Tamzen Benfield
"Maundy Thursday" is a strange name, isn't it? The term comes from the phrase Mandatum novum, Latin for "new commandment," and refers to something Jesus said to his disciples during the Last Supper: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34–35)
Even though I didn't learn the term "Maundy Thursday" until much later, I grew up in a church that practiced a "lovefeast" form of eucharist. Instead of weekly communion of bread and wine at the end of the church service, we met several times a year to share a meal with our church family, passing all the food we had brought along to the others gathered. We took our communion elements from the supper we shared: a saved bit of bread or cracker, and a reserved sip of drink. After the meal, in turns, each of us would kneel down and wash their neighbor's feet in a basin of water. Like the meal we'd just shared, it was a cooperative effort: after each "footwashing," the person who had knelt and washed stood and wrapped the towel around the one who'd just had their feet washed, and the ritual continued, each person's service carried on by the next. It was awkward and humbling, challenging to a shy introvert like myself, but also a concrete demonstration of the interconnected fellowship of the Body of Christ that I remember with gratitude. It was a reminder throughout the year, not just at Easter, to embody love to others as Jesus did for us.
John's gospel is the only account we have of Jesus washing his disciples' feet during the Last Supper, and I'm struck that John's description of that meal is framed by love—embodied love, love in action, love through serving. John begins the story by saying that when Jesus knew that his hour had come to return to his Father, he "loved them to the end" (John 13:1). How? He joined them in a final meal before his death, and continued to teach them even as they ate. At the end, Jesus got up from the meal, tied a towel around his waist, poured water into a basin, and washed the disciples' feet. This was the job of a servant, and Peter protested that the Lord should never wash their feet. But Jesus told them that if he is their teacher, they must follow his example and serve one another. He went on to give the "new commandment" of loving each other as he had loved them.
Throughout his ministry, Jesus upset the accepted ideas of how the world works—what greatness is, what leadership is, what love is. He told us that the shepherd seeks after his sheep, the leader serves his followers, and the creator dies for his creation. He saw those the world ignored, lifted up those the powerful pushed down. He turned the world upside-down again at the Last Supper, transforming a lowly task into a holy act of love. He said we must love in the same selfless way that he loved us, and that this is how we will be known to belong to him. His act of love compelled his disciples to act in love, with reverberations through the ages, down to us.
This last year has offered many ways to overturn the way we think the world works. I've been given countless chances to question what I take for granted. What does love look like in a deadly pandemic? We love from a distance, protecting the vulnerable. We recognize that our personal choices are not truly "individual," but actions with repercussions for our loved ones, our neighbors, and those who put their health on the line in their essential—but so often ignored—work to keep society running. Instead of clinging to our "rights," we sacrifice to care "for the least of these." How are we known as Jesus' followers? Not by demanding what is owed us or claiming status, but by giving and serving in love. We have opportunity to live out Jesus' selfless love, at Easter and beyond.
"If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you." (John 13:14–15)
