Finally...the beginning

It is hard to think of Maundy Thursday as anything but the beginning of the story. Mostly because we fast forward through all of the important parts that are full of talking to get to the action. And as far as action goes, Thursday's got it.

On Wednesday, Jesus is annointed. Thursday, he gets up and tells two of his disciples to go find a good place to share the Passover meal. Then they all meet for Passover, the most important Jewish holiday. Jesus, in sharing what we know as the Last Supper provides us with such rich imagery and gives us the language we use in our Eucharist. Three of the gospels show Jesus comparing the bread and wine to his flesh and his blood. These have become such powerful images for us.

John's gospel has a unique element that isn't in any other book of the Bible: a footwashing. Jesus asks to wash the feet of the disciples, demonstrating the way he saw leadership: to lead, you must serve. He was their rabbi, their teacher. He was "supposed" to tell them to wash his feet, and they would have scrambled to be the one to do it. But instead, Jesus asks to wash their feet--showing the disciples, and us today--what it really means to do what God has called us to do.

Jesus also does a strange thing and points out that one of the twelve will betray him to the authorities. We know who that is to be: Judas. So that night, he brings some soldiers into the Garden of Gethsemane and has Jesus arrested. Jesus is brought before the high priest of the temple and condemned to death--not something that a Jewish high priest would ordinarily do. At the sight of the soldiers, the disciples run away and don't appear in the story again until Easter.

Maundy Thursday is tough day for us. It would be easy to pin the blame here on Judas and on Jewish leaders that had Jesus arrested and killed by the Romans the following day. This would make us feel better, but pulls us away from the truth.

We could take this as an opportunity to condemn ourselves, saying that we are all responsible for Jesus's death--not much of a better option, either--because it wasn't people that loved him that had him killed.

So what do we make of this time? What confusions do you have about this story? Where does this leave you for Good Friday?

I find it incredibly reassuring that Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples and friends. The meal, shared in that community, was Jesus's opportunity to 'hammer home', if you will, the ideas Jesus had for us. For how we are to live with one another.

In what ways can you show leadership by serving others? Do you have any experiences in which something you've done for someone else "caught on"? Sometimes it is opening a door for someone and sometimes it is much larger than that.

Lastly, how do you see yourself preparing for Good Friday?