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JESUS SHOWS HUMILITY, LOVE AND SERVICE (MAUNDY THURSDAY)

SCRIPTURE READINGS
EXODUS 12:1-14
1 CORINTHIANS 11: 23-26
JOHN 13:1-17

REFLECTION

Maundy comes from the Latin word “Mandatum” which means “commandment”. Maundy Thursday commemorates the important commandment of love, humility and service Jesus gave to His disciples on the night of His betrayal and arrest. The theme for our reflection is “Jesus shows Humility and Love and Service.” The love in the theme is Jesus’ unconditional affection for the welfare and salvation of humanity. Humility is the quality of counting others more important than yourself. Service is the act of selflessly helping or doing work for someone.  Jesus’ humility, love and service become our example for which we must follow as commandments to be seen as His true disciples.

We shall reflect on the theme with the help of the following points:

1. Jesus shows us His humility, love and service as the new Passover lamb.
2. We cannot fulfil our calling as true disciples of Jesus until we possess Jesus’ humility, love and service.

In our first Scripture reading, Exodus 12:1-14, God shows Israel His mercy and love when Pharaoh was unwilling to liberate them. God took decisive action by instructing the Israelites through Moses and Aaron to slaughter a male lamb one year old without blemish. “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it” …“It is the LORD’S Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 12:7,11-13). In sum, the Israelites were made slaves in Egypt, after several interventions to set them free through Moses, Pharoah refused to let them go but when God Passed Over Egypt and visited them with death Israel was liberated.

Israel and the rest of the nations will still be held captives by a bigger captor, Satan. Satan continued to hold the children of God and humanity under the slavery of sin and eternal damnation. This was evident in Israel’s persistent disobedience and punishment and God’s continued intervention to reconcile them back to himself. God needed to make another Passover to liberate this time, not only Israel but the whole of humanity from the bondage of sin and Satan’s captivity. This Passover would be a unique and everlasting one because God’s own begotten son’s blood will represent the blood of the unblemished lamb, the doorposts and the lintel of the house in Exodus 12:7 will now be our lives. It was during the celebration of the Passover Feast that our Second Scripture reading 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 became a pivotal turning point in our lives and faith as believers.

We see a manifestation of Jesus’ humility, love and service to humanity,  to die a shameful death through His unconditional love for all who wish to be saved through his priceless blood. Paul said “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes”(1 Corinthians 11:23-26). Jesus’ humility, love and service to humanity are again summarised in Paul’s letter to the Philippians when he wrote, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of human beings. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5-8)

Beloved in the Lord, Jesus’ humility, love and service is par excellence. He is indeed our final Passover lamb and that is why He said “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (John 3:16-18). Let not this Easter pass over you without you inviting Jesus the Passover lamb into your life. He is the only key to eternal life. Repent and have faith in Jesus, follow Him as a true disciple and your life will never be the same.

Beloved in the Lord, to fulfil our true calling as disciples of Jesus Christ, we must also possess Jesus’s perfect image of humility, love and service even as we engage the world to win souls for the kingdom of God. This is the crux of the third Scripture Reading in John 13:1-17. Peter failed to understand the lesson Jesus was impacting into them to make them fruitful in their mission as future Apostles when He washed their feet. Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” (John 13:8). In other words, if you are not ready to humble yourself like me and to love the people you will serve on my behalf then you have no share with me. Jesus said to the disciples, “You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 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. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (John 13:13-17)

My dear friend in Christ, your discipleship status is determined by how humble, loving and dutiful you are. In a world filled with unnecessary and destructive competition and obsession for superiority, the temptation to have people wash our feet while we sit in our comfort zones is high. Our love for one another must translate into our willingness to condescend to serve one another. Washing the feet of people can be in the form of visiting the sick and the poor to pray for them and make donations to them. We must be aware that some of the feet have been unkempt due to poverty and disease, they may have an offensive odour yet as disciples of Christ we must not discriminate when Jesus calls us to show humility, unconditional love and service to these less privileged ones. For disciples of Christ, demonstrating humility, love and service in our daily dealings with people is not an option, it is a commandment and a lifestyle, that is why we are being reminded on Maundy Thursday. It is through humility, love and service shown to all and sundry, especially poor orphans, prisoners and the less privileged in our societies that we can please God. “Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:44-46)

In summary, we have discovered that we were saved through Jesus, our Passover lamb, through His humility, love, and service. We are called upon to emulate His example if we desire to please God. May this Maundy Thursday reflection transform our attitudes into humble, loving, and dutiful servants and disciples of our Lord and Master Jesus.and disciples of our Lord and Master Jesus.