Maundy Thursday

 Today is Maundy Thursday, 2024.  This is the Easter week for this year, and Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday lie ahead of today.  Our family and our faith tradition normally do not celebrate Maundy Thursday, so I had to look up some information about the day.

The word “Maundy” comes from the Latin mandatum, meaning commandment, and references the words of Jesus as he said to his disciples, “A new commandment I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  The day commemorates the washing of feet and the last supper of Jesus Christ and the Apostles.

 For those of us who are Christ-followers, this entire week as special significance.  We may not all celebrate each of the days of this week in the same way, but the culmination of the week on Easter Sunday is special for us all, as it commemorates the risen Lord, and with it the promise of grace, forgiveness, and life everlasting.  Now, I know that for those who are uninitiated in the tenets of the Christian faith, this whole thing seems to be so far-fetched and implausible that we often are branded as insane idiots who choose to be carried off into a fairyland where God and eternal life are front and center.  We are told that we are delusional.  We are told that the Bible, our source of all that we believe, is itself a fairy tale.  And we are dismissed as a people who willingly follow along in a sort of lemming-like way off the cliff of reason and logic and into the morass of fable and fantasy.

 I don’t know what you believe about all of this.  Many of my friends have similar beliefs.  Some do not.  This post isn’t the place to argue those points.  I’m not a Christian apologist.  You can believe whatever you wish to believe.  I only ask that you give me the same grace as I give you, without the name-calling or the put-downs.  That behavior is not necessary and is non-productive.  I’ve heard it all before, and whatever you may say will be nothing new.  And I promise I’ll not harass you with “religion” unless you are interested in what I have to say.

 The Easter week, and especially Easter Sunday, is also a symbol of the coming of spring, the renewing of the earth, and an awakening of life.  Easter eggs, flower arrangements, bunnies & chicks, and all that goes with those things are symbols of that awakening.  Easter is a moveable holiday, celebrated anywhere between March 22 and April 25, depending on the date of the first full moon following the spring equinox.  Just how that came to be is a long story that I’ll not re-tell here.  You can look it up in the fountain of all information, Wikipedia, if you want more background.

 I don’t know how you celebrate Easter.  Maybe you have a special Sunday dinner for the family.  It may be that you take in an Easter Sunrise service or participate in a special Easter service that your church offers.  You may make a special time for the kids in your family by hiding Easter eggs or taking them to a park.  You may just consider it to be an ordinary Sunday and not do much of anything.  Whatever you do or don’t do, I encourage you to at least read the account of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus in one of the Gospel accounts in the New Testament.  Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all have the story within them.  Doing this will give you a better idea of the reason for the holiday and why Christians the world over celebrate it.

 And if by chance you have a question after you’ve read the story, I also encourage you to find what many call a “spiritual advisor” to help you better understand the account you read and answer any questions you may have.  That advisor could be a Christian friend or the minister or pastor of a church.  There is much more to the Christian faith than just this story;   however, without the death and resurrection of Jesus, there is nothing left upon which the Christian faith can “hang its hat,” so to speak.  The Easter story is the foundation…the crux…the basis of all that we believe and practice.

 This Maundy Thursday, the day of foot-washing and the last supper, the day of the giving of a new commandment to love one another…today is a day of reflection…reflection on life and living, death, and relationships one with another.  May your day today be one of blessing.