Maundy Thursday 9 April

DAILY BYTE – Authentic Worship – Service

On this Holy night, we commemorate the last supper that Jesus shared with his friends and followers before his crucifixion. This is the night when they shared bread and wine, which we now serve to one another, as the body and blood of Christ. This is the night when in one of the greatest acts of humility and service ever known Jesus washed the disciples’ feet.

He washed all of their feet – even Judas, the betrayer. Jesus did not choose the feet that were the cleanest, the feet that belonged to the dearest friend or the holiest person. Jesus washed the feet of the betrayers and deniers. And praise God for that gracious act. When Jesus finished washing their feet, he said to his followers, “So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14).

If we are to be authentic servants of God and followers of Christ, people who proclaim emphatically, as the psalmist did, “O Lord, I am your servant,” we must ask ourselves whose feet we are called to wash. Whom does Christ require us to serve, doing justice to them and walking humbly with God?

The only way that the psalmist finds the “bonds” loosed – the only way he or she is set free – is through becoming the servant of the Lord in whatever ways God chooses. In other words, being bound to Christ and whomever Christ chooses as his friends is the only way to be set free of the bonds of the world.

And so, as Christ cleanses his friends in an act of preparing for death, we prepare to die with Christ, as well. Which friends will we bring with us? Whom will we humble ourselves to serve?

PRAY-AS-YOU-GO

O God, by the example of your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, you taught us the greatness of true humility, and call us to watch with him in his passion. Give us grace to serve one another in all lowliness, and to enter into the fellowship of his suffering; in his name and for his sake. Amen.
- W.E. Orchard, England, 20th Century

FOCUS READING

Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19

I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my supplications. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, save my life!”… What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me? I will life up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord; I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones. O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the child of your serving girl. You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!