A Meditation for Maundy Thursday
By The Rev. Dr. Greg Peters
Maundy Thursday is unlike any other day in the Christian calendar, for it commemorates several events: 1) Jesus’ last Passover with his disciples; 2) Jesus institution of the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist; and 3) Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, symbolizing his own humility and setting an example for his followers: “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve” (Mark 10:45). All of these find expression particularly in the eucharistic liturgy for Maundy Thursday.
Each of these foci is worth in-depth consideration, but many of us are most struck by Jesus’ endowing his Church with the gifts of his body and blood and the grace that comes thereby. This, of course, is the ultimate example of Jesus’ humility: the miracle of the Incarnation, wherein the King and Creator of all things condescends to take on the form of a human so that he can wash the feet of his disciples in humble service, is then extended to the reality that Jesus also makes himself present to us under the species of bread and wine. Oh, the depths of his great humility!
The lessons for the day (whether in the Daily Office or Eucharist) emphasize these three things in different ways, but the Old Testament lesson from Morning Prayer (Lamentations 2:10-18) reminds us, with its mention of dust and sackcloth, that we are still in Lent. The “elders of daughter Zion” are sitting with “their heads to the ground” because they are surrounded by the destruction of their city and the people, including “infants and babes.” They are mocked by those who pass by, for they have brought this ruin upon themselves by failing to heed the true prophets calling for godly repentance and follow instead the “false and deceptive visions” of counterfeit prophets. Failing to heed God’s call to repent and return to him, the Lord “has done what he purposed, he has carried out his threat . . . he has demolished without pity; he has made the enemy rejoice over you, and exalted the might of your foes.” Things are bad because God is just (i.e., keeps his promises) and the people are not.
Is this not an apt image for the season of Lent? Do we not spend forty days thinking about the ways we have not heeded God’s call to return to him? And as we come to Maundy Thursday, the journey has been long and likely difficult. Yet we stand at the edge of redemption–at the edge of death, but death swallowed up in victory (1 Cor. 15:54) through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
But Maundy Thursday gives us a glimpse of this reality by commemorating the Passover (salvation from death through blood) and by establishing the sacrament of the Altar wherein bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ, and the healing grace of God is communicated to us so that through his merits and through the death of his Son Jesus Christ, and through faith in his blood, we may obtain remission of our sins. Unlike the “elders of daughter Zion,” our redemption is nigh if we show ourselves faithful in our repentance. God redeems us through his Son if we come to him in humility and right repentance.
Jeremiah tells the elders to “Cry aloud to the Lord! . . . Let tears stream down like a torrent day and night! Give yourself no rest, your eyes no respite!” Let us remember that we too are still in Lent, despite what awaits us over the Triduum. Let us continue to repent in sackcloth and ashes and even with tears. The day of our redemption is near, but we are not there just yet. Let us, for one more day, continue our Lenten journey, with humility, in imitation of Jesus, and with deep sorrow for our sins and offenses. As George Herbert reminds us in this poem “Lent,” it is better “to go part of that religious way” than to rest. But for the one “Who goeth in the way which Christ hath gone” (i.e., all the way to the Cross) “Is much more sure to meet with him” (lines 31-39). Let us go all the way so that we can meet him who waits for us at the end of our journey.
The Rev. Dr. Greg Peters is the Servants of Christ Research Professor of Monastic Studies and Ascetical Theology at Nashotah House; Professor of Medieval and Spiritual Theology in the Torrey Honors College of Biola University; and Vicar of the Anglican Church of the Epiphany, La Mirada, California. He is the author of several books on monasticism, such as The Monkhood of All Believers (Baker Academic, 2018) and The Story of Monasticism (Baker Academic, 2015). He is currently writing two books tentatively titled Monastic Theology as Theological Method: The Superiority of the Monastery to the University (Eerdmans Publishing) and The Evangelical Church in the Middle Ages (InterVarsity Press). The readings for the preceding devotional may be located here from Forward Movement.
