As I post this particular blog, it is the day during Passion Week theologians call “Maundy Thursday.”
Commandment (that’s what maundy means) Thursday.
Jesus spent His last week on earth teaching His disciples the lessons that really matter.
These final instructions schooled them for the ministry they’d inherit after Jesus’ ascension.
So far, Jesus (remember: God is Love) opened their eyes to the following crucial appeals – – –
Palm Sunday: “Look at Your King, He’s coming on a donkey!” Lesson #1: LOVE always lead with humility.
Monday: Jesus cleansed the temple. Lesson #2: For those who follow Jesus, our hearts are His temple. Examine it often, keep it cleansed through repentance.
Tuesday (the Olivet Discourse): “Woe to you, Blind guides…” Seven times Jesus uses the word “woe.” It’s not a word of judgement, but a word of lament. Jesus wept over the religious leaders who were empty and lost. Lesson #3: Love always laments/grieves for the lost around them.
Wednesday (a day of rest): In the midst of ministry/serving the Lord, we need to stop from time to time and simply rest (body, soul and mind). Lesson #4: Love lives a life in balance.
We’ve made it to Thursday – the day of New Commandments.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, that you love one another as I have loved you (John 13:34-35).”
This Jesus said, just after He picks up a towel, wraps it around his waist, grabs a basin of water, and kneels at the feet of His followers and washes their stinky, mud-crusted, calloused feet.
He shows them what HESED looks like.
Lesson #5: Love serves.
This passage in John 13, where Jesus washes His disciples feet, begins like this:
Jesus, having loved His own that were in the world, He loved them unto death.
Did they deserve any of it?
Of course not!
Jesus even says to them as He bathes their feet, cradling them against His chest:
One of you will betray me; one of you will deny me (three times!); and, ALL OF YOU will run away and have nothing to do with me.
Yet, Jesus lives the definition we began with for HESED:
HESED: When I deserve nothing from God’s hand, but He blesses me anyway…simply because of WHO HE IS.
GOD IS LOVE (1 John 4:8).
I AM…HESED (The Lord to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 3:12).
And, Jesus says to us all, “Go and be LOVE just as I’ve showed you.” (the lesson of John 13)“Stoop low, grab a towel, wash the filthy feet of the unlovable, the untouchable, the unthinkably awful people and serve them. Love them to death. “
Love them to death.
Continue to HESED, until they are ready to stoop low, themselves, and bow the knee to HESED (Jesus).
HESED one-another.
Then…they will know that we are Jesus’ followers.
(For out of true HESED comes our ability to HESED in return.)