Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Looking into the lectionary and resources for Holy Week

We are grateful to pastor John Wurster for providing these guest lectionary reflections for Holy Week.
Maundy Thursday
April 1, 2021
John 13:1-17
Time in this pandemic year has been weird and indefinite. Days run together, and weeks pile up amorphously. In contrast, Maundy Thursday is a distinctive day of decision-making. Maundy Thursday is the point in the gospel story when all the cards are on the table and the stakes are high. The air is filled with tough questions that demand a response: Stay or go? Fight or flee? Commit or deny? Love or betray? It is a day of high, gripping drama. The future for Jesus and his band of followers looks difficult, ominous. The hardest part of the road is still ahead. It’s not possible to turn back.

In telling the story of this momentous day, John keeps before us all that Jesus knows. Jesus knows that his hour has come. Jesus knows the end is near. Jesus knows that one of his own followers will betray him. Jesus knows that one of his own followers will deny even being with him. Jesus knows that suffering and death lie before him. Jesus knows there is not much time left. 

The hours that remain have to be used carefully. Nothing can be wasted. There are not many opportunities that remain. Jesus knows tomorrow he will die. Jesus knows this is the last time that they will all be together. They have shared many things. They have known days of joy and possibility. They have glimpsed the glory of God through Jesus’ words and his deeds. He has taught them and prayed for them and loved them. Jesus knows that he will love them to the end. In spite of the betrayals and the denials that he knows are soon coming, Jesus will love them to the end. Jesus knows that that end is near.

So, what does he do in these final moments? As the time slips away and his death draws closer, what is the last act for Jesus with this small band of followers? He takes a towel and fills a basin and kneels before them to wash their feet. Jesus knows that his hour has come. He knows that soon he will be arrested and tried and beaten and executed. But in the face of all those things, when he could flee or hide or organize resistance, Jesus takes a towel and fills a basin and washes his disciples’ feet. Leaving them – leaving us – with this unmistakable sign of what it means to be human and how it is we are to live as God’s people in this world. 

There are any number of things that Jesus could do in those final moments, but Jesus knows that this humble act is what matters most. Jesus knows that he must teach this last lesson. Jesus knows that we must learn it. “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord — and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them” (John 13:12-17).
Unlike Jesus, none of us knows when the hour will come for us. There is time left. We don’t know how much, but there is time left. Time to live, time to love, time to learn, time to worship, time to speak words that matter, time to acts in ways that count, time to respond to the One who will not stop loving us, time to serve others even as we have been served by Jesus Christ. 

If we know these things, we are blessed if we do them.

Good Friday
April 2, 2021
John 18:1-19:42
The Passion of Jesus as told in John’s Gospel presents a host of characters playing seemingly small roles as the narrative sweeps them up into the grand story of salvation. 
Judas’ intimate knowledge about Jesus makes him a well-suited betrayer. Judas knows enough about Jesus to lead the soldiers to the place in the garden where he could be found that night. 
Loyalty or love energizes Peter to defend Jesus with a sword as he is arrested, but a few paragraphs later Peter won’t even admit to knowing who Jesus is. 

Annas and Caiaphas, the religious leaders, identify Jesus as one whose teaching has broken norms that must be protected. 

Pilate, the political leader, seeks to find a space between multiple constituencies, while preserving order. His perfunctory examination of Jesus takes a dramatic turn as Pilate gives voice to the deepest of questions: What is truth? While Pilate finds Jesus innocent, the crowd instead insists on the release of the guilty bandit Barabbas. When the mob is still not satisfied, Pilate eventually gives way to expedience, the desire for order taking priority over everything else, including justice, righteousness and truth. It’s the way empires are sustained. 

Through it all, Jesus remains in control, committed to the path set before him. He willingly gives himself up in the garden. He heals the soldier struck by Peter’s sword. He stands resolutely before Annas and Caiaphas, confidently responding to allegations. He defiantly engages an increasingly exasperated Pilate. When Pilate decides that sacrificing one person is a worthy exchange for a few moments of quiet, Jesus carries his own cross to Golgotha.

As he is lifted up, more characters present themselves. Bearing witness near the cross are his mother, his mother’s sister and Mary Magdalene. They look on with measures of sorrow and compassion. The beloved disciple is also there, standing beside Jesus’ mother. From the cross, still directing the action, Jesus graciously connects these two as a new family. Jesus then speaks necessary words of Scripture, “I am thirsty,” before bringing his life to an end with a final direction: “It is finished.”  

Joseph of Arimathea arrives to care for the body of Jesus. While he is described as a “secret disciple,” Joseph steps forward for this task when the more notable disciples have all slipped away in shame or fear. Joseph is accompanied by Nicodemus — whom we last saw in John 3, speaking with Jesus in the night. The death of Jesus pulls Joseph and Nicodemus from the hidden margins of faith for the holy work of preparing his body for burial and laying it in the fresh tomb.


We can ponder the reactions, responses, and motivations of the characters in these chapters from John’s Gospel, even as we measure our own lives since last Good Friday. We can notice the active betrayal, the fierce faith, the persistent denial, the wavering authorities, the quiet witness and the tender care that swirl in this story as Jesus nonetheless moves forward with his life’s purpose. As we hear these familiar words in this unfamiliar time, the text invites us to consider what we have done and what we have left undone, individually and collectively, in a year marked by all sorts of struggle, challenge and heartbreak. How has our faith been formed, strengthened, weakened? What’s been betrayed, denied, lost? Has anything been gained? What’s been kept secret, hidden? Amid our own reflections and confessions, as we again find our place within the Passion, Jesus is undeterred, continuing to move in our midst with bountiful mercy and boundless love, carrying us through the sorrow of Good Friday, while keeping before us the hope of Easter. 

JOHN WURSTER is pastor of St. Philip Presbyterian Church in Houston.


Jesus of Gethsemane,
You have washed our feet; now empower us to wash the feet of those we do not understand. You have fed us with spiritual food; now strengthen us to feed those we cannot love on our own. You allowed yourself to be crucified; now enable us to go with you.

God, In Our Church's Teaching
(free hymn after violence in Atlanta)
Family lesson and activity
for Maundy Thursday
for Good Friday, based on the Seven Last Words of Christ
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