April 2, 2026
Today is Maundy Thursday and Maundy Thursday gets its name from the Latin word mandatum from which we get mandate and command. At the Last Supper Jesus gives a new commandment to his disciples and that is why we call this Maundy Thursday. He commands them to love one another. Jesus was challenged to sum up the law many times by Sadducees and Pharisees and other scholars. The answer they expected was the answer that they had come to which was keep your nose clean. Looking at the problems of the world the religious people of Jesus’s day decided that the best thing to do was to turn inward and not be sullied by the world. Whenever this happens good doesn’t happen. And whenever this happens we think we are the bright center of the world and we become arrogant and self-righteous. So Jesus said love one another. Jesus pointed out that the core of God’s law can be kept if we are just simply loving. We come up with all sorts of ways to complicate what is essentially a simple truth – love.
Let Us Pray: Heavenly Father, keep us mindful of the simplicity of Christ’s message. Through the forgiveness of sin, through the defeat of death, and through calling us back to this core ethic that will help us keep all of your ways, help us to love. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.