived from the latin word mandatum. Okay. When you take it a step further, you find that the word mandatum is the first word of the latin phrase 'mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos' (say that 3 times fast) meaning, 'a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you.' Hopefully that rings a bell.
Maundy Thursday is about the issuing of this new commandment (found in John 13:34) and our observance of it. Historically, some church traditions have gone as far as to commemorate the new commandment with foot washing, as it was the action that directly preceded it in the text. Not a bad idea. If the Lord provokes us to express his love in this way, let's do it. No day like today. But there's a deeper symbolism here that supersedes the act of foot-washing, doing the dishes, or any other service we can render. (All you people with foot-phobia or caked-on-food-phobia can breathe a sigh of relief.) What was Jesus doing the day before he went to the cross?
Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, do you wash my feet?" Jesus answered him, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand." Peter said to him, "You shall never wash my feet." Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no share with me." Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" Jesus said to him, "The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you." For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, "Not all of you are clean." When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, "Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
--John 13:1-17
Jesus is not only exhibiting the deepest humility by washing the disciples feet (a job reserved for the lowliest servants), but painting a picture of the very humility he would show by humbling himself to an agonizing, heart-wrenching, humiliating death on the cross. He would stop at nothing to purchase us. He would stop at nothing to serve us with salvation.
He's also doing something else by washing the disciples' feet. It's hard for me to put words to the meaning and I never will be able to... but it seems to be an undeniable symbol of the ongoing work of gospel in our lives. Jesus didn't use foot-washing to cleanse the disciples from sin (hence the whole "one who has bathed need not wash his head or hands but is completely clean"), he used it to point to the need for the ongoing application of the gospel to the parts of us that get dirtied up over time as we run this race. By washing one another's feet, we're gospeling one another. We're serving one another in the most important way. We're reminding one another that--in Christ--we are completely clean. Completely forgiven. Clothed in righteousness we couldn't earn and don't deserve. We're also helping one another apply the gospel to those hard-to-reach places of our souls, helping them remember their identity in Jesus. We need this. I need this. We need to do this. A lot.
Just as we take communion to observe the new covenant, we also must wash one another in the gospel--frequently--to observe the new commandment.
This Maundy Thursday, go out and gospel someone. This is no random act of kindness, this is the foremost act of kindness. Share the gospel with someone who hasn't heard. Share it with someone who has heard, but needs reminding. Just share it. Somehow. Truth be told, it can look like practical means--but practical means (like doing the dishes) are nothing without gospel motivation.
Behold your savior who has washed you once and for all and has passed the towel and bar of soap to you. Use it well.
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For Good Friday...
One of the historical traditions of the church is to fast on Good Friday. If you feel moved by the Spirit to do so and have time during the day to devote to prayer as you fast, please consider it. Then, may your first meal of the day be the Lord's Supper in remembrance of the price Jesus paid for your redemption. Come to the Living Stones Good Friday gatherings (5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., Downtown Campus) to take communion, celebrate and mourn.
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