Reading With the People of God #12 - the Good LifeSample

The Humility of Christ

Today, we have reached the day of Holy Week, known as Maundy Thursday. It is the day we commemorate the last supper Jesus had with His disciples before being crucified, as well as His washing of their feet. The word “Maundy” comes from the Latin word for Command in reference to the command Jesus gave his disciples in John 13:34-35:

“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. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

In John 13, when Jesus washes the disciples' feet, He shows us that in order to love one another, we must humble ourselves and do those things which we might think are beneath us. Christ Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, eternally begotten of the Father, is infinitely greater than anyone else and yet He made Himself so low as to wash His disciples’ feet.

Today, among other passages, we will be reading Psalm 51. This is the Psalm that King David wrote in repentance for his great sin of using his power to take Bathsheba for himself and having her husband killed. In some ways, this Psalm has little to do with Maundy Thursday and yet many of the themes of this day can be found in it. Jesus washed his disciples' feet. David, likewise, in his desperation, asks God to wash him from his sin:

“Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” (Psalm 51:2)

And on the theme of humility, David, instead of making excuses for his sin, comes to God as the broken man that he is:

“My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17)

So on this Maundy Thursday, come as the broken person that you are, and look to the one

“Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:6-8)

* Primer contributed by Wesley Viau

A Maundy Thursday Prayer

Breath of God,

quiet our hearts,

hush our lips,

open our eyes,

and fill us with holy wonder

as we look to Jesus,

our host, your servant, our Lord. Amen