There’s a dark emotional cloud surrounding this Maundy Thursday, a day when Christians have remembered Jesus instituting the Lord’s Supper. Sure there are ways to receive the Lord’s supper in a more intimate setting, but the fact that we can’t do it in our usual setting may be unsettling, or even, as it does for me, it provokes great sadness. Good for us then, to review the name for today, “Maundy,” which in Latin means, “command.” Contrary to common Christian knowledge, this “command” isn’t about a command to administer the Lord’s Supper. Rather, this new command, this higher mandate, is to love each other.
Really, Pastor, Love your neighbor? That’s the golden rule, isn’t it? It’s in Deuteronomy, quoted before by Jesus himself,now you’re telling me it’s new? What’s new about it? Watch Pastor’s sermon on the Higher mandate to Love to discover the answer. (recorded at St. John in Maribel, WI).