He Is Risen · Stop 2
What did Jesus do and say on the night before he died?
On his last night with his friends, Jesus did a job usually left to servants. He knelt down and washed their dusty feet. Then he gave them a meal and a new commandment. Today you'll find out why the church still remembers that night.
Start this stopMaundy Thursday
The Thursday of Holy Week is called Maundy Thursday. Maundy comes from the Latin word mandatum, which means commandment. That night Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.” He told them to love each other the way he loved them.
During supper, Jesus washed his friends' feet. Peter didn't want him to. It felt wrong for the teacher to act like a servant. Jesus said this was the whole point: now you do the same for each other.
That same night, Jesus took bread and a cup and gave us the Lord's Supper. Many ELCA churches share communion on Maundy Thursday, and some wash feet or hands too.
At the end of the service, many churches strip the altar bare while Psalm 22 is read or sung. There's no blessing and no closing song. Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil are called the Three Days, and they work like one long service. The story isn't finished yet.
Read it in your Bible
- John 13:12–15. After washing his disciples' feet, Jesus sits back down and asks if they understand. You call me Teacher and Lord, he says, and you're right. If I washed your feet, you should wash each other's feet. I've given you an example.
- John 13:34–35. Jesus gives his friends a new commandment: love one another, the same way he has loved them. That love is how everyone will know they are his disciples.
The Sacrament of the Altar, from Luther's Small Catechism
What is the Sacrament of the Altar? It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the bread and wine, for us Christians to eat and to drink, instituted by Christ Himself.
Words to know
- Maundy. The name for the Thursday of Holy Week, from the Latin word for commandment. It's named for Jesus' new commandment: love one another.
- Servant. The role Jesus took when he knelt to wash his friends' feet. The greatest one served the others. That's the example he left.
- Feet. What Jesus washed at supper, a job usually done by servants. Dusty feet are about as ordinary as it gets. Love shows up in ordinary things.
- Example. What Jesus said he gave his friends by washing their feet. He showed them how to serve. Then he told them to do the same.