Today is Maundy Thursday. Growing up, I never heard the term Maundy Thursday, which I find hard to understand now. Perhaps you aren’t familiar with it either.

Maundy Thursday is the Thursday before the crucifixion and the evening when Jesus shared a Passover Seder meal with his disciples. As reported by recent research into Palestinian cuisine during Jesus’ time, the meal would have consisted of a bean stew, lamb, olives, bitter herbs, a fish sauce, unleavened bread, dates and aromatized wine.

The six foods represented a different part of the Exodus story: beitzah, a roasted egg, which symbolizes sacrificial traditions and the coming of spring; maror, a bitter herb (commonly horseradish), and chazeret, lettuce, which fulfill a commandment set in the book of Numbers; zeroa, a shank bone, which calls back to the Biblical sacrifice of lambs; charoset, a mixture of apples, nuts, and spices, representing the mortar used by Hebrew slaves to build Egyptian structures; and karpas, or parsley, which incorporates the ritual’s Greek influences.

It was during this meal that He instituted the Lord’s supper or communion. It’s called Maundy Thursday because of the command Jesus gave his disciples to love one another. Maundy is a shortened form of mandatum (Latin), which means “command.”

Here are the verses from John 13:34-35: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

After the meal, Jesus washed his disciples’ feet…even the feet of Judas, who would betray him in a few short hours. In Mark and Matthew, the writers tell that after Judas left, Jesus and the disciples sang songs. Traditionally, they would have sung the verses from Psalm 116 to 118. These are some of the greatest psalms of praise to God.

We know from the gospels that once they’d sung the hymns, they left the upper room and went to the Garden of Gethsemane where soldiers came and arrested him. I’m reading all four gospel accounts of Holy Week and the crucifixion and then the glorious Resurrection. Won’t you join me?

Happy Easter to all!