Some people wake up this day each year instinctively knowing that it’s April Fool’s. Now a good prank is a good prank and should be enjoyed by all but we all know some people that take this day a bit too seriously. In fact, they could be in coma but would break back into the realm of consciousness because they have a prank they have been preparing all year to execute. For those people, today is their Christmas, it is their Easter, it is their Holy Day. Happy April Fool’s to you.
For others, this is a day to tolerate those who take April Fool’s too seriously. They walk through the day with a suspended enthusiasm knowing that the mysterious box that was shipped to their home last month was probably some type of slime or goo from an old Nickeloldian show (like “You Can’t Do That on Television”. Which was awesome … when I was 7).
But more importantly, to others, today is Maundy Thursday. Which is very confusing to many of my fellow evangelical friends, because when said aloud (“Monday-Thursday – what God wants another Monday? Oh come on.”) sounds like a day that needs to be forgotten or ignored. However, Maundy Thursday is a beautiful day to observe in the Holy Week. “Maundy’s” origin is Latin, from “Mandatum” which means “mandate”, “command”.
Maundy Thursday is cherished as the evening of the Last Supper. Dare I say, it is the most famous meal of human history. So many powerful moments from Jesus washing his disciples’ feet to him sharing the symbols of profound words and symbols of bread and wine that would reenacted millions of times by priests and pastors as Christians come together to observe and reflect on the holy sacrament of communion.
It is also the moment when Jesus says, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).
New command? It is always been powerful and odd to me the last words Jesus offers to his disciples. No master plan of evangelism, no condensed “gospel”, no formula, no real strategy, no long-winded pastoral summary beginning with the infamous words, “So in conclusion…”. But instead a new command which in honesty, isn’t really so new. It’s not as if Jesus actually invented love. Right?
It’s been a beautiful Holy week for me reading through John especially John 13-17 which as you may know is Jesus’ last evening with the disciples. We call it Maundy Thursday. I have also been reading NT Wright’s Justification. And I cannot help but be overwhelmed the love Jesus has for his disciples and for the world, “I pray for also those who will believe in me through their message, that all may them be one” … “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them” (from the end of John 17).
I can devote a significant amount of attention to the idea of sacrificial love, how we show love, how we have perverted and how we must repent and abide in it the way Jesus did. But one, most people know quite a bit about it, and we know it’s hard. And two, being a person of the type of love that Jesus describes is part of a process, a relational process between the Father, and between our neighbors. What’s new is that it’s never been demonstrated to humanity before. That God would become the man Jesus, suffer for the sins and the evil of the world so that we can be forgiven and all creation reconciled. And then the best part, – the Resurrection – the grand demonstration of life conquering death, good triumphing over evil, God reclaiming creation, Love conquering all. And in his goodness, he sent us another, the Holy Spirit to guide and empower. Indeed, we have never seen love like this.
To some, today is April Fool’s but to many people like me, it’s Maundy Thursday.
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You can read more about its history from this Christianity Today piece by Elesha Coffman, “The Other Holy Day”.
I’ve noticed that a lot of churches are having Maundy Thursday services instead of Good Friday services nowadays. I wonder whether it’s a way of de-emphasizing death, and yet Christ’s death was an ultimate expression of love. The two days go hand in hand — Jesus first shows us how we should live and then how we can live.
That’s interesting, I haven’t noticed an increase but that’s good to know.
While I hope it’s not to de-ephasize the topic of “death”, I appreciate that it affirms church tradition. But I do agree – Christ’s death and his ultimate expression of love as you say, cannot be separated and I love that last line – love it. Thanks Shannon.