Holy Week | Thursday
The Thursday of Holy Week was a day of final words with the King.
31 When he ( Judas) had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. 33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13: 31-35
The Thursday of Holy Week was a day full of preparation for our Lord’s celebration of the Passover, and on the occasion of that last supper with his disciples Jesus said and did things which would never leave their memories. Nor ours, thanks to their testimony.
The first three gospels each tell of how Jesus directs his disciples to request hospitality from a mysterious homeowner in Jerusalem: one who is never identified, but who provides a large and furnished “upper room” for Jesus and his disciples’ use. Those same gospel accounts also record how our Lord, presiding over the Passover meal, takes bread from the table and says to his disciples, “Take and eat; this is my body.” The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was first instituted in that upper room on that Thursday night.
But for virtually all the rest of what passed between Jesus and his disciples in the intimate fellowship of that upper room, we have to look at the testimony of John. Indeed, his gospel devotes five whole chapters (13-17) to what were our Lord’s final words to his disciples before his arrest later than night. John records our Lord’s surprising gesture of servanthood and love in washing the disciple’s feet: a foretaste of what he would do the following day at Calvary. And John records our Lord’s tender words of comfort for his fearful disciples who heard him speak of leaving, and his promise that he would not abandon them, for he would send to them a Helper who would guide them as Christ himself had done.
And throughout this “upper room discourse,” as it is sometimes referred to, is the repeated call by Christ to his disciples - that they love one another! He calls this a “new commandment,” not of course because the duty of love was new, but because there was new urgency to this calling in light of all that was ahead for the disciples. His death and departure, their persecution, and the great task of bearing testimony to Christ in the days ahead all called for them to be “perfectly one,” so that the world might know that God had sent his son (17:23). The Latin word for “commandment” is mandatum, a nd the Church has come to refer to this as “Maundy Thursday” in honor of our Lord’s emphasis that night on the commandment to love one another as the distinguishing mark of Christian discipleship.
When the disciples later remembered these words, though, they would carry even greater significance than when they were first uttered. Only after understanding the reason for Christ’s death on the cross would they appreciate the meaning of his adding, Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. Our Lord could not have provided a more poignant incentive to love the brethren, nor could he have provided a higher standard for that love. These final words of our Lord to his disciples would have been etched into their memories by the sight of his body on the cross, given for them.
For Discussion and Meditation:
When you think of the Thursday of Holy Week, you should think of the theme of our Lord’s final words to his disciples before his torments began: that of brotherly love. You should think of his desire for oneness in those who claim his name.
The final words of anyone who we love and esteem highly should weigh with us, especially if they are spoken as a charge to those left behind. Throughout history we have remembered and even treasured the dying words of many a lesser person than Jesus. How much more should we take to our own hearts the matters that were on the heart of our Savior as he prepared to part from his disciples! If ever a people should be fired with zeal by the dying words of a leader, it should be the disciples of Christ.
And what would that look like? Not merely a love for “Christians everywhere” in some abstract way. Rather, it would look like a fierce and sacrificial and Christ-like love for the actual brothers and sisters in Christ who have been placed in our lives. Devotion to Christ, according to his parting words, would look like devotion to them, even to the point of laying down our lives for them (John 15:13). Were we to ask the Savior who died for us, “What can I do to show you that I love you?” - these parting words suggest that he would say, “Love your brothers as I have loved you.” If we asked, “How can I be useful to you in this life?” - he would say, “Serve your brothers, as I have served you.” Truly the greatest way to honor the dying wish of our Savior is to love those he called his own brothers and sisters.
And after a whole week of seeking such opportunity to love one another in practical and sacrificial ways, the consummate opportunity to express that love to our fellow believers, and to Christ, comes (in ordinary times) in the celebration of the love feast Christ ordained on the Thursday of Holy Week: that of Holy Communion.
