Remembering Jesus' Sacrifice on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday

Journey Through Holy Week

Remembering Jesus' Sacrifice on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday

March 31, 2023 • John 13:34-35 Mark 15:1-15 Matthew 27:45-50

After three days of teaching, Jesus gathers privately with his disciples to observe the Jewish Passover meal. During his time with them, he institutes what we now observe as the Lord’s Supper, or Communion. As they sit together, Jesus gives them a new command to “love one another.” Soon after, in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus is arrested, tried, and finally crucified. All throughout these events, Jesus demonstrates humility and displays the kind of servant Messiah he is. Join us as we study Jesus’ sacrifice and the example he sets for us on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Together we’ll discuss the origins and meaning of these holy days in Scripture, re-examine our expectations, and reflect on Jesus Christ’s example and its influence on our mindset and behavior today.

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Darrell Delaney

Good Friday services are deeply moving. At the church where I pastored, we remove most of the chairs and strip the service down to people sitting on the floor. We also have crosses in the sanctuary, where people can write confessions of sin on papers and nail them to the cross. So, we hear for about ten minutes or so the pounding of the hammer on nails and wood. It is a sobering sound. Our sins are nailed up there. Christ died because of us. He died because he loved us. We will be nothing but grateful to him for paying the debt we incurred. In this episode of Groundwork, we want to talk about Maundy Thursday, as well as Good Friday, and reflect on the sacrifice Jesus made for us. Stay tuned.

Scott Hoezee

Welcome to Groundwork, where we dig into scripture to lay the foundation for our lives. I am Scott Hoezee.

Darrell Delaney

And I am Darrell Delaney; and Scott, we are in part two of our short, three-part series on the Holy Week, also known as Passion Week, depending on what tradition you come from. In the first episode, we talked about the Triumphal Entry and Palm Sunday, and also the Monday that came after, where Jesus went into the temple and cleansed it out; and he actually drove out the ones who were stealing away and robbing the people of the opportunity to worship.

Scott Hoezee

And today, we will talk about Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. As you just said, Darrell, markedly it brings us to Monday. What about Tuesday and Wednesday? What happened? Well, I mean, there were preparations going on for the Passover; but we did a whole series on Groundwork a while back where we looked at the teachings that Jesus did between Palm Sunday and when he got arrested on Thursday evening. So, it was a time of final teachings for Jesus, while he was in Jerusalem and before he was arrested. So, that is kind of what happened on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday; and now, on this program, we are going to go to Thursday, or as it has been traditionally called: Maundy Thursday.

Darrell Delaney

It is a word that we think about rarely…only at this time, really…and what I found is that it comes from the Latin word mandatum, which means mandate or command; and that comes from the actual passage in John 13, where Jesus says: A new command I give to you: Love one another.

Scott Hoezee

Yes; maundy…mandatum…so, mandate…command is in there. I confess I had actually been a pastor for a while before I ever bothered to look up what does maundy mean? I would just be…oh, Maundy Thursday…yes; but that is what it means. It is the new command. Jesus gets a water basin in that upper room in John 13. He takes off his outer garment and he washes the disciples’ feet. Obviously, he is setting an example of true servanthood. In fact, this is what he says in John 13:34: “A new command… (that is where maundy comes from) …A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.”

Darrell Delaney

So, if I am imagining Jesus in this moment with the full itinerary of the things that you just mentioned earlier, and the things that we know happened in this week of his life…the last week of his life…I could imagine that he might be stressed, knowing that he is going to die on the next day after Maundy Thursday, which is Good Friday; but the Bible specifically says that he was showing the full extent of his love at this point, where he is stooping down to, like the level of humility, when… Name one rabbi that actually will wash the feet of their disciples. It doesn’t happen in their time. He shocked them with this act of service, and he blessed them as well.

Scott Hoezee

You know, I sometimes have kidded around a little bit…you know, every once in a while, you go to a worship service where they are going to do foot washing, right? The pastor…actually, the president of my seminary…when he was installed as president, had a foot washing; and he had arranged to have a student, a faculty member, a board member. Well, these people all knew ahead of time that they were going to get their feet washed. I am guessing they came to that service with the cleanest feet that they’d ever had in their lives, right? They made sure they weren’t wearing socks that had, you know, lint that was going to stick to their foot. It wasn’t that tidy for Jesus. I mean, these guys had been on dusty roads. They probably had calloused feet. They might have been a little smelly, as feet tend to be. That is why this was a very servile task—a very humble, but almost humiliating task. Only the lowest servant would be asked to do that kind of vaguely gross thing of taking their dirty feet in his hands and washing all that stuff off. This was the…as you said…literally stooping low to set an example of love and of service and of sacrifice and of humility. So much wrapped into it, Darrell.

Darrell Delaney

It’s a beautiful thing; and so, I… Unfortunately, Hollywood and the movies we see and all this, and even the songs we sing…they sanitize…no pun intended…this idea of what foot washing is. It is not a pretty job; it is not a fun job; but it is an example for us. We wash feet because he washes feet; we serve because he served; and we love because he loves. Now, that all is going on in the middle of the crazy week that this is for Jesus. He is being betrayed by Judas, he is having the last supper, he is going to be arrested. The Garden of Gethsemane is going to happen, where they cannot even stay awake with him. He predicts Peter’s denial. And a lot of these things are happening, but Jesus is showing love; and love must be the key. It’s got to be the key, Scott.

Scott Hoezee

By doing this, again, I mean, Jesus is setting…right, exactly…the tone for what is about to come. Foot washing was standard then. Anytime you went to someone’s house for dinner, a servant would wash your feet before you ate; particularly in the day when they reclined at tables, so their feet were right there. You kind of wanted clean feet around the food. We don’t do that anymore; so, what is today’s equivalent of foot washing? You know, we could always think about that. How do we serve each other today in a way that is parallel to this?

John picks this up in his first letter in the New Testament…1 John 4…that it is really not literallyabout washing feet, but the example. John writes:

⁷Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who [loves] has been born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹Dear friends, since God loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Darrell Delaney

I am hoping that that sounds familiar, because that is exactly what Jesus is teaching them right before he gets arrested—right before he is put on trial; and loving one another has serious implications on our relationships with each other. It says that everyone will know that we are his disciples if we love one another; and that is why it is a key characteristic of walking with Jesus.

Scott Hoezee

In my preaching classes at Calvin Seminary, Darrell, I have this mantra: Show, don’t tell. It comes from creative writing teachers who encourage writers: Look; show, don’t tell. Don’t just tell people information; show them what it looks like in action; and here, Jesus is a great example. He doesn’t simply give them a lecture on loving one another…

Darrell Delaney

Right.

Scott Hoezee

That would be telling. No; he shows them. He takes off his clothes; he kneels down by their dirty, smelly feet, and he shows them what love is; and of course, that is just a preview of how he is going to show his love on the cross—that atoning sacrifice for our sins, as John calls it in 1 John 4, the passage we just read.

Darrell Delaney

It’s a beautiful thing to see that Jesus says: Do you see what I have done for you? Now go do that for one another. He literally becomes the example of love, and we are called to that example; but in just a minute, we want to talk more about Passion Week and how Good Friday comes into play. So, stay tuned.

Segment 2

Scott Hoezee

You are listening to Groundwork, where we dig into scripture to lay the foundation for our lives. I am Scott Hoezee.

Darrell Delaney

And I am Darrell Delaney; and Scott, we have been talking about Maundy Thursday, and its origins and meaning; but now, we want to turn toward Good Friday. You know, I have never really been sold on the whole title of “Good Friday”, just like I don’t like the title of “good Samaritan”. We don’t use the word, I don’t think, correctly. It is not good for Jesus on Good Friday. I mean, I understand the implications of it being good for us, but it wasn’t good for him.

Scott Hoezee

You know, John F. Kennedy was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, and if after that, anybody had said: Hey, we are going to call that Good Friday, we would be offended. It is like, how much you must have hated…or what about Martin Luther King? He was assassinated on a Thursday, April 4, 1968…

Darrell Delaney

Yes.

Scott Hoezee

If anybody said: We are going to refer to that as Good Thursday from now on, it would be like: You’re a racist. I mean, that is horrible. We never celebrate the death of our leaders, or call the day they died good; and yet, we do for Jesus, and of course, we’ve got reasons for that theologically; but at the time, it looked like anything but good.

Darrell Delaney

This is the day he gets handed over to Pontius Pilate to be arrested, to be tried, to be crucified, to be killed; and so, we understand why it is not a good day. Also, it shows it here in Mark Chapter 15. It says: Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teacher of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, made their plans. So they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate. ²“Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate. “You have said so,” Jesus replied. ³The chief priests accused him of many things. ⁴So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.” ⁵But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed. ⁶Now it was the custom at the festival to released a prisoner whom the people requested. ⁷A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. ⁸The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did. ⁹“Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, ¹⁰knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. ¹¹But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.

Scott Hoezee

¹²“What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them. ¹³“Crucify him!” they shouted. ¹⁴“Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!” ¹⁵Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

Darrell Delaney

You mentioned this, I think, in the other episode, Scott, how it is interesting that these people had such a quick turn and change of mind. They were saying “hosanna” on Sunday; and now these same people are saying “crucify him” now, which is crazy to understand, because, I mean, Jesus is being falsely accused, and he is actually being condemned for something he did not do, which is also a fulfillment of scripture from Isaiah 53.

Scott Hoezee

Yes; he is like a sheep led to slaughter and he did not open his mouth. Jesus isn’t going to answer these false accusations. He is not going to mount a defense. He knows that this is the will of his Father, that he has to go this horrible, horrible way of the cross; but indeed, Darrell, what a change in attitude in the crowds in just four days’ time—a horrible change. They would rather have a genuine criminal released to them than let Jesus go; and as we said, that right there is evidence of what we said in the previous program of this short series on Holy Week: They called Jesus a king: Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. But they wanted a political king; and as soon as Jesus made clear that week, through those teachings that he did on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday…maybe through what he did in the temple, driving out, you know, the moneychangers, it was pretty clear this isn’t the king they signed on for; this isn’t the guy who is going to mount a political insurrection to get rid of Rome. As soon as they saw that, it is like, well, that is not the Messiah we were waiting for, so away with him! Let the chief priests and Pharisees do what they want because… You know, it is sort of like when John the Baptist came to Jesus through his disciples, John was in prison, and the disciples of John asked Jesus: Are you the one who is coming or should we wait for somebody else?

Darrell Delaney

Wait for somebody else…

Scott Hoezee

And what they meant was somebody better…somebody flashier; and the people decided: We need to wait for somebody else. This Jesus…he is not fitting the bill.

Darrell Delaney

And so, they picked Barabbas because they at least know that he was an insurrectionist…

Scott Hoezee

Exactly.

Darrell Delaney

I mean, he’s got attempts at trying to overthrow something, so we will go with him. Maybe he will get us there. Unfortunately, we do the same thing when we have an agenda, where we ask God to do things, and he doesn’t appear or manifest or answer your prayers the way that we expect, we sometimes turn our attitude and our heart; and we should be the ones who repent from that kind of thing and allow the Father’s will to be our will, just like Jesus did here; but then also, we see actually when he is getting ready to die, in Matthew 27, starting at verse 45, it says:

From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. ⁴⁶About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (Which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). ⁴⁷When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.” ⁴⁸Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. ⁴⁹The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.” ⁵⁰And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

Scott Hoezee

Jesus called: Eli, Eli, which means: My God, my God. Apparently, people weren’t much up on their Hebrew or their Aramaic because they thought he meant Elijah. Now let’s see if Elijah comes. That is not who Jesus was calling. Jesus, though, wasn’t actually calling for any deliverance either. He was just asking why have you, you know, forsaken me? This is the darkest time, right before Jesus died. Darkness has come over the whole land, Matthew tells us in verse 45 of Chapter 27. That is literal; but boy, figuratively, Darrell, the darkness was even greater; and there is some indication that, you know, perhaps there was some kind of a gulf that just for a moment, for the first time in all eternity, that opened up between Jesus, the Son, and the Father and the Spirit. Jesus felt abandoned. This is as dark as it gets.

Darrell Delaney

So, for one who has been with God from eternity past, to be united with him always, and to always be like: This is my Father; this is my Father; to be separated from him because he, at that moment, bore the sin of everyone, and the punishment of everyone; but also, it is an allusion to a passage that he said, too. It talks about how God has brought him back from death, and God is bigger than death; but then, you also think, practically speaking, a mother lost her child, the disciples lost their leader, and these are the dark shadows in which we figuratively put up darkness and put curtains and have these colors when we do worship services that commemorate Good Friday. It is a dark time emotionally, it is a dark time spiritually, and we want to remember that when we have worship services as well.

Scott Hoezee

Tenebrae is the traditional word for a Good Friday service…

Darrell Delaney

Oh, yes.

Scott Hoezee

And it means shadows; a service of shadows, to remember this very, very dark time. John Calvin was among those who think that this moment when he cries out: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me; that this was Jesus’ descent into hell. When we say in the Apostles’ Creed: He descended into hell, Calvin thinks that happened here on the cross, that this was a hellish experience for Jesus, and he did that so we never will have to. But as we wrap up this episode, let’s look at some practical applications and ideas, and what all this still means for us all these years later. So, stay tuned.

Segment 3

Darrell Delaney

I am Darrell Delaney, with Scott Hoezee, and you are listening to Groundwork; and Scott, we have been talking about Maundy Thursday and Good Friday; and now we come to the part where there are practical applications—the so-what of the episode. So, we want to make sure that we walk away with something we can live by; and so, we are thinking about these things, and three points come to mind.

Scott Hoezee

One point is that this was the most important week in the history of the world. This is where the devil is defeated. We are going to talk about that in the final episode of this short, three-part series when we get to the resurrection, of course; but this is where Jesus wins the victory; ironically, through death. We said earlier in this episode, we would never call the day of the assassination of a great leader “good”, but the only reason we call this death “good” is because it did lead to the defeat of evil. It reversed the curse that began with Adam and Eve way back in the Garden. God promised them that he would send one to crush the head of the serpent…the tempter…the devil; and this is where that happens. That is why…of course, theologically, Darrell…that is why Jesus is often called the second Adam or the last Adam.

Darrell Delaney

The second Adam and the last Adam actually comes from 1 Corinthians Chapter 15, where it says: ⁴⁵So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. ⁴⁷The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man is of heaven. ⁴⁸As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. ⁴⁹And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.

And being that Christ is the last Adam, he sets straight all the things that Adam did when he disobeyed the Lord and brought sin into this world. Christ paid the price.

Scott Hoezee

This is where God undoes what happened all the way back in Genesis 3. All the damage that was done when Adam and Eve, as our first parents, fell into sin, Christ has now undone it; and so, we call him the second Adam…and the last Adam. There will not need to be a third Adam or a fourth Adam…

Darrell Delaney

I’m so glad.

Scott Hoezee

Yes; I know. It is done now. The second Adam is the last Adam. I like what Paul does there in those verses you just read from 1 Corinthians 15. What we shared in common with the first Adam is we are dust, right? We are made from the dust of the earth; but now, because we have been united with the second and last Adam, now we also have the stuff of heaven in us; and the image of God that was smeared and distorted by the sin of Adam and Eve, that image is being restored in us now. So, that is one practical application. This is the most important week in the history of the world because it is the week in which the devil was defeated and evil was put away.

The second idea: Christ’s obedience is our example.

Darrell Delaney

So, Christ, of course, we know this is the one who we are supposed to follow; who we are supposed to imitate; our lives are supposed to be aligned to his. The Holy Spirit’s ministry is to conform us to the image of Christ; and Jesus literally puts his money where his mouth is, so to speak, by doing so much and believing in the Father’s will so much, he is willing to die for it in a humiliating death on a cross, which Philippians 2 picks up, and it says:

⁵In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: ⁶Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; ⁷rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, begin made in human likeness. ⁸And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even the death of the cross!

This is the song that Paul put in the Philippian letter to their church to remind them of the humiliation of Christ, that he voluntarily chose to humble himself; and that is the model that we should do…that is the model that Christ has left for us. We walk in humility because he did. We don’t just consider ourselves; we consider others as well.

Scott Hoezee

Exactly; Paul is saying in Philippians 2: This whole story of Jesus on the cross, that is not just something to look at and appreciate. No; those are your marching orders: Have the same mindset of Jesus Christ. So, serve one another.

It goes back to what we thought about on Maundy Thursday. The new command: Love one another. So, Jesus’ story is not just meant to sort of be a nice thing to take in and appreciate. No; it is the example. That is what we have to do.

The third point: This isn’t the end.

Darrell Delaney

I’m so glad it is not the end. If this were the end of the story, then our lives would be a waste. If we follow Jesus faithfully; if we didn’t shrink back when people threaten to hurt us or kill us; we would be wasting our life if the resurrection didn’t occur; but because the resurrection did occur, our life is worth living, and it is meaningful; but if it didn’t occur, then we might as well go ahead and party and sin and do whatever we want…step on everybody going up the corporate ladder…because the resurrection…you die once and you’re done if there is no resurrection; but Paul makes it clear that there is a resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15.

Scott Hoezee

Some of the Corinthians Paul got wind of were saying: Well, maybe he didn’t really rise again, you know. Paul says: ¹²[Well], But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. ¹⁵More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he [did] raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. ¹⁶For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. ¹⁷And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. ¹⁹If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

We’d be idiots, Paul says, to live sacrificial lives for Jesus if, in fact, he is still dead; but he is not! Spoiler alert; that is our next episode, but I think we all know Easter is coming.

Darrell Delaney

Sunday is definitely coming; but the issue is that we don’t leap over all the drama, all the problems…

Scott Hoezee

Exactly.

Darrell Delaney

All the darkness, all the shadow of death…we don’t leap over that; we go through the valley of the shadow of death, and Jesus is actually going through that through Passion Week, showing us that he is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for us.

Scott Hoezee

Exactly; and Paul points out in these passages, and in other passages: Jesus didn’t go through all that after we had kind of cleaned up our own acts and kind of became worthy of it. No, no, no. This all happened while we were yet sinners. When was the full extent of God’s love shown to us? Not when we had earned it; no. At the lowest of the low, while we were yet sinners; and yet, Christ died for us. That is what we remember, and for that we give thanks to God.

Darrell Delaney

Well, thanks for listening and digging deeply into scripture with Groundwork. We are your hosts, Darrell Delaney with Scott Hoezee; and we hope you will join us again next time as we reflect on the events of Holy Saturday and Easter as told to us in the gospels.

Connect with us at groundworkonline.com to share what Groundwork means to you, or to tell us what you would like to hear discussed next on Groundwork.

Scott Hoezee

Groundwork is a listener supported program produced by ReFrame Ministries. Visit reframeministries.org for more information.

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