Maundy Thursday

“After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord – and you are right, for that is what I am. 14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you all ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 16 Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them…34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.'” John 13:12-17

There are a number of unorthodox moments in the life of Jesus during Holy Week.  He rode in on a donkey to the city of God.  He turned over the tables in the Temple.  He cursed fig trees.  He prophesied about the heart of Jerusalem and the inhabitants’ trust in power, war, and violent revolution.  He is unorthodox because the ways of Heaven are other worldly.  Jesus’ actions on Maundy Thursday are entirely otherworldly from the powers and principalities surrounding him.  Otherworldly in the sense that Rome rules.  And, Roman Gentile leaders do not wash the feet of their followers.  Rome doesn’t bow to anyone.  But, from this very moment the powers of Rome will have roughly 300 years before the empire implodes and falls to the ground (literally).  And, the movement of love that Jesus establishes with his disciples will have grown with remarkable pace and power.  It is truly the influence of Heaven’s ways upon the earth.  A small amount of yeast working it’s way through the entire batch of dough (Matthew 13:33).  Love opens doors that war, power, and violence cannot.  The towel can open doors that a title cannot.  2000 years later and Jesus is the one celebrated not Rome.

The challenge of Jesus is that his words and actions challenge every generation anew.  The world is longing for people who will seek the towel over a title.  Those who willingly embrace a lifestyle of servanthood over the pursuit of promotion, celebrity and fame.  May we yield our hearts again to Jesus.  May we find ourselves more inclined to the quiet place of prayer than the platform.  May our hearts yearn for serving above promoting.  Wow!  What a challenge Holy Week has been this year for my own heart!