“Holy Week, 2020.” Those words sound pretty strange, don’t they?  The pandemic makes it hard to think of anything that is “holy” about this week.  For the first time in memory – maybe even for the first time since the [re] formation of Israel in 1948, there were no re-enactments in Jerusalem of the Triumphal Entry.  There will be no large gatherings of Christians this week anywhere in Israel, or Rome, or anywhere, to re-enact the Via Dolorosa [“The Way of Suffering”] - the path that Jesus walked to Calvary.  Church doors are locked all over the world.  We have even had to delay for a year a Maundy Thursday service that Martha Swint had suggested we consider doing at Tammany Oaks.  

What in the world is “Maundy Thursday”?  I had to look it up.  The word “Maundy” is apparently an Anglo-French word that derived from the Latin word “mandatum”, which means “commandment”.  The idea is that during the Last Supper on Thursday of Holy Week, Jesus told His disciples: “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another” – John 13:34.

Perhaps you’re thinking that this doesn’t really sound like a “new” commandment.  In fact, doesn’t this sound a whole lot like what Jesus had earlier said was the second greatest commandment in the ancient Law of Moses – that we love our neighbor as we love ourselves – Matthew 22:39?

Yes, it does.  But what makes the Maundy Thursday commandment a “new” commandment is that Jesus ratchets up the level of how we are to love one another.  Now, we are no longer restricted to loving other people to the extent that we love ourselves.  Now, Jesus commands us to love one another “in the same way” that He loves us – John 13:34.  What does that mean?  Well, just for starters, take a look at a hymn sung by the early church that describes this kind of love; the words to the first part of this hymn are found in Philippians 2:6-8[ISV]:

“In God’s own form existed he,

And shared with God equality

Deemed nothing needed grasping.

Instead poured out in emptiness,

A servant’s form did he possess,

A mortal man becoming.

In human form he chose to be,

And lived in all humility,

Death on a cross obeying.”

I don’t know about you – perhaps it’s only me – but I’ve pretty much been a failure even at loving people as much as I love myself.  I can neither confirm nor deny this, but it is within the realm of possibility that I do not love my wife or my child as much as I love myself, much less people I hardly know, much less people I don’t know, much less people who disagree with me, much less people who are my enemies.  So, do I have to tell you that this “new” commandment exceeds my ability?  If I have trouble loving people as much as I love myself, how am I supposed to love people in the amazingly humble and self-sacrificing way that Jesus loves us?  I mean, every time I insist on getting my way, I’ve blown it; every time I react in anger towards someone, I’ve blown it; every time I think that someone is less worthy than me, I’ve blown it.

There’s a good chance the “new” commandment level of love exceeds your ability too.  This is why love is the first and foremost fruit of The Holy Spirit – Galatians 5:22.  We can’t, but through the power of The Spirit, we can.

What does this look like?  That’s a good question.  But you’ve seen it all around.  Aren’t you thankful that TOCC is full of people who, through the power of The Holy Spirit, are living, breathing, walking, talking examples of living out the “new” commandment of love?  And, because of them, and because of people like them all over the world, this week will be – even through the horrors of a world-wide pandemic – a Holy Week.  

Ambrose K. Ramsey
Shepherd