Holy Thursday
Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15
The story of Holy Thursday begins long before the Last Supper.
It begins in Egypt.
A night of fear. A night of waiting.
Israel prepares a meal.
A lamb is killed.
Its blood marks the doorposts. Its flesh is eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
That night the people are set free.
Passover becomes the memory of liberation.
Freedom from slavery. A journey toward life.
But hidden inside that ancient feast is another promise—
a deeper liberation still to come.
Many centuries later another Passover night arrives.
Jesus sits at table with his disciples.
Bread is taken.
Wine is poured.
And Jesus speaks words no one had ever heard before:
“This is my body.”
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood.”
The lamb of the old Passover pointed toward this moment.
Now the Lamb of God offers himself.
A new covenant begins.
Not written on stone, but written in human hearts.
Then something unexpected happens.
Jesus stands up from the table.
He takes a basin of water and a towel.
One by one he kneels before his disciples.
And he washes their feet.
This was the work of slaves.
Yet the Master kneels.
Peter cannot understand it.
“Lord, you will never wash my feet.”
Peter loves Jesus.
But he does not yet understand the way of Jesus.
Because the love of Christ does not remain above others.
It bends down.
It kneels.
It serves.
This moment reveals the heart of the Gospel.
The Son of God became a servant.
He left the Father to live among us.
And now he is walking toward the cross.
The basin of water already points to it.
Soon another flow will come—
not water,
but blood.
The blood that cleanses hearts and brings life.
Yet even at this table not everyone receives that love.
Judas has already chosen his path.
He will leave the room and betray his Master.
Christ’s love is rejected.
Peter, on the other hand, does not reject it—
but he does not yet understand it.
Love can be refused. Love can be misunderstood.
But love continues its path.
At the end Jesus says only this:
“I have given you an example.”
What he has done must now be lived.
The Eucharist is not only a gift.
It is a calling.
To carry one another’s burdens.
To serve one another.
To love as Christ has loved.
And so the question remains.
“How shall I repay the Lord for all the good he has done?”
The answer begins at the table of the Eucharist—
where we lift the cup of salvation.
And it continues in every act of love
where we kneel to wash one another’s feet.
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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