“I Give You a New Command:” Maundy Thursday

(An earlier post provides an overview of Holy Week. This post will focus on the meaning of Maundy Thursday.)

What is Maundy Thursday? The word “Maundy” comes from the Latin word for command, as does the English word “mandate.” John’s Gospel has a long “Upper Room” discourse where Jesus shares a last meal with his disciples and prepares them for his death, his return to the Father and his physical absence. During this discourse Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (John 13:34). On Maundy Thursday we remember Jesus giving this mandate as he ate with his disciples one last time.

The tone of Maundy Thursday worship is set by the way John’s Gospel tells the story of Jesus’ last meal with the disciples (chapters 13-17). While Maundy Thursday marks the Last Supper and is the rationale for why we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, John does not emphasize the meal as much as he does Jesus’ actions around the meal. Some churches have foot washing ceremonies on Maundy Thursday because, in John’s telling, Jesus, aware that God had given all things into his hands, used his power for humble service and washed his disciples’ feet. For John the significance of this evening is not primarily the meal, but the love Jesus expresses to his followers in word and in deed, fully aware of the suffering he would soon face.

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke tell the story of the hours before Jesus’ arrest differently. While John emphasizes Jesus’ actions and words around the meal, the other three gospels emphasize the meal itself. For John, Jesus is the Passover lamb (see Exodus 12) and in John’s telling of the story Jesus’ crucifixion occurs as the Passover lambs are being slaughtered in the Temple. Therefore the meal Jesus had with his disciples was not the Passover meal. But for Matthew, Mark and Luke the meal Jesus shared with his disciples on the night of his arrest was indeed the Passover meal. It is from these Gospel writers that we come to call the Lord’s Supper the “Christian Passover,” affirming that just as God freed Israel from slavery under Pharaoh, so God has freed all of creation from the enslaving forces of sin and death in Jesus Christ. We cannot understand Jesus’ death if we do not know the story of the Exodus, of God freeing God’s people from slavery in Egypt.

While John and the other gospel writers don’t tell the story of Maundy Thursday in the same way, in all four gospels after dinner Jesus went with his disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus was betrayed by Judas into the hands of those who would kill him. While John gives us a more commanding picture of Jesus (in John, those who come to arrest Jesus fall before his feet in awe) in the other gospels Gethsemane is a time of prayer and struggle as Jesus prays for the strength to endure what is to come. In these gospels Jesus asks his disciples to keep watch and pray with him, but they fall asleep. The Maundy Thursday service ends with the story of Gethsemane, of Jesus striving to do God’s will, of inattentive disciples and of a militia squad ready to arrest Jesus.

The Maundy Thursday service ends with the stripping of the church, where all elements of decoration are removed from the sanctuary. The bare sanctuary is a symbol of the forsakenness Jesus will experience during his trial and crucifixion, and the sanctuary will remain unadorned for Good Friday worship the next day.

As we prepare for Maundy Thursday it is important for us to make the distinction between the Last Supper and the Lord’s Supper. While the later has its roots in the former they are not the same. On Maundy Thursday we have in mind the Last Supper, with its sense of sorrow and foreboding. While there are times it is appropriate for these overtones to be present when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, at its core the Lord’s Supper is a joyful feast. In it we remember Jesus’ death, but we also remember Jesus’ resurrection, both of which have brought an end to the tyranny of sin and death. A biblical image of God’s kingdom is that of a great feast, of a wedding banquet, and in the Lord’s Supper we affirm that Jesus’ death and resurrection is God’s victory over all that would rob us of our dignity and freedom as those created in God’s image. In this meal we rejoice in God’s power to redeem, even in the face of suffering and evil.