“Maundy” comes from the Latin word mandatum, which means command or mandate. This Thursday we remember the mandatum nova, the new command: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35 NRSV).
It’s interesting that Jesus calls it a new commandment. Surely there isn’t anything new in a command that says to love one another. We could find verse after verse of commands in the Old Testament that insist on care and love of the other, the neighbor, the stranger, the poor. The Hebrew Torah is essentially concerned with these two concepts: love of God and love of neighbor (which Jesus of course quotes as his summation of the law). And love of the other is certainly not a strictly Christian or Jewish concept. Ever major religion of the world teaches some form of love for others.
So what’s so new about this command in John 13? I don’t think what’s new is the command to love another. I think what’s new is the qualifier: just as I have loved you. That’s what’s new.
In Jesus, we don’t just love one another; we love one another as Jesus loved us. With a basin and towel. On our hands and our knees. Against what’s expected in our culture. To the point of giving ourselves up for one another. We don’t just have a command in the form of words on a page; the command is now written in the obedience of the Son. And his obedience is emphatically now our example to follow (John 13:15).
Today we remember that Jesus didn’t just come to die. Yes, of course, he came to die. But he also came to establish a community of people who would embody the kind of self-giving love that he left behind for them to show. That’s why Thursday is so important. If we skip Thursday and jump straight to Friday, we could be tempted to think Jesus just came to punch our ticket to heaven. But his death is so much more than that. It’s our gift to receive, yes; but it’s also our example to follow. Lesslie Newbigin liked to remind us that Jesus never wrote a book; he formed a community. The community of the crucified.
May we take up the basin and the towel to serve the world Jesus came to love. May we take up our cross to give ourselves away for the world Jesus came to love.
The Jesus Way 