Maundy Thursday
As I get older I am realizing how much I enjoy context. I enjoy understanding the setting, the background, and even enjoy knowing the dates and times of historical and Biblical things. Even things that I would never really be interested in I find appealing when there is a good context or back story. Just this morning, I clicked on a CNN link claiming that NASA has discovered the original element from the Big Bang! I’m guessing the thing inside of me that enjoys context is what drew me to bite on the click bait. Something in me, I guess, was hoping on this Thursday of Holy Week that CNN was going to say that the original element was a slight drop of spittle that came out of The Creator’s mouth when He spoke everything into existence. But what I found on this raining Thursday morning was dreary to my soul. It wasn’t just the MAJOR lack of context and poor scientific procedure that was used, even though that was there; the rainy fog and darkness I discovered was in the comments.
As believers, why are we so obsessed with winning the argument? Of course my skin crawls and I get fired up when I read articles like this, but I have found myself roused even more when I read the comments and see the enemy’s deception both in those who know the Lord and those who don’t. Is it ok to drag Jesus through the mud? Well, almost 2,020 years ago tonight Jesus Himself allowed such things to happen.
I know. . . I have heard the following verse quoted hundreds of times when it comes to apologetics and defending your faith. Peter says in:
13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.
Peter acknowledges this discord and says to defend when someone ask you for the reason you have hope! This is not apologetics! This is not winning an argument! This is me living my life with so much hope that when I suffer or there is suffering around me, I don’t fear, I am not troubled, and my hope is so evident that people must ask! Living out hope is like wearing hope as a designer brandname that attracts everyones attention. This hope is love to the fullest form. Love to the fullest form is not trying to tell a homosexual how wrong they are with the tag-line of “But I love you”. This is not pressing into the life of a total stranger on a message board trying to explain truth. This is living a life so connected with people, so full of the Father’s love, that it causes them to pause and listen to Him not to us. Then when they question us, it will be about our hope, not our fear. Too much of our culture today looks at the Church and questions the things we are afraid of; hope isn’t even in the conversation.
I think that thing in me that enjoys learning the backstory was intensified by the Holy Spirit this morning to read those comments because today is Maundy Thursday. The Thursday before Good Friday. The day that Jesus gathers the disciples, institutes the Lord’s Supper, washes their feet, and then is betrayed and arrested. The reason, or context, for the word “Maundy” is it’s meaning; the word means “Command”. In those last hours, Jesus was teaching so much truth that we are still unpacking it all today. But He said this;
9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.”
Maundy Thursday can be also know as “Command Thursday” and during this week where so many pause and reflect on Good Friday, Silent Saturday, and Resurrection Sunday, it seems we have overlooked His command. It seems we have been so caught up in the arguments that we missed how Jesus chose not to win the argument for His life in order that love might win.
Friends, as we reflect this week on the death, burial, and resurrection of the King of Kings, let us not forget the reason behind His death, burial, and resurrection. I laugh because, as I type this, I look at the lower left side of my keyboard and I see three buttons that almost perfectly reveal my conscious or subconscious thoughts. These three buttons are in this order: “control”, “option” and “command”. I think that today, Maundy Thursday (or whenever you are reading this), it would be of the Spirit to pause and reflect on where we each fall within these three words. Do we “control” or entertain the other “options”? These are both reasons were so drawn to argument. Hopefully it is your desire today to lay aside the arguments, step into Jesus’s “command”, and love as He does.