Maundy Thursday

BOX SCORE




Element

Current

Std. Range

Trend

Hemoglobin

8.1

13-17

v

Platelets

128

140-375

v

ANC

43,520

1800-8300

v

It's day three of my stay at Club Sunnyside. So far, so good. I have had no serious side effects from the treatments, and I am feeling good. Today is hump day in my treatment. By the end of the day, I will be 60% finished with the chemo for this round. 

Today is also Maundy Thursday on the Christian calendar. 

It is the fifth day of Holy Week, preceded by Holy Wednesday (Spy Wednesday) and followed by Good Friday.[2] "Maundy" comes from the Latin word mandatum, or commandment, reflecting Jesus' words "I give you a new commandment."[3] The date of the day will vary according to whether the Gregorian calendar or the Julian calendar is used. Eastern churches generally use the Julian system.*

In simpler terms, Maundy Thursday is the remembrance of the day on which Jesus ate the Passover meal with his 12 disciples, also known as the Last Supper. After this meal, He was arrested, tried, and convicted of blasphemy in a kangaroo court of the Jewish leadership; flogged; acquitted of any wrongdoing by the Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate; traded for a murderer who was set free by Pilate to appease the crowd and quell a riot; and the next morning He was crucified. 

But Maundy Thursday also commemorates some other important events in Jesus' ministry. Before the Passover meal, Jesus removed his outer garment and wrapped a towel around his waist. He proceeded to wash the feet of the 12 as both a ritual and a literal cleansing. This was also a lesson to the 12 that if they were to be leaders, they needed to become servants first. Just as Jesus said in Mark 10:45, "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” 

Jesus also gave the disciples a new commandment (mandatum).  

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 13:34-35)

It is interesting that Jesus calls this a new commandment. In Matthew 22, a lawyer asks Jesus,  "Which is the great commandment in  the law?" (verse 36) And Jesus replied:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (verses 37-40)

So, I conclude that the disciples had heard these commandments before. Not only that, but they knew Scripture, and I am sure they knew Deuteronomy 6:5:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

I believe Jesus was emphasizing the second of the two commandments, when he told them to love one another. They were, perhaps, one another's closest neighbors, having walked as a group of disciples with Jesus for three years or more. He knew He was about to leave them, and His legacy was to be the love He gave to the world when He willingly laid down His life for the remission of sins on that Roman cross. The mission would now be in the hands of the disciples, who would be known as His, if they would love one another. I confess that it was the love I saw shared among Christians that compelled me to return to my faith in Christ, after many years of running away from God. 

So, Maundy Thursday is a very important day to me and to many Christians. The world knows The Last Supper, Good Friday and Easter, or Resurrection Sunday, at least by name. But to me the details of what happened on Thursday that week are powerful and not to be forgotten. I only regret that, being in the hospital today, Jill and I will miss a time of prayer and celebration at our home church. 

I hope your takeaways from this little epistle of mine are 1) that those who would lead must first know how to serve others, and 2) loving our neighbors as we love ourselves is the way we serve them. 

God bless you during this week known among Christians as Holy Week.
 

 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maundy_Thursday

 

 

 

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