Maundy, Maundy, So Good to Me

John 13:31 - 35 (RSV)

³¹When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of man glorified, and in him God is glorified; ³²if God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. ³³Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ ³⁴A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. ³⁵By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” 

The Greek word for “commandment” is   en-tol-ay'   the Latin word is mandatum, the Middle English Maundy. Today is Maundy Thursday. It is always the Thursday just before Good Friday. It is on this night that Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with his disciples. In the first three Gospel accounts, this is the night he celebrates the Passover meal. John does not as clearly link the Passover to this occasion. That does not means that he means to say that the Passover did not happen but he, for some reason, speak of it as an event about to happen.  

John speaks of the supper. It is clearly the Lord’s Supper. It is on that night that Jesus models humility as a mandatory quality for Christian fellowship. He takes off his cloths – at least down to his underwear. He wraps a towel around his waste or places it on his thighs and he sits before every disciple and washes there feet. He commands (entolay) that they submit to this service and he commands that they perform this same service for one another.  

We are not simply to love one another. That is an abstraction. We are to love one another the way Jesus loved his disciples. That is a concrete reality. The quality of love we should have for one another is the washing of feet. This, naturally, is the quality of humble service. 

Love is the giving of charity. Love is charitable acts. It takes a lifetime to learn this quality. The lessons are hard and progress is measured by slow improvement and even by more failures than victories.

 

Charity is never lost. It may meet with ingratitude, or be of no service to those on whom it was bestowed, yet it ever does a work of beauty and grace upon the heart of the giver.

Conyers Middleton (1683–1750) 

Charity is the scope of all God’s commands.

Saint John Chrysostom (c. 347–407) 

Never to judge rashly; never to interpret the actions of others in an ill-sense, but to compassionate their infirmities, bear their burdens, excuse their weaknesses, and make up for their defects—to hate their imperfections, but love themselves, this is the true spirit of charity.

Nicholas Caussin (1583–1651) 

“Whatsoever” is not necessarily active work. It may be waiting (whether half an hour or half a lifetime), learning, suffering, sitting still. But shall we be less ready for these if any of them are his appointments for today?

Frances Ridley Havergal (1836–1879) 

Before the judgment seat of Christ my service will not be judged by how much I have done but by how much of me there is in it. No man gives at all until he has given all. No man gives anything acceptable to God until he has first given himself in love and sacrifice.

A. W. Tozer (1897–1963)