Once I Was Blind, But Now I See: Maundy Thursday
Have you ever been betrayed or severely disappointed by a close friend or family member? If so, you know what a gut punch that is. You know how discouraging it can be. You are hurt, and your impulse is to never open yourself up again. If you love someone like this again, you might endure this pain again. The last thing you are probably thinking is how you can continue to show your loving loyalty to the people who hurt you.
But that is what Jesus did.
On the night Jesus was betrayed, he instituted the Lord’s Supper, a meal that demonstrates the depths of Jesus’ love and the lengths to which he will go to be faithful to his promises. In Mark’s Gospel, the institution of the Supper is sandwiched between Jesus declaring that one of the Twelve would betray him and telling the other eleven disciples that they would forsake him, epitomized in Peter’s three-fold denial. The shepherd will be struck, and the sheep will scatter.
Mark set us up for this throughout his Gospel, especially recently, when he homed in on the disciples’ blindness (Mk 10:32-52; see this article). They can’t see how Jesus’ kingship involves betrayal, mocking, suffering, and death. All they see is the promised glory, not the path to it. Because they refuse to see the reality of the suffering Messiah, they are prime bait to fall into the trap of the enemy and forsake their Lord in his hour of suffering … and they do so spectacularly. Judas hands him over to the Jewish leadership. Peter denies him three times. The other ten scatter. Jesus is left alone.
Knowing all this was about to happen, Jesus institutes his memorial meal, declaring his self-sacrificial love for his unfaithful disciples. The bread is his body given for them. The wine is his blood shed for the forgiveness of their sins. Jesus loved them even in their unfaithfulness. Jesus served them even when they forsook him.
O, what wondrous love is this!
On this night, Jesus calls us to love one another as he has loved us. That means staying faithful for the sake of others even when they are unfaithful to you. This loving faithfulness takes on many different forms. Sometimes it is drawing hard lines that insist on repentance before reconciliation can take place. Other times, it will mean confrontation of sin in others. Love does what is best for the beloved. What is best doesn’t mean affirming people in and enabling the sin that destroys them. Jesus died to conquer his disciples’ sins. He certainly didn’t condone them. He loved them enough to stay faithful to his mission so that they could be reconciled to him.
As Jesus has loved us, so we ought to love one another
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