Maundy Thursday

     Thursday of Holy Week.  The disciples spend their last evening of Jesus' earthly life sharing the Passover supper with Him, while He, the Lord of glory, washes their feet.  The lowliest, dirtiest, grimiest job that was performed only by the most menial of servants--yet the King of Kings "rose from supper...laid aside His outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around His waist.  Then He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around Him." (John 13:4-5)
     Might this never cease to astound and awe us!  The exalted and holy One willingly laid aside all His glory, all His rights in order to come down to serve and save sinners like us.  What a graphic picture this washing of those dusty feet was...giving us the tiniest glimpse of all Christ  relinquished in order to wash away the stain of our sin.
     So much happened on this Maundy Thursday--"Maundy"--Latin for "commandment" or "mandate."  Jesus commanded the disciples--and us--while washing those dirty feet, "A new commandment I give you to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35)  His command--so simple, so profound, yet oh so challenging--is to love like He loved.  Well, no actually, not challenging...absolutely impossible...save by the power of the Holy Spirit living within us.
     The Last Supper, Jesus instructions and teaching--His last precious words--and finally leaving that last, sweet time of fellowship and going out into the inky blackness of night...and the darkest time in human history.
     And yet, one last moment that astounds me.  Before Jesus and the disciples leave, they sing a hymn.  "And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives." (Mt.26:30)   Jews traditionally sang Psalms 113-118 during the Passover festivities, always culminating in Psalm 118.  Thus, in all likelihood, the last hymn sung by Jesus and the disciples before they left the upper room to go to Gethsemane would have been Psalm 118.
     Imagine all that Jesus faced.  Yet despite the horrors of what He knew was coming, Jesus sang.  Oh the power of our praise and worship, especially in those moments of greatest crisis or need or fear.
     And what a Psalm this is--especially the words--"The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.  This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.  This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." (Ps.118:22-24)  The rejected stone, the cornerstone is Jesus.  And He was about to be rejected, denied, betrayed, humiliated, despised, killed.  And all that was "marvelous in our eyes"--marvelous because by His stripes, we are healed.  By His death, we are forgiven.
     Therefore that day--that terrible, beautiful, awful, Good Friday, would be "the day that the Lord has made" and we will "rejoice and be glad in it."  That's what they sang about just before leaving for the Garden and the beginning of the whole terrible ordeal.
      So much in one day, one Maundy Thursday.  But that song of praise--in the face of so much pain and sorrow and sin-bearing--that leaves me awed and thankful for such a Redeemer.  Yes, if that day could be the "day the Lord has made" and if we can and should "rejoice and be glad in it" then there should never be a day without such rejoicing and gratitude.
     Thank You, thank You, thank You, Lord Jesus.  Another step, another day closer to the cross...yet still rejoicing.  To God be the glory.