Holy Week in Real Time: Maundy Thursday
Open Your Bible
John 16:16-24, John 16:32-33, Matthew 26:17-75, Psalm 41:7-13, Zechariah 13:7
BY Guest Writer
Text: John 16:16-24, John 16:32-33, Matthew 26:17-75, Psalm 41:7-13, Zechariah 13:7
Today is the fifth day of the portion of the church calendar commonly known as Holy Week.
In the coming days, we will slow our pace, walking through the events that took place between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. Rather than offer personal, written responses to each day’s Scripture reading, we’ve asked our friend, Pastor Russ Ramsey, to provide a real-time summary of the week’s events. Our prayer is that this more descriptive approach will usher you into the narrative and allow space for you to fully engage the beauty and ache of Holy Week.
Take this week slowly and reverently. It is a somber time, but let us never forget: Sunday is coming.
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The Thursday prior to Jesus’ crucifixion fills many pages in Scripture.
It began with John and Peter securing the upper room (Matthew 26:17-19). There in that room, Jesus would wash His disciples’ feet, explaining He had come to make them clean (John 13:1-20). As they began to eat, Jesus told them that one of them was about to betray Him. Each disciple wondered if He meant them. Meanwhile, Jesus discreetly dispatched Judas to do what he intended (John 13:21-30).
During this last supper, Jesus set apart the Passover bread and cup and reassigned—or better, perfected—their meaning. The bread is His Body. The cup is His blood. This meal would no longer primarily remind them of how God delivered their forefathers from the external tyranny of Pharaoh. Now it would remind them of how Christ delivered them from the internal tyranny of their own guilt and sin against God (Luke 22:14-23).
Then Jesus prayed for them, His friends, and for those who would come to know Him through their testimony. He prayed that His Father would make them one (John 17). After praying, Jesus rose to His feet and asked His disciples to stand with Him to sing a doxology over their suspended, unfinished Passover meal. Jesus led them in the traditional Passover song, Psalm 118, about how the stone the builders rejected had become the cornerstone, and how the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever.
To pause and lead His disciples in a song like this, at this particular moment, shows the strength of Jesus’ resolve to face His impending arrest and crucifixion. The Gospel accounts tell us that He started that Last Supper overwhelmed with sorrow, and that later in Gethsemane His sweat became like drops of blood (John 13:21, Luke 22:44). In the middle of that tension, Jesus sang of the faithfulness of God.
Think about that for a moment: one of the things Jesus did on the night He was betrayed was sing (Matthew 26:30).
When they finished singing, Jesus led His disciples out to the Mount of Olives, to one of their regular meeting places—the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:26-32). But Jesus didn’t go there only to pray. He also went there to wait. Soon a line of torches snaked their way toward Him through the darkness (Mark 14:42-46). This was what He had been waiting for.
written by Russ Ramsey
adapted from Behold the King of Glory
68 thoughts on "Holy Week in Real Time: Maundy Thursday"
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it’s almost the same feeling as hiding bad news from your children knowing it’s too much for them to bear. Jesus held it all in and led the disciples in song! knowing what would happen within hours! strength like no other!!
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Ladies, I urge you to read Psalm 118! Usually I gloss over the extra mentioned passages, but the Spirit prompted me to read this one. To read the song Jesus sang before His arrest & death is so powerful! He must have been so encouraged to be reminded of God’s faithfulness & strengthened by hearing the song of a redeemed voice– redeeming His people being the very reason He was to go through what He was about to.
The verse that stuck out to me was 118:24. “This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” I’ve always assumed this was about celebrating the current day & praising God for it. Oh, no, I think this is talking about The Day that Christ would set everything right. This is The Day God had planned from the very beginning to redeem His people to Himself. What an encouragement & beautiful reminder to Jesus that This Day was the one He’d been set apart specifically to carry out on our behalf. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU LORD!!!
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thank you I read it and wept!
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But Jesus is the same…yesterday, today and tomorrow. He means what he says and he loves us to the end. Period. Precious Jesus.
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We don’t know the true condition of our heart until it is exposed by God’s word. Even then we deny.like Peter, we say, “no, I am not like that.” Or like Judas, we continue to do what we want to do.
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Appreciated all the insight today. For me, it made me think of a song “He could have called 10,000 angeles to destroy the world and set him free, but he chose to die for you and me.”
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Oh Peter. In my own human-ness I can actually hear him justify in his mind those three betrayals. In the heat of the moment I’m sure he thought “surely the teacher wouldn’t want harm to come to me just because I know him” and “well I don’t want them to kill me too!”.
Safety. Self-preservation. Survival.
Our human instinct to survive has become so glorified in our culture. There are whole television shows dedicated to it. Season after season of surviving deserted islands, zombies, apocalypses. All things done in the name of survival are sacred to us.
But should they be? What if instead of glorifying survival, we glorified living? And not just living but living for a purpose greater than ourselves? Because when we believe that survival becomes obsolete doesn’t it?Christians love to say they believe in living for a higher purpose. But what’s the first thing we pray for when we send missionaries out into the field? Safety.
What if we stopped doing that? What if instead we prayed for their ministry first. For mountains to be moved, for extraordinary experiences that brought them closer to their Savior and allowed them to share a radical grace with everyone they encounter.What a trip that would be.
Thank you Jesus for your body that was broken and your blood poured out. So that we don’t have to worry about our fate or our tomorrow’s. Or even our survival.
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Absolutely love this! The Lord has really been showing me that safety and comfort dictate most of decisions and the majority in my thinking… How much more freeing and peaceful would life be if I really trusted. He will meet me out of comfort/safety zones and I feel life would be that much richer!
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Wow Emily, your words are so thought provoking! We should definitely pray bigger prayers for our missionaries!
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Thank you for your words Emily! I have a young friend on a mission trip in the Dominican Republic. I didn’t really know how to pray for her and her team, but I am encouraged by your words!
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He sang. Jesus sang the faithfulness of God as he was being betrayed by one of His own in order to fulfill a prophecy so we would not suffer. Makes my heart shake every time.
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Many times I dont get it. I struggle with shame immensely yet Jesus came to take it away..how
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how…by laying everything at his feet and putting your trust in him. Just as Mary did in the study yesterday. Praying that God will illuminate his word and help you. May God bless!
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