…Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come. A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
— John 13:31-35
The word Maundy comes from the Latin word for commandment (mandatum), which Jesus talked about when he told his disciples he was leaving them a new command that they “love one another.”
There were probably many things going on in the disciples’ minds during the Last Supper in that upper room—including fear and bewilderment after Jesus told them someone in that very room would betray him.
Jesus handed the betrayer a piece of bread, just as he had been feeding all of his disciples all along. Always giving, always gracing. Jesus fed thousands of people with fish and loaves, and every word that came out of his mouth was spiritual food for those who listened and understood. But on this night, he fed them differently. Passing the bread and then the wine, he spoke ominous, comforting words: “This is my body… This is my blood…” This wasn’t an ordinary supper—not even an ordinary Passover. His words connected with what he’d said on the shores of faraway Galilee: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty…. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day” (Jn. 6:35, 54).
Jesus told them to repeat this unique meal in the future. And then it was time for them to go out into the chilly night. In a quiet garden among the olive trees, quiet but for the deep night sounds of dogs barking in the distance, Jesus prayed. In agony he prayed. The specter of shameful execution and of bearing the curse of sin tore into the human consciousness of Jesus. And in the end, it was sheer obedience to the divine plan that carried Jesus into the hands of the conspirators who were waiting for him. Did the disciples remember “the new command”?
Ponder This: What would have been going through your mind had you been one of the disciples at the Last Supper or out in the garden of Gethsemane?
