Maundy Thursday is named from the Latin mandatum movarum (“a new commandment” as expressed in John 13:34). A primary meaning of this service is to celebrate the giving of the new commandment to love one another, a commandment given in the context of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. When we celebrate this service, the covenant between God and ourselves is renewed and we are called to remember his death and resurrection.
After the Passover meal, Jesus went with his disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. Beneath the olive trees of the Kidron Valley, he could see the heavy weight of rejection that awaited him and the beams of the cross that would crush him. Here, in a garden, he would find his closest friends sleeping as he struggled, prayed and cried to his Father. Here, he would feel the kiss of betrayal and hear the rushing sounds of abandonment as his disciples scattered into the night. From the Garden, Jesus will enter Jerusalem for the final time.
