Lent 2022, Maundy Thursday



Today is when we remember the movement towards the cross amping up. Jesus gathered his best friends together and began to prepare them, and himself, for what was about to happen. He washed their feet as a teaching on service and humility, and they shared one last Passover meal together.

I love words, so reading about the names of these holy days is fascinating for me. “Maundy,” for example, comes from the Latin “mandatum,” which is where we get the word “mandate.” The mandate, in John 13, is a tough one: “‘A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” We have been charged with actively loving, including everything from doing menial tasks for one another, to being willing to die in another’s place.

In the past couple of years the word "mandate" has become charged.  Sides must be taken, and the last thing on the minds of many is service and kindness, let alone the prospect of dying for another. It's much easier (and even feels more righteous to some?) to attack instead of love.

For myself, on this Maundy Thursday, this Thursday of Mysteries, as I sit in the tension and dread of waiting for Good Friday, I resolve to be gentler, slower to judge, faster to help, more eager to love. Libby has been doing her part to get me ready.

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