Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday A B C

Readings: Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14        1 Corinthians 11:23-26           John 13:1-15

            The readings for Holy or Maundy Thursday present various dimensions of the Passover mystery that are associated with the Christian Eucharist: its Hebrew Bible origins as a memorial of the Lord’s liberating act of the exodus that freed the Israelites from oppression in Egypt and its New Testament fulfillment in Jesus’ act of liberating love, laying down his life as the new Passover lamb who takes away the world’s sins.  All three readings emphasize the attitude that should mark those who celebrate Passover.  The Israelite congregation is to eat their meal in symbolic readiness to depart from their enslaved condition in Egypt; the Christian community is to celebrate Eucharist in such a way as to be faithful to Jesus’ command to serve one another in considerate love.

            For the Jewish community the central importance of Passover as a memorial of the Lord’s deliverance from Egypt is evident in the instructions given to Moses and Aaron for its celebration.  This legislation gives careful directives for the preparation of the Passover feast: the dates for procuring and slaying the lamb, provisions for sharing among households, the type of lamb (one year old male and without blemish) and the way it is to be prepared and eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.  Despite the precise detail, the rituals keep alive the memory of the liberating nature of the original Passover.  The actions of placing the lamb’s blood on the two doorposts and lintel of each house and dressing in readiness for flight commemorate the night when the Lord passed over the people’s houses, executing judgment on Egypt and enabling them to escape from the Pharaoh’s tyranny.

            The second reading from Paul’s first Letter to the Corinthians is the earliest record of Jesus’ actions and words at his final meal with his disciples on the night before he died.  From Paul’s account it is clear that “the Lord’s supper” was celebrated both as a proclamation of Jesus’ saving death and an anticipation of his return in glory.  The context in which Paul recounts Jesus’ actions at the last supper is noteworthy.  He is exhorting the Corinthians to avoid factionalism and inconsiderate behavior at the Eucharist. “When you meet in one place, then, it is not to eat the Lord’s supper, for in eating, each one goes ahead with his own supper, and one goes hungry while another gets drunk.  Do you not have houses in which you can eat and drink?  Or do you show contempt for the church of God and make those who have nothing feel ashamed?  What can I say to you?  Shall I praise you?  In this matter I do not praise you”  (1 Cor 11:17-22). 

Such actions are the antithesis of what the community is commemorating: Jesus’ self-sacrificing act of love in giving his body and blood to seal the new covenant of God’s forgiveness.  Those who eat the bread and drink the Lord’s cup without consideration for one another in the body that is the community of believers eat and drink judgment on themselves (1 Cor 11:27-34).

            The Gospel reading for Holy Thursday is taken from John’s account of the Last Supper, which does not speak of the institution of the Eucharist but does narrate the striking story of Jesus’ washing the disciples’ feet, a tradition not mentioned in the Synoptic Gospels.  As the solemn introduction to the Last supper indicates (13:1-2), this incident marks a significant transition in John’s Gospel.  “Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father.  He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.”

The hour has come for Jesus to depart from this world by laying down his life in love as the new Passover Lamb who will take away the sins of the world (John 1:29-30; 19:31-37).  From this point on Jesus will concentrate his message on his disciples, and it will be one of love—the love of the Father and the Son for each other and of both for the disciples who are given the new command to love one another as Jesus has loved them (see John 14-17).  For John, in contrast to the Synoptics, the Last Supper occurs before the Passover festival because he will concentrate the Passover symbolism on Jesus himself, the new Lamb of God who lays down his life to take away the sin of the world; he therefore appropriately dies on the afternoon before Passover as the sacrificial lambs are slaughtered in the Temple (see John 19:31-37; 1:29, 36; etc.). 

            John’s first interpretation of Jesus’ menial action in washing his disciples’ feet (13:2-11) contrasts Judas’ betrayal with Jesus’ prophetic foreshadowing of his own death.  John tells us, “The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over” (13:3).  Later Jesus will say that Judas, the betrayer, is not clean because he will not participate in Jesus’ action of self-sacrificing love (13:11).  The point of the dialogue with Simon Peter about allowing Jesus to “wash” his feet is also about participating in Jesus act of laying down his life.  When Jesus has been raised, the disciples (Peter) will understand that to be clean/washed is to share in Jesus’ act of love and to be unclean is to betray that love (13:6-11).

            The second interpretation of the foot-washing (13:12-15) is more straightforward.  Jesus as teacher and master paradoxically acts as servant who washes his disciples’ feet, an act symbolizing his death, when he will lay down his life for his own.  Such self-sacrificing love is to be the model for his disciples’ lives (see 15:12-17).  “Do you realize what I have done for you?  You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am.  If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet.  I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”