Maundy

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
— Jesus, John 13:34–35

Welcome to Thursday of Holy Week. This is where stuff gets real.
Jesus’ iconic statement above is frequently quoted, but its location in the Gospels is often forgotten. It comes during what scholars call the “Farewell Discourse” in the Upper Room. Jesus is getting ready to leave his disciples after three years, and he explicitly shares what he wants them to focus on. Jesus doesn’t actually give many commands in the New Testament. He talks about them on numerous occasions, but this one is special. It’s his command, not just a command.

But in the Upper Room, with tensions high during that Passover meal, this new command falls on deaf ears. Amazingly, the disciples interrupt Jesus four different times in the coming minutes, focused completely on the fact that he says he’s going away. And each time, Jesus redirects their attention once again toward his command to love. 

It’s hard to focus on love when everything around you feels like it’s falling apart, isn’t it? Like the disciples, we want answers! We want solutions! And Jesus says, whatever happens, you have my command.

That’s why a command as simple as “love one another” has to be repeated over, and over, and over again. We usually change the subject.

The tradition of remembering the call to love in the Upper Room on Thursday of Holy Week has been around since the very first Easter celebration. But about 800 years ago, today began to be called “Maundy Thursday.” Maundy is the Latin word for command — where we get our English word “mandate.” Maundy Thursday is a chance to remember that the mandate of Jesus is to love one another — and that love looks like service.

Because on that night in the Upper Room, immediately before Jesus gives his command, we are told that he showed his disciples the completeness of his love. He grabbed a basin and towel and went through the ritual of washing their feet, taking on the role of a servant.

The mandate is love, and the method is service.
Love lays down its life. Love puts another’s needs before its own. Love serves in tangible, physical ways.

When tensions are high and big questions linger — like they did on that first Maundy Thursday — the calling from Jesus could never be more clear.
In the midst of the questions, in the midst of your fears, your frustrations, and your confusion… love each other.
Serve each other.
Prioritize the needs of those around you with compassion and humility.
Make it tangible. Let the importance of the command sink in.

Thankfully, several disciples would eventually see how central this value of Jesus was for God’s people. Years later, the disciple-turned-apostle John would famously write a letter to church leaders and restate Jesus’ command: Let us love one another, for love comes from God.
In one chapter (1 John 4), John restates this command six times — almost as if to signify that if Jesus had to repeat it over and over to get through to him, he’ll need to do so even more for others.

In one month, I’ll be sitting in the spot where John wrote those words near the end of his life, near Ephesus. I intend to take that space to hear them repeated in my own heart over and over again, until they become rooted even more deeply in me.

Tonight, though, I’ll sit on pillows around some low tables and share a communion table, a basin, and a towel with others to remember the humility and service of Jesus.
I hope it stirs me to fresh actions of love in all the places around me where love is absent. And I hope that you — in whatever way God is stirring you — can lean into the most significant mandate Jesus ever gave, on this special Thursday.

Be empowered by the Holy Spirit this week to practice new love toward people and loving approaches to situations.
Don’t change the subject every time Jesus brings it up. Love each other.

Jesus, may everyone know that I am your disciple, by my love.

Peace,
Keith