Sermon for Maundy Thursday
“What mean ye by this service”
Maundy Thursday marks the beginning of the most intense part of the Passion of Christ. It is the beginning of the Triduum Sacrum, the three great holy days which concentrate our attention on the Passion of Christ and on the forms of our participation in his Passion.
The word “maundy” is the englishing of the Latin mandatum, meaning commandment. It refers explicitly to Christ’s words in John’s Gospel, “a new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another.” A new commandment? How so? Because of what transpires in this week of the Passover. Christ unites the love of God and the love of one another. That is the love that is on display in the Passion of Christ. And that is the love which is set before us on this night, this “very night that he was betrayed.”
“What mean ye by this service?” Maundy Thursday is especially the night of services. There is the ritual of the pedilavium in which Christ washes the feet of his disciples. It is the powerful illustration of service that dovetails with the theme of sacrifice. That is the actual occasion for Christ’s new commandment to “love one another, even as I have loved you.” There are the customs and traditions of royal offerings, called Maundy purses or Maundy coins, given as a form of charity. There is the tradition of stripping the altar, an image of the desolation of Christ as a result of human sin. But at the heart of it all is the institution of the Holy Communion at the Last Supper.
