A FOOL'S MAUNDY THURSDAY
I know it's Maundy Thursday, but it just doesn't feel like it. Even the day is in rebellion - gorgeous, blue sky, sunshine, green growing grass and 70+ degrees. It looks more like Easter than Maundy Thursday.
So, why can't I feel it within me? Is it because of this extended dark night, that feels like Holy Saturday most every day? Is it because I get to go home after worship and I am so ready to be home again?
I believe it is more the former than the latter.
This past year, I was blessed, broken and gave all my love and all I had even in the midst of my leaving - like a Maundy Thursday. Met with rejection, I died yet another death in my life - like a Good Friday. I have been stuck in Holy Saturday ever since, that unsettled, unknowing, grieving, limbo type day.
I once had a Lent that lasted nearly two years. And when Easter came, it was so wonderfully glorious!!!! I recall that time and pray that Easter will come again for me.
It is an odd Maundy Thursday that falls on the Day of Fools. But perhaps, that is how those who did not know Jesus saw him as merely a fool, someone to mock, someone not quite right in the head - claiming to be a King of the Jews. Who did he think he was anyway?
And on this last night spent with his dearest companions and friends, he stooped low and washed their feet, not something any king would ever do. But He came not to be served, but to serve.
Later at table, he mentioned that one among them would betray him. What foolish is this, my Lord? Surely not I!?" Ahh, but you, will also deny me three times before the rooster crows.
Then he took bread, simple, ordinary, humble bread and said it was him, blessed, broken, shared for the life of the disciples, for the life of the world. What foolish is this, my Lord? We are here together, sharing the Passover isn't that enough?
Then he took the cup, blessed it and gave it to his beloved to drink and said, this was him poured out for the forgiveness of sins. The cup was the new relationship with God sealed in his blood.
Broken and poured out for us, foolish in the eyes of the world. Who would do such a thing for such rabble?
Only the Lord Jesus Christ. Only the very Son of God. The only One who could bear giving his life up and over in and with a love the likes of which the world has never known before or ever will again.
Out of the ordinary comes the extraordinary, in weakness there is strength, from despair arises hope, out of death comes life. Foolish things made wise in the hands of God whose love would go to a cross and yes die, for the very life of us.
And suddenly, it's not foolish any more...
A FOOL'S MAUNDY THURSDAY
I know it's Maundy Thursday, but it just doesn't feel like it. Even the day is in rebellion - gorgeous, blue sky, sunshine, green growing grass and 70+ degrees. It looks more like Easter than Maundy Thursday.
So, why can't I feel it within me? Is it because of this extended dark night, that feels like Holy Saturday most every day? Is it because I get to go home after worship and I am so ready to be home again?
I believe it is more the former than the latter.
This past year, I was blessed, broken and gave all my love and all I had even in the midst of my leaving - like a Maundy Thursday. Met with rejection, I died yet another death in my life - like a Good Friday. I have been stuck in Holy Saturday ever since, that unsettled, unknowing, grieving, limbo type day.
I once had a Lent that lasted nearly two years. And when Easter came, it was so wonderfully glorious!!!! I recall that time and pray that Easter will come again for me.
It is an odd Maundy Thursday that falls on the Day of Fools. But perhaps, that is how those who did not know Jesus saw him as merely a fool, someone to mock, someone not quite right in the head - claiming to be a King of the Jews. Who did he think he was anyway?
And on this last night spent with his dearest companions and friends, he stooped low and 
washed their feet, not something any king would ever do. But He came not to be served, but to serve.
Later at table, he mentioned that one among them would betray him. What foolish is this, my Lord? Surely not I!?" Ahh, but you, will also deny me three times before the rooster crows.
Then he took bread, simple, ordinary, humble bread and said it was him, blessed, broken, shared for the life of the disciples, for the life of the world. What foolish is this, my Lord? We are here together, sharing the Passover isn't that enough?
Then he took the cup, blessed it and gave it to his beloved to drink and said, this was him poured out for the forgiveness of sins. The cup was the new relationship with God sealed in his blood.
Broken and poured out for us, foolish in the eyes of the world. Who would do such a thing for such rabble?
Only the Lord Jesus Christ. Only the very Son of God. The only One who could bear giving his life up and over in and with a love the likes of which the world has never known before or ever will again.
Out of the ordinary comes the extraordinary, in weakness there is strength, from despair arises hope, out of death comes life. Foolish things made wise in the hands of God whose love would go to a cross and yes die, for the very life of us.
And suddenly, it's not foolish any more...