“Today is Maundy Thursday. The name comes from the Latin mandatum, the first word in the Latin rendering of John 13:34, “A new commandment (mandatum novum) I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” This commandment was given by Jesus on the Thursday before his crucifixion. So Maundy Thursday is the “Thursday of the Commandment.”
Excerpt From: Piper, John. “Love to the Uttermost : Devotional Readings for Holy Week.” Desiring God.
Yesterday our Savior shared with His disciples that His soul was troubled. It’s hard to imagine that Christ, the God-Man, ever had a moment of conflicting emotion… but here in the Word, from His very own lips we see that He did. He knows what it means to have inward commotion going on… He knows how it feels to lose the calmness of our mind. Tarasso. Troubled. Our Jesus knows it well.
Today our Jesus will have met with His disciples to share the Passover meal… He will meet with them and He will show them that the greatest among them is the one who humbles himself to serve another. It would be this night that Jesus, the Teacher, the Master, the Rabbi, the Lord… would lay aside His outer garment and get down on His knees and wash the feet of the disciples… even the one who would betray Him… the one that Jesus already knew would betray Him… because Jesus sees right into our hearts. Our intentions and secrets and motives and desires are not hidden from His sight… ever.
Even when He sees the wickedness within us… He willingly washes our feet. If we sit before Him… because He knows that we can never get ourselves clean.
So He came to Simon Peter.
He said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?”
Jesus answered and said to him,
“What I do you do not realize now,
but you will understand hereafter.”
Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!”
Jesus answered him,
“If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”
John 13:6-8
Have you been washed?
Washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you washed in the blood,
In the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb?
Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you walking daily by the Savior’s side?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Do you rest each moment in the Crucified?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Lay aside the garments that are stained with sin,
And be washed in the blood of the Lamb;
There’s a fountain flowing for the soul unclean,
O be washed in the blood of the Lamb!
After Jesus washed their feet… after Judas fled the scene… Jesus gets serious.
Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for Me?
John 13:38
Peter claims he will lay down his life for Jesus, but Peter has no clue about what he is saying. He claims something he knows nothing about… but he will get the opportunity to see the true condition of his heart. His good intentions simply will not meet his ability of execution.
However, Jesus already knows this as well. Knowing the betrayal by Judas, knowing the denial by Peter, knowing the doubting by Thomas, knowing the scattered disciples hiding in fear behind a locked door… Jesus looked them all in the face and said…
“If you love Me,
you will keep My commandments.”
John 14:15
This is My commandment,
that you love one another,
just as I have loved you.
John 15:12
Jesus has loved us in our ugly. He has loved us in our fear. He has loved us in our big talking. He has loved us in our days of doubting. He has loved us in our hiding, and in our running, and in our fighting, and in our bickering, and in our grandeur seeking, and in high and mighty thinking, and in our moments of finally getting it.
And He tells us… love one another, just as I have loved you.
So the first question is, Will you let Him wash you?
The second question is, Will you lay down your life for Him?
The third question is, Will you keep His commandments?
The fourth question is, Will you love one another as He has loved you?
Think precious one…
Are you walking daily by the Savior’s side?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Do you rest each moment in the Crucified?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?