A Maundy Thursday Meditation

On the night that Jesus was betrayed, he ate a final meal with his disciples. It was the Jewish Passover, a meal commemorating the Jews' miraculous preservation and deliverance from Egypt. Like all situations Jesus enters, he transformed the Jewish Passover into something wonderfully new, a last supper of the incarnate Son of God with his disciples and friends, prior to his execution.

The clock was ticking.

I remember as a young believer, converted from atheism, being struck by the passage in Luke where Jesus said "with desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you". Jesus, the divine Son of God, desired to have a last meal with his friends and disciples before he laid down his life for each and every one of them.

This last meal is now commemorated as part of Maundy Thursday observances. Maundy is from the Latin word from which we get the English word "mandate"; it means commandment. What was his commandment? That his disciples love one another.

Part of this final gathering was Jesus' act of servanthood, when he took off his outer robes, put on the garb of a servant, and did what a servant of Jesus' day did: he washed the feet of his disciples. And he told us to go and do likewise.

As Christians, we should be people of the cross, yes, but also people of the towel.

We don't always manage to do this, but there it is. Jesus laid down an ethical mandate, an "ought", which is with us still and which, along with the parable of the Good Samaritan, has had a positive leavening effect on society, whether overtly Christian or not. The words of Jesus cannot be taken back. They are "out there". And they have transformed human reality, human society, and, best of all, human hearts.

There never was a person like Jesus. There will never be another like him. Of royal pedigree, he didn't think equality with God something to flaunt, but rather took the form of a human being. Being found in human form, he took the form of a servant. Being found a servant, he did Yahweh's will -- healing the sick, raising the dead, preaching good news to the poor. As the climax of his life of servanthood he become obedient to Yahweh unto death, even unto death on the cross, for wrong-doings he had never done.

And so it is in this context that the Son of Man earnestly desired fellowship with his disciples.

The Bible is full of images of eating as a form of communion and fellowship. It pictures a great banquet to be held when Jesus returns to be reunited with his followers. Christians who commemorate the Lord's death in the Lord's Supper look forward to the day when we will all eat together in that great marriage supper of the Lamb. Meanwhile, since the banqueting table is open to all, we long for others to be drawn in as well, and, in our imperfect attempts at witnessing and apologetics, we seek to point others in the right direction -- the direction of the One who said,

"Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice, and opens the door, I will come into him, and he will sup with me and I with him".

May you hear his gentle knocking in your heart.

And that's the way the grateful Ball bounces.