Dear First Pres,
Today is Maundy Thursday. This weird name comes from the Latin word that means “command.” We remember today the way that Jesus gathered with His disciples in that upper room. According to John 13, He showed them the full extent of His love when He washed their feet. Later that evening, after Judas Iscariot had gone to betray Him, Jesus said this to the disciples, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)
What’s new about this command? It’s not new to be commanded to love. Jesus has already established that the two greatest commandments are to love God and neighbor. So, what’s new here? It’s new for Jesus to say, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” Jesus sets the new standard for loving each other - humble, self-sacrificing service done with compassion and grace. That’s how Jesus served them when He took off His outer robes, wrapped a towel around His waist, and washed their feet. And, that’s how Jesus served all of us when He surrendered Himself to the cross.
Today, I pray you will be grateful for the way that Christ served you. And I pray that you will think of some way that you can share that kind of love with another - either someone in your household, a neighbor, a fellow church member, a workmate, or a friend. Let’s make today a day when we honor the new command given to us by Christ. Let us truly love one another the way that Christ has loved us.
It’s also a day to join in worship. Our Maundy Thursday service starts tonight at 7:00pm on our YouTube channel. We won’t be able to enjoy some of our normal traditions of Maundy Thursday, but I truly encourage you to join with your church in worship.
Then, on Good Friday, I encourage you to join in a multi-denominational Day of Prayer and Fasting. You can find all the details and helpful resources HERE. We’ll have three different virtual prayer gatherings: 7:00a.m. via Zoom; 12:00p.m. via Facebook Live on the church’s Facebook page; and 7:00p.m. via Zoom.
I encourage you to choose a designated set of hours that you will fast from food and set aside some designated prayer times. If you’re in a busy house, that may mean you need to lock yourself in your bedroom for a while … or even your closet. If you don’t know what to pray, you can find an attachment with suggested prayers on our website.
Finally, don’t forget to invite your friends to our Easter service livestream at 10:00a.m. on Sunday. It’s going to be a wonderful celebration of Christ’s everlasting life.
This is not the way that any of us imagined celebrating Holy Week, but I wonder, as we shelter in place, if it will help us relate to the disciples as they huddled together in the upper room. I’m praying that the Lord will make this unexpected style of Easter worship unexpectedly powerful this weekend.
Blessings,
Jeremy
P.S. Finally I want to encourage all of you social media users to “like” or “follow” First Presbyterian Church Fresno on Facebook and Instagram. I’ll be posting more videos in the days to come and I want to make sure you see them there.
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