A Holy Week Devotional: Maundy Thursday
Growing up in a Baptist church, my family observed Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I remember loving the Good Friday service especially…it was dark and somber. The shades in the sanctuary were drawn. The worship team wore all black. There was a black piece of crepe fabric draped across the Cross.
And every year, at the end of the service, we watched a video. I would leave the sanctuary in tears and covered in goosebumps, embodying Paul’s exhortation to “mourn as those who have hope.”
As an adult, I fell in love with Ash Wednesday for the same reasons I love Good Friday, and it made me wonder. Are there other parts of the Lent and Easter narrative that I am missing?
Insert Holy Week.
Every moment of Jesus’s life – recorded or not – was intentional. Everything He said and did had purpose and a meaning deeper than we can ever humanly comprehend. And the week leading up to His death – an event He knew was coming – is saturated with more significance than I have words to convey.
I can’t give you every intent contained in the last week of Jesus’s earthly life. But I can do this for you – I can give you this guide, and pray it helps you discover more in this week than you knew existed.
So grab your Bible and a notebook, or just set aside a minute or two of time to read the Scripture here – it’s all linked for you! Each day will be published separately and early each morning. Hop onto the email list, if you want it delivered straight to your inbox!
Blessings on your Holy Week, dear one. It is meant for you.
It’s Thursday, and our Lord Jesus Christ is observing Passover, washing the feet of His disciples, reframing the Passover meal into Communion, singing about God’s faithfulness, being betrayed by someone in His inner circle, wrestling with God, being abandoned by friends, getting arrested, standing trial, and not sleeping.
Whew, what a day - and that’s just the skinny version!
So where to start?!
Maundy.
From the Latin word mandatum and meaning “commandment.”
When you Google this, very few of the initial results have a Christian world-view. They all attribute this name to Jesus’s commandment to love one another after He washed the disciple’s feet. Which isn’t wrong! It’s just not complete.
Read: John 13.12-17
Since I, Your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow: do as I have done to you.
After reading this, my first question was, “am I literally supposed to wash the feet of other people to obey Jesus’s command?!”
So I read the Greek.
Let me show you.
Jesus nipto the disciple’s pous.
Nipto. To cleanse. It’s a Greek word that exclusively appears when water and healing are connected.
Pous. A foot. The posture of a disciple listening to their teacher’s instructions.
Jesus healed the heart posture of His disciples.
Which made me curious about the meaning of the commandments that followed.
So I looked up more Greek!
You opheilo wash each other’s feet. It is your duty to wash each other’s feet. You are bound to wash each other’s feet.
Poieo as I poieo you. Cause as I have caused you. Be the authors of as I have been the author of you. Produce as I produced in you. Shoot forth as I shot forth you. Celebrate as I celebrate you. Make ready as I made you ready. Lead them out as I led you out.
So in other words…
Jesus has healed my heart posture as I listen to His instructions, so I am bound to shoot forth and lead others out as Jesus led me out.
Don’t let that intimidate you! Once again, Jesus has not left us to our own strength and ability.
Read: John 14.15-17
Holy Spirit. Advocate, Comforter, Encourager, Counselor.
We have not been left alone.
See, the Spirit’s job is to lead us into a deeper knowledge of the Truth, giving us divine strength to do this life. To obey Jesus’s commands. To nipto, opheilo, and poieo.
We do it because He first did it, and the Spirit now enables us to do it.
And remember this, too – the power of Jesus to heal and cleanse, the authority to lead others out and make them ready is ours in the Holy Spirit.
This was why Christ lived, and this is why He spent Thursday preparing to die.
Read: John 17.20-25
This is part of the prayer Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. Between waking His sleeping disciples and begging His Father to change His story, Jesus spent the last night of His life praying over YOU.
Your name was on His lips. Your life was on His heart. You belonging with Him was all He desired.
He knew what you do. To Him. To others. To yourself.
And with His final moments of freedom, He was praying, cleansing us. Washing us with thanksgiving and dowsing us in divine agape.
When our heart posture has been healed i.e. being in Christ, we are free to image God in the ways we have experienced Him.
It’s a part of the unity Jesus prayed over us in John 17. And it’s part of the ‘Maundy’ command Jesus observed and desires us to move towards.
Lord Jesus,
Today is the last day of Your earthly life. Thank You for living it well. Thank You for packing it full of meaning, for the first-century disciples, and for me. Thank You for naming me and remembering me in Your last night.
I now understand that washing the feet of Your disciples was about a spiritual posture more than a physical act. You promise to continue revealing Yourself to me, and as I sit with this revelation, please help me put the pieces together.
I am bound to the healing work You started, Jesus. I confess to doubting that I am qualified to work alongside You nipto through me.
Forgive me.
You have given me the Spirit to help me faithfully poieo, and I confess to believing I do not have the faith, the ability, or the strength to do it well.
Forgive me.
You have promised healing (nipto) to me through sitting and listening at Your feet (pous). I confess to believing that is not enough.
Forgive me.
I confess that these things are why You had to die, Jesus. Like Peter, James, and John, I have abandoned You. Like Judas, I have betrayed You. Like Peter, I have denied You. I played a part in Your arrest on this Maundy Thursday, Lord.
Forgive me.
Search me, O Lord, and know my heart. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me instead down paths everlasting (Psalm 139.23-24). Cleanse me and make me new.
Hosanna, Lord Jesus. Save me.
See you tomorrow🖤