Maundy Thursday – evening
Thursday 18th April 2019
Maundy Thursday
Exodus 12.1-14
John 13.1-17,31b-35
Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs
Maundy Thursday hold so much significance for us. Jesus shows us so much of himself and calls us to follow him. As someone said to me earlier in the week, if we did not have Maundy Thursday, there would be no tradition of Communion!
In washing the feet of dusty and wavering disciples, Jesus calls us to his way of humble service.
In breaking bread and sharing wine, Jesus calls us to discern his presence in this, and every meal that we share.
In asking us to watch with him – even for a short while, through the darkness of the night, he shows us his humanity and calls us to stand with those who suffer.
In the past I know I have spoken on this night about the first two of these actions; about the call to service and the call to share in the meal of thanksgiving and sacrifice. But tonight I want to reflect for a while on the final part of our ceremony this evening.
Here we follow the custom of stripping the sanctuary and altar of all its hangings and decorations. We do this to symbolise how alone Jesus is on this night.
He has celebrated with his disciples; they have enjoyed a good meal together. True, he threw them a bit at the beginning by doing that thing with the water and a towel… That did not seem right. He was their Teacher and Master as well as their dearest Friend. But here he was telling them he was no more than a slave!
But then they got on with the meal and enjoyed it too!
And afterwards – after he had said that strange thing about not eating or drinking again until the coming of God’s kingdom, – he led them all out as usual for their evening stroll in the cool of the Mount of Olives. They had sung psalms as they walked along. Now, here they all were in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus had wandered off to pray on his own and the rest of them have flopped down under the trees to rest. I expect there was some discussion of what he could have possibly meant with all that “this is my body” business…? But the effect of the meal and the wine and the strain of the days they were living through since Jesus had led them back into the city were beginning to catch up with all of them. Surely it couldn’t hurt just to rest their weary eyes for a few moments?
But Jesus is alone and lonely and distraught. “Could you not watch with me one brief hour?” …
In Gethsemane Jesus dares to own his deepest feelings, to voice his deepest longing, his heartfelt desire not to go through the coming trauma and pain and death. No one (or at least very few apart from the clinically depressed) wants to die. And Jesus was no different.
The words he uses are repeated in some form whenever a person is diagnosed with an incurable disease; a terminal illness. “Take this cup away from me.” At this terrible moment, we long for reality to be different; for the miracle, for the respite, the powerful cure. It can be hard to own up to our real feelings, particularly for people of faith; we are expected to have the spiritual resources to cope.
So can we be as honest and real about our feelings as Jesus was? Letting go of any pretence of being more able or competent than we are, letting go of any pretence of being braver, or holier, or better than we really are? Can we dare to voice our own fears and feelings and doubts?
Let’s take into this time of reflection tonight our own Gethsemane moments, our own fears and disappointments, and allow the honest and compassionate hands of Jesus to hold them for us.
Lord Jesus, we wait with you in the darkness.
We will watch with you now and in a little while.
In this moment when you need us.
Help us to learn from your honesty, as we own our own real feelings about the un-chosen challenges we face in our own lives.
We don’t want this cup. Why would we?
Why us? … Why me?
Give us grace to walk through the valley, death’s shadow,
And come to the dawn of a new day
With you.
Amen.