Kneeling at the Feet of Others: 1 April, 2021 – Maundy Thursday
Now the Church begins the Three Days: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Vigil of Easter (on Saturday) as one liturgy that drives home to us the centrality of the death and resurrection of Jesus to our faith.
Many congregations are familiar with Maundy Thursday’s footwashing and Jesus’ instructions to do as he did and serve others. It can be a powerful experience to offer each person the opportunity to be washed and then to wash someone else’s feet. This can be done simply with basins, towels, and warm water at hand in thermoses. No coercion, just invitation.
Ancient practice for Good Friday is still today to read the entire story of Jesus’ Passion according to the Gospel of John, to honor the cross, and to pray for the world’s needs. This stands in contrast to some more recent liturgies that take Jesus’ last words from each of the Passion narratives and spin them together as if the Gospel accounts don’t differ. The differences matter and are best left separate in order to emphasize the differing angles from which the Gospel accounts portrayed Jesus’ life and death among us.
The Vigil of Easter is a time to sit with the death, as we do with each other when a loved one has died. This year with so much grieving over the pandemic of Covid-19, the Vigil of Easter (which ends with the joyous Resurrection of Our Lord) might be especially appreciated for the time of the readings which remind us of the long history of God-with-us. –– Melinda Quivik
TODAY:
Maundy/Holy Thursday has one of the most complex and complicated liturgies of the year. Although many traditions focus mainly on the Last Supper and its institution, it is important to place the sacrament in its context of living with one another. Thus, the challenge for some will be utilizing the ritual of footwashing as a manifestation for loving others. “Maundy” (Latin mandatum for commandment) makes this connection with Jesus’s admonition given his disciples: “to love one another.” –– Sara Webb Phillips
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
[This text] continues to narrate the “Gospel of Glory” as begun two Sundays previously, when Jesus comes to Jerusalem for the Passover. During the supper (not the Passover meal in John), Jesus embodies in his actions the link between leadership and servanthood, discipleship and willingness to serve and be served. He already has astounded them by his taking on the slave’s task of footwashing, then follows the action with a new commandment. “Just as I have loved you, you . . . love one another.” –– Sara Webb Phillips
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
[Here is] Paul’s narrative of what he “received from the Lord” (v 23) about Jesus’s Last Supper with his disciples. The words are now the heart of the Christian sacramental text. Paul’s “handed on” (v 23) words have now been handed on to us in a positive Greek meaning of “tradition”; for this same word, paradosis, is used to describe how Judas “handed over” Jesus to his accusers. The Orthodox worship service captures these opposite meanings in this night’s liturgy. The congregation will pray to receive Jesus worthily and not, as Judas, to betray him with a kiss. –– Sara Webb Phillips
Exodus 12:1-4 [5-10] 11-14
[The story] narrates the details of the Passover commemoration in subsequent years in the midst of telling the first historical account. Thus during the narrative of the tenth and final plague, the text injects a “scene flash-forward” to how every year the Passover will be honored. By the time of Jesus, the “modern” Passover combined celebrations of a New Year, the unleavened bread festival, and the sacrifice of the Paschal lamb in commemoration of the Exodus.
Today’s text reviews the directions of how the holiday is to be practiced. (Of course, the pressure is off from that first event, where following the exact directions were essential to life.) The blood of the lamb slaughtered at twilight and painted on the doorjambs guides the angel of death over those homes, and the firstborn sons will be spared from death. The great fortune will continue as Pharaoh’s heart turns for a moment to enable the release of the Hebrew slaves. Remember that the menu of Jesus’s meal (which becomes the Christian Passover meal, the Eucharist) becomes not roasted lamb with bitter herbs, but bread and wine, indicating a new sacrifice that leads to freedom. –– Sara Webb Phillips
Sara Webb Phillips is a United Methodist minister serving Grace UMC in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a former co-editor of the journal Liturgy published quarterly by The Liturgical Conference.
Melinda Quivik, an ordained ELCA pastor (who served churches in Montana, Michigan, and Minnesota) and former professor of worship and preaching, is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Liturgy, a writer, and a preaching mentor with backstory-preaching.mn.co.
Homily Service 42, no. 2 (2008): 78-88.