Holy Week: Maundy Thursday

One of the questions I seem to get asked every year is why Holy Thursday is called Maundy Thursdays.  This traditional name derives from Jesus' mandate to the disciples after He had washed their feet at the Passover table.  In John 13:1-15, Jesus washes their feet, and then asks if they understood what He had done.  His example of serving His disciples is one that all of His followers are to follow, looking for ways to serve each other.

However, this is only part of what happened that Thursday as Jesus celebrated the Passover.  This special celebration was a time for the Jewish people to remember how the LORD had freed them from Egypt.  Part of this remembrance was a meal which the LORD had instructed them to eat each year.  They ate unleavened bread (without yeast) because of the haste in which they departed Egypt.  They ate a roasted lamb, whose blood covered their doorways, thus causing the Angel of Death to pass over them.  They were to teach this meal and the meaning behind it to their children, and to observe it for generations to come.

This is the meal that Jesus celebrated with His disciples.  Only, this time, Jesus showed how the LORD had prepared for an even greater exodus, an even greater way of serving His people.  This time, Jesus would take the bread and announce that it was His very body, which would be broken for them.  They would now receive the flesh of the Lamb of sacrifice in the bread, and that would bring them Jesus' gift of forgiveness.

In the same way, Jesus took the cup after the meal, and as the disciples drank it, He told them that this cup was now His blood.  The blood of the Lamb would cover His followers, thus allowing eternal death to pass over them.  In addition, God was lifting a restriction He had placed on His people much earlier.  In Leviticus 17:10-17, God expressly forbade the consuming of blood, as it contains the very life of the creature.  Now, in the cup which Jesus would give, the eternal, perfect life of God would be consumed by His people, bringing them that same gift of life.

What we truly see in the Passover, and then, in the celebration of Jesus' body and blood, is that the LORD is a God who serves His people.  In washing their feet, Jesus paints a picture of how He washes all His people, through baptism and through faith.  In giving His body and blood, Jesus serves as He gives the very means of forgiveness to those who receive.  What a great gift from a God who truly seeks to serve His people.