Again, welcome to the Great Three Days of Jesus’ journey from death into life.
It begins with Maundy Thursday.
Maundy is derived from the Latin for mandate (command).
It is on this evening that the church universal reflects on the three final mandates that Jesus the Christ gave to his disciples during their final Passover, final dinner, final evening before his arrest, trial, conviction, passion, crucifixion, and death.
The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) differ from the Gospel of John.
Since our assigned scripture is John and offers two of the mandates, let us begin with it.
Jesus and the disciples gather for the Passover celebration.
Foot washing was a common practice of hospitality in the ancient near east, but it was an extremely dirty task which causes me to physically cringe due to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). It was not merely feet, but rather feet that had walked miles, in sandals, in the hot desert sand and dirt. Read the rest of this entry »