Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19, Exodus 12:1-14, I Corinthians 11:23-26, John 13:1-17, 31b-35

God does miracles to show us that he is on the side of healing, not disease; life, and not death; freedom, and not bondage. The Passover celebration took place before the Exodus from slavery in Egypt. The Jewish people had been enslaved for centuries, but now God was about to act to free them. He told them to take “a male lamb without defect” to be “slaughtered.” They would eat his flesh, while his blood would protect them from the death that would bring God’s people into a new life of freedom.

The very first account written about the last Passover meal that Jesus ate with his disciples is not in the Gospels, but in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth. This tiny group of Jewish and Gentile Christians was rejected by both the Jewish leadership and the Roman authorities. They needed to know that despite the financial and personal losses they suffered for following Jesus, they were not forgotten by God. Like the Jewish people who had suffered in Egypt, the new Christians were given a Passover meal to celebrate. Instead of being told “things would work out,” they were reminded that Jesus suffered with and for them: “This is My body, given for you;” this is the “new covenant in My blood.”

We call the day before Good Friday “Maundy Thursday” from the Latin word “mandatum,” meaning “a command to do something.” We are commanded by God to “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes”—a Lord who is put to death by his subjects; a sinless Messiah who suffers for his guilty persecutors; “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” but is scorned and mocked in the process.

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke contain accounts of the Passover meal that prefigure how “Christ our Passover lamb” will be sacrificed for our good. But there is no such account in the Gospel of John, the last Gospel written by the last Apostle to die. Instead, John focusses how we should respond to Jesus, the Suffering Servant who even washed his disciples’ feet, saying “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” We can echo St. Augustine in response: “O Lord, command what you will, and give what you command.”

 Todd Lake, Vice President

Spiritual Development