Today is Maundy Thursday ... I'm not sure if that was common in your faith tradition, it wasn't something we celebrated in my home growing up. But it has become important to me as an adult.
Holy Week is my favorite time of the year. I don't say that out loud often, but it is my favorite time of the year. Yes, Christmas is good, Jesus had to come to earth and we should celebrate his arrival. But Jesus ABSOLUTELY HAD TO DIE AND BE RAISED FROM THE DEAD to purchase our salvation. And while many Christian's understand that truth, I don't believe we celebrate it the way we should ...
Jesus had to die. He then had to be raised from the dead. Our salvation, our ability to stand as a spotless lamb in the throne room of God depends on those two things. Jesus' birth wasn't enough. So with all due respect to Ricky Bobby, I don't pray to baby Jesus. Baby Jesus didn't pardon my debt to God. Baby Jesus was just the beginning of the story.
What does all that have to do with Maundy Thursday? I think that if you spend time in the Book of John today and read chapters 13 through 17 you will see the heart of God in Jesus' final words to his disciples. John takes five chapters to cover the events in the Upper Room, nearly 20% of his gospel is about one night: Maundy Thursday.
Since the main plot of the Gospel of John is to demonstrate Jesus is God, taking 20% of his message to highlight a single day should cause us to pause and dig deeper. What do we learn?
- Jesus washes his disciples feet.
- Jesus shares a meal with the one who will betray him.
- Jesus predicts Peter's denial.
- Jesus talks about heaven.
- Jesus says, "I am the Way," the most confrontational of the seven "I am" statements he made.
- Jesus promises a Comforter will come when he leaves. We know this comforter as the Holy Spirit.
- Jesus says the second "I am" statement of the evening, "I am the Vine."
- Jesus prepares his disciples for a world that will hate them as it hated him.
- Jesus says his followers will be scattered.
- Jesus says, "In this world you will have trouble."
- Jesus prays for his disciples.
- Jesus prays for you and me; he prays "for those who will believe in me through their [disciple's] message."
Each one of these bullet points could be an entire book, many of them are. I could write a blog post about each one, and perhaps some day I may.
In chapter 16 we read: "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace."
I want to leave you with that today. May the events of today (Maundy Thursday), may the events of tomorrow (Good Friday), may the silence of Saturday (Jesus is in the grave), and may the Resurrection Celebration of Sunday (Easter) resonate with you today and throughout the weekend. And may you have peace through Jesus.
