Maundy comes from the Latin word mandatum, meaning "commandment". In John 13:1-34, Jesus both demonstrates and proclaims a new commandment. Specifically, in verse 34 He comes out and says:“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."
Whenever I read these words I'm blown away. The preceding verses show Jesus
washing His disciples feet, loving the one who will betray Him, and sharing about the fact that He will give His very body and blood so that His followers can experience forgiveness of sin; then He says that we are to love one another as He loved us!Whenever I read this passage I'm hit anew with the truth that I can not do this.
I'm always brought back to the fact that it is only through Christ in me, by staying connected to God my source, that I can even start to touch the edges of this kind of love.
What about you, what are your thoughts as you reflect on this new commandment that Christ gave His followers?
3 comments:
I can only do that as I have intimate relationship with the King. This not an emotional love, but a sacrificial love, a serving love.
I can't do it - it isn't even in my personality. Every once in a while, I feel the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and things go well.
I keep pressing in.
Nothing compares.
Jesus provided the ultimate example for us to follow, and nobody will ever get a better feel for that than the ones who followed Him during His ministry.
A lot didn't listen to His commandment then...even more don't today. Heartbreaking.
It seems that is so hard to do - It is so hard to love, truly love, even those closest to us but to love others - the other that isn't like us, the other that doesn't smell good, the other who doesn't believe like us -- that's the other... and it's hard.
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