Depending on who you talk to, you might think today is called “Monday Thursday” or “Maunday Thursday” or, if you use autocorrect, “Amanda Thursday.”
Yes, “Maundy” is not a word we recognize as part of our usual parlance. It comes from the Latin word “mandatum”, which means “commandment”, and refers to the “new commandment” Jesus gives at the end of tonight’s Gospel reading.
What is that new commandment?
Love.
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| Photo by Shawn Augustine on Unsplash |
Now, it’s not really a new commandment in the sense of something previously unheard of, or revolutionary. The call to love our neighbor is found in myriad ways in the Hebrew Scriptures.
But it’s new in that Jesus invites his disciples into a new understanding, a new experience, not just through his words, but by his example. Jesus doesn’t just talk about love or show love - he embodies it.
Love one another, Jesus says, and washes their feet. Do this in remembrance of me, Jesus says, and feeds them with his own body and blood.
Jesus invites his friends and disciples to experience for themselves - and practice with one another - the kind of love that marks the relationship Jesus shares with the Father.
This commandment to love will be especially important – and especially difficult – over the next few days. When the soldiers and political and religious leaders choose violence, Jesus will choose love. When bystanders mock and taunt, Jesus will choose love. When his friends betray and deny and abandon, Jesus will choose love. Jesus will choose love, again and again, and his friends and followers are called to follow his example. We are called to follow his example.
It may sound simple, but it’s not easy. We know this for ourselves. In the midst of violence around the world, and discord at home, how are we to choose love? When others choose hatred and disdain, how are we to choose love? In the midst of our very personal experiences of grief and loss and suffering, how are we to choose love?
Yes, how are we to choose love? The uncomfortable answer is, we can’t – not on our own.
The good news is that God’s love comes to us first. Created by love, for love, God’s love so fills us that it runs over, spills out, spreads from us out into the world. In the waters of baptism, we are joined to Christ’s death and resurrection – joined to love – and filled with the Holy Spirit, who empowers us for the work of love.
God’s love comes to us in this special meal we share. When we receive this bread and wine, Christ’s body and blood, we receive God’s forgiveness and grace – God’s love. By this holy food we are nourished and strengthened for the work of love.
After he washes their feet, Jesus asks his disciples, “Do you know what I have done for you?”
And I think it’s fair to say that the answer is probably, “no”. They don’t understand, at least not fully, what Jesus has done, or will do for them. But, later they will. Later, they’ll look back, and, even if they don’t understand, they’ll know that it was love.
Filled with that love, Jesus’ friends and followers – including us! – are empowered to follow Jesus’ commandment and love one another. Our acts of love to others mark us as disciples of Jesus. If you know these things – since you know these things – you are blessed if you do them.
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