🍷 Maundy Thursday tots
Okay first of all, it is NOT “Monday Thursday.” I understand the confusion, to which even my dad remarked, “Dati nga e, iniisip ko: Thursday na nga, Monday pa- ba’t dalawang araw?” Roughly translated, that’s: Before as a kid, I was wondering: It’s Thursday so why do we also have Monday?”
So what does the word Maundy mean? It’s derived from the Latin word mandatum, which means “command, order.” This refers to what Jesus commanded His disciples: “A new commandment I give to you—that you love one another, as I have loved you.” He gives them this commandment after washing the Apostles’ feet—the lowest task typically done by a slave—highlighting the essential quality of humility and service in leadership. It also foreshadowed what He would do later on: dying the lowest, most humiliating and painful death to serve (and ultimately save) humanity.
it’s an interesting thing, how leadership works in the world versus the Kingdom—in the world, those above are given the first pick, the best places, and they are served. And sadly, those above sometimes use their authority and power to take advantage of those below them. In the Kingdom, however, the highest is the one Who serves everyone else. Their power and authority is used to benefit those below them, and the responsibility to serve with humility grows as you go higher. This is why despite being highest heavenly authority—God made human (we’ll discuss the Trinity some other time)—Jesus was sent to buy us redemption. It’s quite the opposite, isn’t it?
After foot-washing (and hopefully after they washed hands too), they have the Passover meal. Contextually, the Passover was (and still is) a Jewish feast to commemorate Israelite freedom from slavery in Egypt, as stated in the Old Testament. A lamb was sacrificed and eaten with bitter herbs and unleavened bread, and in the first Passover, the lamb’s blood was smeared over doorposts so that the angel of death would “pass over” Jewish houses and strike only the Egyptians. Eventually, more rituals and practices would be practiced in the Seder, but this essentially foreshadowed New Passover Jesus would institute:
- The lamb to be sacrificed was no longer a year-old animal without blemish, but Jesus as spotless Lamb of God (John 1:29).
- The lamb’s blood smeared on wooden doorposts foreshadowed Jesus’s Blood smeared on the wood of the Cross, covering believers and causing divine judgement (and ahem damnation) to “pass over” them
- Additionally, this Blood is the Cup of the Covenant Jesus gives to His disciples to drink, contrasting to the explicit Old Testament command NOT to drink sacrificial blood (Deuteronomy 12:23) as it contained the “life” of the creature. In offering us His Blood, He gives us His “life.”
- The unleavened bread becomes the Bread of Life Jesus commanded us to eat in John 6:53. The breaking of the Bread symbolized the breaking of His Body, which He gives us to have “life in ourselves.”
I’m going to admit it—the topic of the Bread and Wine as Jesus’s Body and Blood is a topic of great conflict amidst different branches of Christianity. Some take it symbolically, and some take it literally (as in the concept of transubstantiation in Catholicism). However, the theology of the Eucharist is not something we’ll be delving deeply into today. But I remember a homily once about the Eucharist that’ll perhaps render it less-abstract:
There was a conference of people arguing about what the Bread of Life really meant: Was it a symbol or meant to be taken literally? Out of the chaos, a miner quietly stood and told his story—
“I rise very early in the morning, before the sun rises, and I work until the sun goes down. It’s rough. I never see any kind of light, save for the flashlights we use in the choking darkness of the mine. And I do this, every day, just so my family has food on the table. That food is my blood, sweat, and tears. I guess you could say it isn’t a symbol, because I sacrificed the rest of my life to that mine for my family, and for that food. It isn’t literal, either, cus my family can’t eat my blood, sweat, and tears to survive, can they?” The crowd is now silent. “Well, that’s how I see this whole Eucharist thing, but it’s just my cup of tea.” Then he sits back down.
I’m no theologian, but perhaps the Eucharist is less about trying to understand exactly how it works and more on participating in the life, love, and sacrifice of Christ—in a way that truly changes and sustains us. But anyway, like the miner said, that’s my cup of tea. I might be cancelled or corrected (and I’ll be glad to receive the latter), but I hope this gives you a better idea of the Eucharist—not about what it represents, and not just about what it is.
Alright, I better skedaddle. There is a service I have to catch (and a procession I have to miss UGH), but I’ll stop writing now. Have a blessed Holy Week, and I’ll see you in the next one!