Blog posts will be released each day until Easter Sunday 4 April

Contributed by Christian members of the Faith and Spirituality Team.

Thursday

By Thursday Jesus’ teaching in the temple was causing a great stir. The Jewish and the Roman authorities were becoming very anxious about the amount of unrest they were witnessing as Jesus’ supporters and detractors argued it out. Some of the supporters were claiming that Jesus was the Messiah, the King who would overthrow the Romans. Jesus would have known that in this overheated atmosphere, he was in grave danger. But it was Passover, and he wanted to celebrate the sacred meal with his friends. They gathered quietly in a private home; but there was a traitor in their midst, Judas, who for a bribe of 30 pieces of silver had offered to tell the authorities where Jesus was. During the meal Jesus told them to remember him every time they have bread and wine. This sharing of bread and wine and remembering Jesus was to become a foundational act of Christendom, called communion. Accounts of the meal vary a bit and in one account Jesus also washes the feet of his disciples, a custom in hot dusty climates, but usually done by a servant, not by the host. Jesus tells his disciples they should have such care for one another. After the meal, Jesus was growing very worried, because he felt sure he was going to be betrayed. He and his friends went into the garden and he asked them to pray with him. But they fell asleep and were awakened by an armed crowd, led by Judas, and Jesus was arrested. They took him away and interrogated him. You can read the full account of the meal, the arrest and the interrogation in Mark, chapter 14, verse 12 to 72.

Christians in English speaking countries call this day Maundy Thursday. “Maundy” (from Latin mandatum) refers to the command to wash one another’s feet and in medieval times, monarchs would wash the feet of their servants. Today the Queen gives Maundy money to a selected group of people. Christians observe the day usually in an evening gathering with readings, meditation, prayer and sharing in bread and wine. It is a solemn occasion. In some churches, the sanctuary is stripped of decoration, the cross is covered, and a vigil is held through the night. From the Iona Community’s Stages on the Way:

It was on the Thursday
that he became valuable.

He didn’t have anything to sell,
not since leaving his carpenter’s bench three years earlier.
He had nowhere to keep his stuff.
He even had to eat his last meal
in somebody else’s dining room.

He wasn’t worth much.
Mostly what he did was…
well,
talking, I suppose,
and listening
and healing
and forgiving
and encouraging
and loving
and the things for which there is no pay
and the job centre has no advertisements.

But suddenly somebody would pay
a silver penny, or two,
or thirty
for him.

And no matter about bread and wine shared,
no matter about feet washed,
no matter about promises of fidelity.
His price was too high.

It was on the Thursday …
that he became valuable.

The Last Supper. Painting by Shirley J. Veater

The material from Iona comes from Stages on the Way, 1998. Copyright(c) WGRG, Iona community, Glasgow Scotland. wilgooselscotland. Reproduced with permission.

Artworks by Shirley Veater used with grateful thanks. www.shirleyveaterdesigns.co.uk