A Maundy Thursday Prayer

Maundy Thursday is the Thursday before Easter. Its name comes from the Latin mandatum which means command.

It’s the day we remember a new command for all believers.

“Love one another as I have loved you.”

Honestly, sometimes it feels easier to follow Jesus, to trust Jesus, than to love others as Jesus loves us.

When my flesh wants to declare my rights and my cause, when my feelings are put out and prickled, the last thing I want to do is love the other person like Jesus loves.

Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.

Jesus, being in very nature God, bent to wash the grimy, sweaty feet of men. Picking up a pitcher of water and towel, the Creator waited on the created.

When has a king ever served his subjects?

.      .      .

“Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.  Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.
I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.  I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. [John 13:1, 12 – 17]

We can only be fully satisfied by loving the way Jesus loved.

Not with easy words but with humble actions.

The kind of actions that may never be noticed.

Oh Lord, you call me to wash feet and serve in the hard and the messy. You call me to serve others without glamour and without acclaim. You call me to leave the table where I might be served and to do for others instead. And not just to serve those who love me. You ask me to serve my enemies with equal compassion and humility. Lord, you know this is not my nature.  You know how I seek the comfortable and the lovely and the self-affirming. But you have not only modeled it; you’ve command it.  “Now that you know these things.” Now we know. Knowing isn’t so hard. It’s the doing. Help me, Lord, to do. And, amazingly, when obedience feels like it costs so much, you promise instead blessing.