Reflections On Maundy Thursday

Sermon Maundy Thursday

Today we remember the events that occurred on Thursday of Holy Week usually reckoned to be about AD 29.

It is the most talked about week in the history of mankind

It has been estimated that about a third of all the events that we have recorded in Scripture about Jesus’ life occurred during this week:

Some people have suggested that Holy Week was a series of unfortunate chance events culminating with the Crucifixion

I don’t believe that

I believe that Jesus planned it meticulously and used code words on Palm Sunday and on Wednesday of Holy Week what is called Spy Wednesday

1. Palm Sunday

The disciples on Palm Sunday were sent to get a donkey and when the owners asked them why they were taking it they were told to reply” The Lord needs it”

Now the fact that the donkey had owners shows that the owners were poor as they did not have enough money to own the donkey alone

So the donkey was a sizable investment

If that is the case, why do you think that the owners of the donkey didn’t ask who the Lord is.

I would suggest to you it is because this was a safe password that Jesus had pre-arranged.

Jesus’ name isn’t mentioned so the owners of the donkey won’t get into trouble with the High Priest and his party after the Crucifixion

The sentence “The Lord needs” could refer to anybody with money, so it didn't put the owners in danger

2. Maundy Thursday

Now preparations are needed to be made for Maundy Thursday, and Jesus tells his disciples to do something a bit strange

He doesn’t say go to the home of a particular person.

Rather Jesus says

“As you go into the city, you will see a man with a pitcher, follow him and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’

Again what is surprising, on the face of it was that the owner of the house didn’t say “Who is the Teacher” because he already knew who the Teacher was.

For me the sentence ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ has to be a password.

I say that because of the way the owner of the house reacts.

Tradition has it that it was the house of John Mark’s mother – John Mark being the author of Mark’s Gospel

As they gathered, they were taking part in the Seder meal, one of the highlights of the Passover week.

And it is not by chance that Jesus shares this Passover feast with his disciples and he doesn’t want to be disturbed.

Why did Jesus have to use passwords?

The Passwords for Palm Sunday and for the Passover meal in Holy Week were because of Judas

If Judas had known where the donkey was, he could have got word to the High Priest and he would have had the donkey either killed or confiscated

Inn this way he could stop Jesus fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 a prophecy given almost 900 years earlier. Let me read it to you

The Coming of Zion’s King

9 Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!

Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!

See, your king comes to you,

righteous and victorious,

lowly and riding on a donkey,

on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

In the same way, had Judas known where the Passover was going to be held, he could have got word to the High Priest who could have arrested Jesus away from the crowds before Jesu had finished his ministry to the disciples

2.1 Passover

The Passover festival, was ingrained in the life of the Jewish nation.

It commemorated that time when the Jews were in slavery in Egypt.

Moses had warned Pharaoh to let his people go, but Pharaoh refused.

So God sent one plague after another .

Pharaoh wasn’t moved until God sent the tenth and final plague – known as the death of the firstborns in Egypt

However this death passed over the homes of the Jews in Goshen.

And so the feast of Passover was ordered by God as a commemoration of the Jewish nation’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt by their God

The meal itself was a symbolic one reminding the Jews of the sufferings of their forefathers and the power of God's deliverance.

The food that was eaten were symbols to remind the Jews of their captivity in Egypt.

1. Lamb The word 'pesach' (pasch, passover) applies to the Lamb of sacrifice as well as to the deliverance from Egypt and to the feast itself.

2. Unleavened bread (Matzoh) called "bread of affliction" because it recalls the unleavened bread prepared for the hasty flight by night from Egypt.