I did not grow up in a tradition that observed Holy Week, and for years when people talked about the Thursday of Holy Week I thought they were saying “Monday Thursday,” which seemed strange. As it turns out they were saying “Maundy Thursday,” which didn’t alleviate the strangeness because I had no idea what a “Maundy” might be.

Maundy is from the Latin word mandatum which means “a command.” It’s also where we get the English word “mandate.” The command that Maundy Thursday refers to is in John 13:34

JOHN 13:34 (ESV)

“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.”

Jesus gives this command to His closest followers during the Last Supper, the day before He is crucified on what we now call Good Friday. We may immediately have a question. Why is this a new command? Elsewhere in the gospels Jesus is asked to summarize all of the Hebrew Bible and He says:

MATTHEW 22:37-40 (ESV)

And He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Clearly a commandment to love is the backbone of all of God’s revelation to Israel. What’s new about this command is not love but the radical extent of that love. It’s “just as I have loved you” that’s new.

So how has Jesus loved them?

This commandment is at the end of John chapter 13. The beginning of that chapter is the very beginning of the Passover meal when Jesus washes the disciples’ feet. Washing other people's feet isn’t part of our cultural context. Actually, there is survey data that shows that around 50% of people don’t wash their own feet, trusting presumably for shower runoff to get the job done. But in a society where nearly all travel was on foot, most roads were packed dirt, and sandals were the primary footwear, you can imagine that feet got dirty quickly. Foot washing then, like today, wasn’t a highly regarded task. A rich person might have a servant to wash their feet, but the opposite would be cause for gasps and shocked faces. It’s far below the station of a ruler to wash their subjects’ feet. And yet “knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands” (Jesus is King of all creation), He rose from the table, wrapped a towel around Himself, and went to each of His followers and washed their feet. That includes Judas, who chapter 13 says already had it in his heart to betray Jesus. The King washed His subjects’ feet. The King washed His betrayer’s feet. All things were in Jesus’s hands; there was nothing the disciples could do for Him in return. The way Jesus loved them was without any thought of what he might receive from them, withholding nothing even from those who He knew would harm Him. This is how Jesus loved them. The Love from his Father spreading to others around Him.

And the next day He would love them even more. Once again being wrapped, not in a washing towel but in burial clothes. Jesus loved them to the very end. He withheld nothing as He gave His life that all of us could be washed clean.

This Maundy Thursday let’s allow Jesus to wash our feet. Let’s learn how to love from Jesus. A portion of what the Father placed in His hands He has placed in ours. He commands us to love one another, like He has loved us, and He says “By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Let’s show the world what kind of love our King has for them, because of the love He has for us.