Maundy Thursday probably isn’t at the top of anyone’s favorite holidays list. Most years the Thursday before Easter likely slips right on by without being marked in any significant way. So I’m encouraging you to stop a moment and think about how you can celebrate tomorrow–by serving.
Maundy comes from the Latin word mandatum, meaning “commandment.” It refers to the commands Jesus gave his disciples at the Last Supper, one of which was to love with humility by serving one another. Remember how Jesus served his disciples? Yup, by washing their feet.
To give you a little insight into what a big deal that was, stop to consider the condition of those feet. The disciples would have walked everywhere in sandals along dusty roads where animals also traveled. And then they would come in to sit down and eat. But they didn’t tuck their feet up under a table with a nice cloth over it (as lovely as Da Vinci’s painting is, it’s not accurate). Nope, they probably lounged around a low table with cushions so that their feet were right on out there–maybe even close to the hands and faces of others. Yuck, right?
And no on had washed those feet! So Jesus took on the job typically performed by the lowliest servant. And I bet he did a really good job, too.
So what humble, lowly, thankless jobs are going undone in your world? Maybe tomorrow you could do one of them as you think about Jesus washing dirty feet . . . just before he was betrayed and crucified.
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