Day 44 - Gethsemane (I Only Want To Say)

The word Maundy is derived from the Latin mandatum – commandment. In John 13:34 (NIV) we read: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

What does that love mean? John’s gospel is the only account of Jesus’ last night on earth that mentions foot washing. So loving each other means taking on the down-at-heel jobs – open-toed sandals were no protection from the slops and excrement on the streets of Jerusalem. And it means doing those jobs unsung. It means going the extra mile – always, not only when it is convenient. It means having compassion and not judging. It means being as like Jesus as possible!

If I lead a Maundy Thursday service, I am strangely drawn to prayers of confession in the front of Rejoice and Sing (OUP 1991).

The minister says: I confess to God Almighty and in the presence of all God’s people that I have sinned in thought, word, and deed, and I pray God Almighty to have mercy on me.

Then the congregation says to the minister: May Almighty God have mercy on you, pardon and deliver you from all your sins and give you time to amend your life. The minister says: Amen

Then the roles are reversed (changing from singular to plural as necessary) as the congregation confesses.

It feels important that the minister confesses first; there is a hint of Peter, giving in to having his feet washed by Jesus. Congregational ministers are first among equals, a phrase defined by Merriam-Webster as: the leader of a group of people who is officially considered equal in rights and status to the other members of the group. Yet how we love to put people on pedestals and then moan when they have feet of clay!

In 393AD Maundy Thursday was decreed as a Holy Day by the Council of Hippo. A typical service includes confession and taking communion together. Services may feature foot-washing, stripping the church’s decor, and tenebrae. Tenebrae means darkness, which back in history meant the extinguishing of candles. John’s version of the night Jesus was arrested includes two of Jesus’s I AM sayings. Perhaps we could reiterate the seven I AM sayings and light a candle for each; then extinguish them one at a time as hope is lost when Jesus goes to the garden of Gethsemane.

Our services often focus on the foot-washing and the Last Supper, but Jesus’s time under the olive trees in the garden surely should be touched on? Perhaps a fitting ending to the time together could be to leave as this finishes: Gethsemane from Jesus Christ Superstar (Yes, I know the theology is very tricky, but let’s give in to emotion and share the agony of Jesus). Early on in the song Tim Rice gives these words to Jesus: “Then, I was inspired. Now, I'm sad and tired. Listen, surely I've exceeded expectations: tried for three years, seems like thirty”. Towards the end of the song, hyperbole kicks in: “Then I was inspired. Now, I'm sad and tired. After all, I've tried for three years, seems like ninety...”.

Elaine Kinchin