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Good morning. 

On the night before his death, Jesus was sitting with his disciples, celebrating the Passover.  They ate bread and drank wine, and Jesus spoke of his death, but no one understood.  Then he knelt down and washed their feet.  No one understood. And finally, he spoke to them about love.

Maundy Thursday is our day of remembrance of that night and the command Jesus gave his followers to love one another.  John is the only gospel writer to tell the story of the Last Supper in this way, the only one to include the feet washing, that powerful, domestic act of loving care. 

Here is a family of friends together, gathered around tradition and food, but only Jesus knows what’s really happening and what lies ahead.  He can see through the thinness of normality to the fearful overturning to come.  He can look, without anger and only with love, on these men who will fail him. He knows how fragile they are.

When the illusion of permanence and order melts away, fear comes first. Jesus knows we’re afraid of the unknown and seized by the natural impulse for self-preservation. But he also knows that this, too, will pass. We become ourselves again, and find God’s strength and compassion.  Our words of prayer are from Scottish Paraphrase Number 30:

God shall appear, and we shall rise
With gladness in his sight…
His coming like the morn shall be,
Like morning songs his voice.  Amen.