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Maundy Thursday
If you have known me for even a little while, you will know that I like movies and take great pleasure in citing a scene or dialogue from many genres to help make a pastoral application. My theological pedigree is also an influence. I was born into a staunch Irish Catholic family with two monsignors as great uncles, and I served as an altar boy. In my teen years, I drifted into the Assemblies of God, mostly in pursuit of a girl I was dating than in sanctification, only to later fall in love and marry a Lutheran woman (AKA Molly) and joined her family’s church. Eventually, we found our way to the Presbyterians and now are firmly settled in at Berean.
All of this is to say that my pastoral approach can be, “like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get,”. Today, you get Maundy Thursday.
Maundy Thursday is celebrated in many Christian traditions. The word Maundy is a Latin word meaning, command. It is the night of the Last Supper. In John 13:1-17 Jesus commands and gives an example of how his followers should love and serve each other. It is a poignant reminder to all of us. How are we loving and serving Him? How are we loving and serving Berean? They are one and the same.
This message is only sent to members, so I can ask you pointedly, are you serving Berean? If you are, then you are being obedient to your Lord and Savior. If you are not, then I would admonish you to examine your heart. Note here, that serving is in the present tense.
There is another word that comes into play at this time of year. That word is excruciating. It also comes from Latin and means, out of the cross. Its most common application is to describe unimaginable pain and we, as Christians, can see its clear linkage to Jesus as he went through unimaginable hell on the cross for us.
On this Maundy Thursday, ask yourself as you visualize Jesus kneeling washing your feet and then you visualize him hanging on the cross in your place, is your service loving and sacrificial?
Pastor Terry B
John 13:1-17
13 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. 2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, 3 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, 4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 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. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” 8 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.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 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.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
12 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? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. 16 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. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
