Today is Maundy Thursday, the day when we commemorate that last meal Jesus shared with His disciples when He issued a new commandment as He washed their feet, a commandment to love one another and serve Him through serving others (see John 13:1-17, John 13:34). The word ‘Maundy’ comes from that last verse in Latin, and many church services on this day commemorate the ritual of foot washing in their services. Today is also the day when traditionally the Queen offers alms to the poor, distributed in red and white purses, a practice dating back to Edward 1 and symbolic of the fact that the monarch is also a servant of God.
There is an inexorability about Holy Week, when we remember the final week of Jesus before the Crucifixion. From the plaudits of Palm Sunday, when hopes must have been so high, to the drama of betrayal and denial, to the loneliness of Gethsemane, the confusion of trials and the dawning realisation that Jesus was not going to escape that most excruciating form of death, the whole gamut of human emotions is captured in this one week. Life is full of joy and sorrow, hope and anguish, dreams and dashed hopes. Yet as we walk through Maundy Thursday and Good Friday and are left in the wilderness of Holy Saturday, we need to keep firmly in view that resurrection is on the horizon. We have the benefit of hindsight. We know how this story ends. We know that Jesus is alive.
Today, let’s find ways to serve each other and our hurting world, for in so serving, we serve the Lord. (Matt 25:31-46)