There’s that age-old question about whether or not you would
want to know the day you are going to die.
How would you live your life differently? What would you do with your final years,
months, weeks or days? I’ve been
thinking about this question a lot this week as I look at how Jesus prepared
for his death. He knew that his death
was coming but he didn’t go skydiving or spend a week on the beach in Hawaii. Instead of doing things for himself, he spent
his time with those he cared about and teaching them how to serve.
We get the Maundy in Maundy Thursday from the Latin word for
commandment. On what would be his last
night, there are three commands that Jesus gives to his disciples. The first command was to wash one another’s
feet. Jesus decides to show his love for
his disciples by lowering himself from the role of teacher and washing their
feet, a job usually only done by servants. (I don’t know about you but washing
feet, especially of people who have been walking on dirt roads in sandals, is
not at the top of my Bucket List.) Although I don’t think we need to literally
wash other people’s feet, Jesus does call us to do more for those around us. In this one act the son of God is showing
that no one is greater than anyone else. At the end of the day, we are all
human and we all struggle so we should be willing to help each other out when
we can, no matter of status.
The second command Jesus gives is during the Passover
meal. Jesus tells his disciples to eat
the bread and drink the cup of wine in order to remember him and the sacrifice
that he would be making. On the night of
the first Passover the people of Israel were delivered from the bondage of
slavery in Egypt and on the night of this Passover meal Jesus would deliver the
people of God from the bondage of sin.
Jesus is the spotless lamb who is willing to die so that we would be
saved from death and given eternal life.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved
you, so you must love one another. This is how all men will know that you are
my disciples, when they see the love you have for each other.” Jesus’ final command to the disciples seems
so simple but I think that most people struggle to follow it, or at least I
do. It is really hard to love everyone
that we come across. There are bound to
be people who get on our nerves and frustrate us. And surely Jesus isn’t asking us to love the
people who have hurt us, right? I think
that he is. But he doesn’t mean the Valentine’s Day, hugs and kisses kind of
love all the time. I think he is calling
us to be the bigger person when it isn’t always easy, turn the other cheek when
we’ve been hit, and genuinely try to get along with one another. Everyone is a child of God and should be cherished
for that. We shouldn’t be showing our
love when it is convenient or when we agree with everything someone believes
in. We are called to love in spite of
our differences.
This is an interesting command for me to think about with my
time here in South Africa and my experiences in the States. I know that there is still a lot of racism in
the US but here it is much more obvious.
Less than 20 years removed from the apartheid system there is still a
lot of tension between people here and I see discrimination and hear racist
comments all the time. In my time here,
however, I have tried to break down some of those boundaries and ‘spread the
love’ through little actions like asking why a racist remark was said or what
that means to them. I think that the
little actions we do matter just as much, if not more than the big things. It’s
not what you say that defines you, it’s what you do.
We might not know when our last day on Earth will be but
Jesus laid out pretty plainly what we are supposed to do with the time that we
do have: wash each other’s feet, feed one another, and love each other. In
essence, he is calling us to be servants.
I pray that in our service to each other we will find the joy and
presence of God that He wants us to discover.
In Jesus’ death and resurrection he lifted the burden of sin from us so
that we could be free to share his love.
So, what’s stopping us?
"And I will live to carry Your compassion, to love a world
that’s broken, to be Your hands and feet.
And I will give with this life that I’ve been given and go beyond
religion to see the world be changed. By the power of Your name."
Lincoln
Brewster, Power of Your Name
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