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A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
Maundy Thursday…
If I had to choose a word for today – Maundy Thursday – the word would be love, but on this day, it is so much more than just a word.
Most of us think about love and in our minds, we see sunny days and moonlit evenings, warm fuzzy feelings when we see that special someone, or maybe we think of a mother holding a newborn baby. Calling us to love one another is motherhood and apple pie. But Christ’s new commandment to love came on the evening before the day the sky turned black as everything God had once pronounced good gave way to a world full of hate – hate directed to the very One who commanded love. He was tried unjustly, beaten and abused and finally nailed to a cross and left to die. And he died!
All of that may make us want to throw in the towel on love! But as Christ endured that day, he showed us that love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things. Jesus didn’t throw in the towel. His words from the cross were Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And then on Easter God raised him up to prove that love never ends.
Most of us will never be called on to die for love, but that’s not what Jesus had in mind when he told us to love one another. He wants us to live for love. He showed us what love looks like through his warm heart and listening ear, his limitless kindness and compassion, his forgiveness and his undying belief in the transforming power of grace.
Today, Maundy Thursday, the parade is over. The singing and celebrating are now just a memory from Palm Sunday. Tonight, we share one last meal with Jesus. He tells us to love each other. He doesn’t just give it lip service. He gets down on his knees, pours water into a bowl, and washes the disciples’ dirty feet. He washes the feet of the one he knows will betray him. He washes the feet of the one he knows will deny him. He washes the feet of those he knows will run away and abandon him. This is the love he speaks about. Humble, lowly devotion to the ones you love. It’s a love that carries no glamour. It’s a love that gains us nothing – nothing other than weird glances from others who would never do something like that – something that is beneath them.
Jesus is showing us that love is costly. But more importantly, it is holy. It is how we identify ourselves as followers of Christ. It is our calling card for the world.
Tonight, we will gather in a reverent and somber service. We will share in a meal in the presence of our Savior. As soon as we have feasted at the Lord’s Table, the lights dim, we go with Jesus through the events leading up to the crucifixion, the candles are extinguished, we hear the pounding of the nails. And we leave in silence.
As we, Christ’s church, enter into the three days of Christ’s death and resurrection, may we hear again this lesson about our identity as God’s children. People will know us by how we love each other. People will know. People will see where our hearts and our values are by how we reach out in service to our neighbor.
When we arrive on the other side of the celebration of Easter Sunday morning, and we go back out into the world, may this identity shine brightly and clearly for all to see.
Pastor Ruth
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