Not exactly a trinity as we think of it, but for today pretty close
Today is, to my knowledge, about the most famous Thursday out there. Friday has ‘Black’, Saturday has ‘Game Day’ and Monday has, well, everyone’s hatred. But Thursday, at least this Thursday, is known for a feast, silver coins and a scrubbin’ we’re all in dire need of.
So in no particular chronological order, because there doesn’t seem to be an agreement of when everything happened, let’s look at a simple meal of bread and wine. This was the first one of its kind, although I’m sure simpler and similar repasts had occurred before. This one had significance because the leader of a non-Mensa group of common guys tried yet again to explain to them who he was, what he meant to them and what they should do with that information. As usual they missed the point at the moment but fortunately for us, and them, they understood later and they did something about it, often at their own peril. Curiously they didn’t deal much with money in these latter days, unlike their former cohort.
See, one of their own gave up their leader for the simple price of about 30 pieces of silver. Now, since we’re talking about giving up the savior of the whole world it seems silly to consider, but I know some of you out there are wondering, ‘How much is that really in today’s money?’ Let me tell you, it ain’t much. Depending on who you believe it’s somewhere between $600 and $3,000. Certainly not enough to retire on and definitely far from enough to forget the type of traitorous, crud you’ve been, selling out your leader and friend. Still, without Judas’ love of money and embezzling leanings (he was known to dip into the group’s funds as its treasurer) the whole chain of events wouldn’t have been kicked off giving us the guy who leads us all into light. Not that he didn’t and hadn’t shown himself to be just about the most selfless leader ever. Which brings us to the whole washing deal.
Even at this juncture in their relationship some of his crew didn’t understand who he was exactly. Somehow they just couldn’t or didn’t grasp whose presence they were in and so their leader humbled himself in order to make the point yet again why he was here with them. He took off his robe and standing there in what I can only imagine was his long undershirt he wrapped a towel around his waist and taking a basin of water began to wash his guys’ feet. Most, especially Peter, couldn’t understand why their leader who proclaimed to be the son of God himself would undertake such a thing. The reason? ‘Unless I wash you, you won’t truly be clean.’ He kept reassuring them they’d understand later on but I can imagine they wondered how in the world they were going to attain this level of knowledge. Little did they know what their leader would undergo and prove to them over the next 3 or so days. I can only imagine the crystallization each of them, even Thomas who steadfastly refused to believe unless he could see and feel, experienced when they saw their fallen leader once again after his death. So where does that leave us on another Maundy Thursday?
Interestingly the feast, money and the washing of feet are the only definitions around for this odd little word: Maundy. Maybe that’s as it should be. Maybe we should hang onto all three and push ourselves to appreciate and understand what this guy’s friends found so difficult to get, even as it unfolded in front of them. Perhaps we should forever see Thursday as a day where we remember what this guy meant for us and to us. Perhaps we should remember that for little more than the price of a not-to-extravagant weekend one of our fellow humans forfeited our savior and take heart in our view of money. Perhaps we should forever picture someone of this man’s importance humbling himself to make a point to his friends. Today we might just remember that loving one another is the simple most important lesson of all. I think we can all get behind that.
Funny little adjective “maundy.” Still it encompasses some awfully big concepts. Maybe in itself it’s a little illustrative of how we’d ought to look at things that appear to not be all that important.
Every week in this part of the blog I talk about religiousy stuff but I also write about other life stuff. Check it out by heading to the home page by clicking here. If you like what you read here or there you can subscribe for free. Subscribing means you’ll get an email on Sundays with links to the week’s posts, nothing more or less, as I never sell or share emails. Subscribe from here by clicking this.