3 minute read
Celebrating Maundy Thursday
from March 2020
by Chad Hess
Maundy Thursday is celebrated in Christendom on the day before Good Friday. It has been celebrated for many years in the Catholic and Anglican Church and in recent years has begun to be memorialized by other denominations as an important part of Holy Week. During Maundy Thursday services, clergy and lay persons wash the feet of others as a memorial to Jesus’ washing the feet of His disciples. The Gospel of John recounts the story of Jesus’ washing the disciples’ feet in chapter 13, verses 1-20. There are many wonderful facets to this story that can teach us lessons, from humility (Jesus) to pride (Peter), from foreshadowing cleansing through the blood of Christ to the hardening of our hearts to the truth through the actions of Judas Iscariot. Each Holy Week gives us an opportunity to examine our hearts and meditate on the many dimensions of this beautiful scene. Beginning in verse 14, Jesus says, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have also washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do just as I have done to you.” Jesus goes on to tell them that the servant is not greater than the master, nor is the messenger greater than the one who sent him. In verse 17, Jesus says, “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”
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The examples of humility, loving others, and putting others before self were exemplified for us by our Lord on many occasions while He was here on earth as God incarnate. In addition, the fact that He was 100% man as well as 100% God serves to remind us that we, as imperfect humans, can with His grace and the power of the Holy Spirit live and love as He did.
Washing the feet of others and having your feet washed by others is a humbling experience for both the giver and the receiver. It is also, and perhaps most importantly, a reminder that Jesus was making not only the disciples’ feet clean, but in the next few days, He
would make them and all who would ultimately believe and repent clean from sin. This story of foot washing was and is a message of repentance and forgiveness, the very heart of Christ’s message.
In our world today, the simplicity and beauty of Christ’s act is oftentimes lost because it is strange and foreign to our modern culture. The intimacy of the act makes some feel that they could not participate in it. In verse 15, Jesus told us to do “just as I have done to you.” There are churches in our area that have Maundy Thursday foot washing services. This Holy Week, take the opportunity to find a service, and involve your body and spirit in an act of humility that is symbolic of the cleansing of our bodies by the blood of Christ.
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