Maundy Thursday

"The Meaning of 'Command' Thursday"

March 30, 2004

The Rev. Dr. David M. Wendel

Saint Luke’s Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Lessons:  Exodus 12:1-4 (5-10)11-14;  I Corinthians 11:23-26;  St. John 13:1-17, 31b-35

     People just don't seem to respond well to commands anymore.  I knew I was in trouble, as a young father, when I told my kids, "Clean up your room--do it!"  And they responded, "We might, if you ask nicely."  I suppose teachers have realized the same thing nowadays, when telling students to do something, isn't really enough--now, you have to tell them why you want them to do it, and how it will benefit learning, and explain to them how it will be to their advantage to do it.  When I was in school, our teachers said, "Do this!"  And by gosh, we did it--no questions asked, no hesitation.  Surely, it's not the same in the military today!  Surely, in the military, there is still respect for the authority of your superiors--so that, when an officer says, "Do this--now!", it's done, without explanation or the need to defend the command.  Isn't it still that way in the military? 

     It seems people just don't seem to respond well to commands, anymore.  We don't want to be commanded--we want to be asked, nicely, if you please.  And then, we'll consider the request, think about it, and maybe we will, maybe we won't.  And that way, we're doing it because we want to, and choose to--not because we've been commanded to.  Which leaves us in a very precarious position, tonight, when you consider that Maundy Thursday is all about--Jesus--commanding us to do certain things!  In fact, the name "Maundy Thursday", comes from the Latin word, "mandatum"--which translates, "command".  "Maundy Thursday" is nothing other than, "Maundete Thursday", or "Command Thursday".  Which is fine, if you can come to church, tonight, and be oblivious to His commands.  It's fine, if you, like many Christians in many denominations--don't worship on Maundy Thursday--so that you don't have to hear from Jesus, and His commands.  Or, as with the Roman church, the name has been changed from the Latin, "Maundete Thursday", to the more inocuous, "Holy Thursday".  Not that anyone is trying to get away from Jesus commands--and yet, it makes you wonder, doesn't it?  Some Christians don't observe "Command Thursday" anymore--some Christians have renamed it altogether, and some--even in churches where there is a service in observance of "Command Thursday"--some still don't come.  And we have to ask, "Could it be because the modern mind no longer like "commands?"  "Is there an unwillingness to acknowledge that, yes, like it or not, Jesus commands us to do certain things?" 

     It has to be that--in part--at least, because Christians today seem to be running from--any absolute commands in Scripture.  Christians turn away from "Thou shalt nots…", as if they were the plague--rejecting commands like, "Thou shalt not steal;  thou shalt not commit adultery;  thou shalt not bear false witness;  thou shall honor thy father and mother".   In the place of God's commands in Scripture, we substitute, "Thou shalt do whatever thou please, so long as it doesn't hurt anyone".  Or the more radical, but the increasingly common, "Thou shalt do whatever pleases thou."  Either way, it's a rejection of God's commands--a decision to do whatever God commands, only if it suits us.  So then, what of Jesus' commands, given on that Thursday evening, in the Upper Room, as Jesus gathered with His disciples for their Last Supper?  Do these commands--commanded at the Last Supper--suit us--and Christians today?   As always, it would depend on what Jesus was commanding-that first Maundy Thursday.

     Well, there were two, specific commands, Jesus gave to His disciples that night.  One, is the command which is recorded in Matthew's, Mark's and Luke's Gospels, recalled by St. Paul in our Second Reading tonight, from 1st Corinthians, as Jesus--commands--"Do this, in remembrance of me."  He is commanding, of course, that His disciples "Do This"-Last Supper, that becomes the Lord's Supper--for, Jesus says,  "as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death, until He comes".  This is what most Christians think of, when they think of Maundy Thursday (if they think of it at all).  They think of Jesus, instituting the Lord's Supper, the Holy Communion, the Eucharist, the Marriage Banquet which is a foretaste of the Feast to come.  And indeed, this is Jesus' command, on this night of His betrayal--the night before His sacrifice on the cross, as the unblemished Passover Lamb, who would give His life, for the sins of the world.  On that night, Jesus commanded--COMMANDED us to "do this"--in "anamnesis" of me.  Anamnesis is often translated as "for the remembrance of me", or "in memory of me"--but unfortunately, there is no good word, in English, to use to translate the word, "anamnesis".  Because remembrance, and memory, suggest we are simply calling to mind, some past event, that remains in the past, even as we remember it, or call it to mind.  The emphasis when we translate it this way, of course, is on our memory, our ability to call to mind--something in the distant past.  The biblical notion of "anamnesis", however, is not just remembering a memory, not just forming a mental picture of something we want to recall, as we are able--rather, Jesus says, when we "do this"--when we celebrate His holy meal, when we eat His flesh and drink His blood--He is re-presented among us--He is made real, here and now--actualized on our altar, in our hands, so that we are not just remembering a past event--but the past becomes the present--so that this becomes, the Last Supper--this becomes the meal at which Jesus, himself, is present, and presiding, and feeding us with His very body and blood.  That is what it means that we DO THIS for the "anamnesis" of Jesus.  Which is why he commands--that his followers do this--for His anamnesis--so that He will be re-presented among us--so that He will be actualized among us, now--for the forgiveness of our sins, for the strengthening of our bodies and souls, so that we will receive, not mere bread and wine, but the body and blood of our Lord--for us, and for our salvation.  If we do not heed His command--if we will not obey His instruction to "Do this"--then there is no anamnesis--and we go spiritually hungry.  And the reality is--many Christians--many denominations are not--DOING THIS FOR THE ANAMESIS--of Jesus.  And so, there is no real presence--often, there's no Lord's Supper--and they miss, what Jesus intends to be the most powerful manifestation of His risen presence in the lives of His disciples--His real, true, physical presence, in the Lord's Supper.  Obviously, for many Christians, to follow this command of Jesus, is too much to ask, so whole congregations, some Lutheran as well as others, go week after week, without "doing this" for Jesus' anamnesis.  And we have to ask, why is it that so many churches and Christians refuse to follow Jesus' command?  Why is it that so many churches and Christians won't "do this" for the anamnesis of Jesus?  Probably, there are many reasons--one of which must be--that the more Jesus is truly present--the more He will expect of us, demand of us, command us--to do.  Which brings us to the other great command of Maundy Thursday--the command, from Jesus himself, that "you love one another, as I have loved you."  There are many commands of Jesus which would rub people today, the wrong way.  But are there any so, offensive, so difficult, so problematic, as this command of Jesus, given to his followers at the Last Supper?  Oh, we all think we're loving--but Jesus doesn’t just command us to love--He defines how we are to love, by kneeling down, humbling himself, and washing the feet of his disciples.  And then he says, "So, if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet."  We see how low Jesus was stooping, by how offended Simon Peter was that Jesus would consider washing his feet--Peter saying to Jesus, "Lord, you will never wash my feet!"  That wouldn't be what most of us would protest--most today, would protest, vociferously--asking Jesus, "You want me to do--what?!"  "You want me to love, even to the point, of stooping, humbling myself--doing something so, unpleasant, as washing other people's feet?"  That, truly, is what Jesus is commanding us to do--when he says, "love one another, just as I have loved you."  Aye, and there's the rub.  That's what causes many of us Christians, today, to bristle at Jesus' commands.  And the more present Jesus is--the harder it is to escape, to ignore, to slough off Jesus' commands.  And yet, this is Maundete Thursday.  Jesus says to "Do this"--Lord's Supper;  Jesus commands us to love one another, to the point of humbling ourselves, and doing what may be unpleasant and uncomfortable.  But let us never forget, that just as He gave us these commands, He was preparing Himself, to do what the Father had commanded--to give His life, as a sacrifice for the world--to humble himself, and do, for us, what was not just unpleasant and uncomfortable, but what was painful and tortuous--to die on the cross-- to show us how He loves us.

     So that, it is in response to that sacrifice, that we find the strength, the courage, the faith, to do what Jesus commands--to never fail to "do this for His anamnesis"--to always strive, to "love one another as Christ has loved us."  Not just this evening--but throughout our lives, let us celebrate, yes, celebrate our Lord's commands--by doing, what He commands.    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.