Maunday Thursday Service

INTRODUCTION

Maundy Thursday is one of the most significant events in the Christian calendar. This day commemorates the Last Supper, when Jesus shared a final meal with his disciples before his crucifixion.

The name Maundy Thursday is derived from the Latin word "mandatum," which means "commandment," referring to Jesus' mandate to his followers to love one another.

The celebration of Maundy Thursday has its roots in the tradition of Passover. The Last Supper was a Passover meal, and during the meal, Jesus instituted the sacrament of Holy Communion, where he broke bread and shared a cup of wine with his disciples, instructing them to do the same in remembrance of him.

Most Maundy Thursday services include the washing of feet. We opted against that but I do want to emphasis the words of Jesus that for his disciples, those who would be greatest in the kingdom of God would be those who serve.

Thats’ one reason why the cross is at the center of the stage this evening. In the Christian life, it’s not about the best speaker, the best singer, the most important leadership position, or anything like that.

It’s about Jesus and Jesus setting the model of wrapping a towel around his waist, washing his disciple’s feet and leading through serving.

We’ve also stripped everything else away from this service. There’s no guitar. No music. No sermon. Just us and Jesus and a choice to remember his death on the cross and what it means for us.

PRAYER

Video 1: The Garden

As Jesus lies prostrate on the ground, we overhear him praying “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will but what you will.” He is making this plea repeatedly. With his face to the ground, we can see sweat on his temples. He lifts his head, and his expression reveals an agony so intense that his sweat is “like great drops of blood falling to the ground.” His words tell us why:

“Remove this cup,” Jesus pleaded again. In this moment, there’s no doubt what is dominating his heart and mind. What is this cup? It is clearly a reference to the wrath of God for your sin and mine. If we knew the Scriptures as Jesus does- Scriptures that no doubt have been much on his mind in these hours- we couldn’t escape this reference. Isaiah 51:7 shows us this cup in God’s extended hand- it’s the “cup of his wrath,” and for those who drink from it, it is “the cup of staggering.” This cup contains the full vigor and fierceness of God’s holy wrath poured out against all sin, and we discover in Scripture that it's intended for all of sinful humanity to drink. It is your cup… and mine.

Prayer - Confession

For our first time of prayer I’d like us to imagine ourselves there in the Garden of Gethsemane with the Lord Jesus. He came to them and asked them to pray alongside of him. The reason is because God was about to do something spectacular over the next several days and any time God is about to do something spectacular the enemy is going to try and thwart it.

Imagine the spiritual and emotional turmoil Jesus was going through. Imagine what the attacks of Satan might’ve seemed like in that hour. What he needed and wanted from his disciples was to persist with him in prayer.

And so let us ask the Lord to give us both a willing spirit and a flesh that is strong enough to prevail in prayer as he accomplishes his will in our life and our church. Pray for our time together tonight and pray for what God wants to accomplish in our Easter Service on Sunday.

Video 2: The Betrayal

It was the middle of a spring night, and it was probably cloudless because John mentions that it was cold. The ancient olive trees cast eerie shadows across the encampment. Beyond the ravine lay the scattered lights of Jerusalem, where Judas had earlier made his rendezvous with the Roman cohort of six hundred men from the tower of Antonia.

The soldiers of the cohort were fully armed, each carrying a short sword. With them came the temple guards with their clubs. Jews and Gentiles were for once united in a common cause. They had carefully chosen the time and place. They wanted to arrest Jesus away from the people, so there would be no riot, but they were prepared for the worst. The sight must have been terrifying as the long line, punctuated by the flickering of torches, wound down from the dark, high walls of the Holy City, across the Kidron, and up the slopes of Olivet towards the garden. No doubt, Judas was in the lead. In a few minutes he would, as Mark says, fervently kiss the Master as a sign of betrayal.

Prayer: Lament

We’re now going to pray a prayer of lament.

A prayer of lament is a type of prayer that is found in Christianity and is often used in times of grief, pain, and suffering.

It is a prayer that expresses deep sorrow, anguish, and despair in response to the difficult circumstances of life.

Certainly in watching the unjust arrest and betrayal of Jesus there are feelings of grief, sorrow and despair that might fill our hearts. Jesus invites us to express those feelings in prayer through Lament.

There are many examples of lament in the Psalms and the Prophets. They were sung by the people of God in the worship services. It’s okay for us to express deep sorrow and despair even in our corporate gatherings. We live in a broken world. We suffer from brokenness in our lives.

These psalms often follow a pattern of complaint, petition, and praise, where the psalmist expresses their grief and pain, asks for God's help, and then offers praise and trust in God's faithfulness.

The prophets also used lament as a way to express their grief and pain at the state of the nation of Israel.

They often lamented the sins of the people

and the judgment that was coming as a result.

They also expressed their hope in God's mercy and restoration.

Jesus used prayers of lament in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before his arrest and crucifixion.

He expresses his deep sorrow and anguish at the coming events.

He asks God to take the cup of suffering from him.

Yet, he ultimately submits to God's will, saying, "not my will, but yours be done."

Tonight, I’d like to invite each of us to turn to the Lord in lament. Express to God your grief, your pain and your suffering.

It’s a way to express our deepest emotions and struggles to God, to cry out to him in our distress, and to trust in his faithfulness and love.

Let us be reminded that we are not alone in our suffering and that God is present with us in our pain. Bring before the Lord your sorrows, questions, doubts and fears.

For yourself, your family, our church and our nation let us seek God’s deliverance and express our hope in his faithfulness.

PRAYER

Lamentations 3:15–26 ESV

15 He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood. 16 He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; 17 my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; 18 so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.” 19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! 20 My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. 21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” 25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. 26 It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

Video 3: The Secret Trial

How different Jesus’ response at his trials and crucifixion is from ordinary human nature. Even when we have done something wrong and know we are wrong, still the first words that tend to form in our mouths are words of excuse and self-defense.

And what about when we are rightly blamed for being wrong? Most of us would be quick to speak up and protest our innocence. It’s human nature to want to speak up and justify ourselves. But Jesus met his accusers with silence, even as the prophet Isaiah wrote seven hundred years before the fact.

Isaiah 53:7 says, “He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shears is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”

How does a lamb respond to its executioner? With meekness and submission. Here is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ who was and is absolutely sinless, being unjustly accused and yet offering no defense or excuse whatsoever. There was no protest from his lips as he was slandered, and he made no effort to avoid the false accusations and the cross that would follow.

Prayer: Listening

Our next posture of prayer is listening prayer. As the Pharisee said in the video we must listen before we judge.

They were not able to hear what they really needed to hear and neither do we because of the noise and obstacles in our life.

Our God is personal and he desires to commune with us and speak to us. He does this through his Word. He does this through other people. He can speak to us in our circumstances. And, at times, he can speak to us in prayer.

So for the next few minutes we’re just going to sit in silence and listen for the voice of God to speak to us and address us while we wait on him to speak.

Listening prayer requires a quiet and receptive space where we can tune into God’s voice and listen for his guidance. You might want to read a passage of Scripture or meditate on a particular truth to begin. Then wait and listen.

Perhaps you’d like to begin by asking a question or seeking a certain answer/direction. Then just wait for God to speak or point your mind towards his truth.

PRAYER

Listening prayer is not just about hearing God's voice, but also about responding to what we hear. This may involve making changes in our lives, following a new direction, or simply trusting in God's plan for us.

It requires faith, trust, and a willingness to be obedient to God's will, even when it may not be what we expect or desire.

Lord we ask you to help us not only be hearers of your word. But doers as well.

Video 4: The Road

The catalog of all the pains endured by our Lord’s body is indeed a fearful one: seldom has such suffering been inflicted on one body in the last few hours of a life. The most savage tribes, in their refinement of cruelty, could hardly have heaped more agonizing tortures on an enemy than were heaped on the flesh and bones of our beloved Lord.

Never let it be forgotten that he had a real human body, a body exactly like our own, just as sensitive, just a vulnerable, just as capable of feeling intense pain.

Our Lord, we must remember, had already passed a night without sleep, and endured excessive fatigue. He had been taken from Gethsemane to the Sanhedrin, and from the Sanhedrin to Pilate’s judgement hall. He had been put on trial twice and unjustly condemned twice. He had already been flogged and beaten with sticks. And now, after all this suffering, was handed over to the Roman soldiers.

They gathered the whole company around him and stripped him and put in mockery a scarlet robe on him. They twisted tougher a crown of thorns for his head, spat on him and struck him on this head again and again, and finally led him out of the city to a place called Golgotha to be crucified.

Prayer: Congregational Prayer/ Responsive Reading

Isaiah 53:1-12 | Responsive Reading

1 Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 He grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He didn’t have an impressive form or majesty that we should look at him, no appearance that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; he was despised, and we didn’t value him. 4 Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds.

6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth. 8 He was taken away because of oppression and judgment, and who considered his fate? For he was cut off from the land of the living; he was struck because of my people’s rebellion. 9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, but he was with a rich man at his death, because he had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully.

10 Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him severely. When you make him a guilt offering, he will see his seed, he will prolong his days, and by his hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished.

11 After his anguish, he will see light and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will carry their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will give him the many as a portion, and he will receive the mighty as spoil, because he willingly submitted to death, and was counted among the rebels; yet he bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.

Congregational Prayer

Almighty everlasting God and Father, we acknowledge and confess that we indeed were conceived and born in sin and, therefore, inclined to all evil and slow to all good; that we unceasingly transgress your holy commandments, and corrupt ourselves more and more.

But we are sorry for this and desire your grace and help.

Therefore, have mercy upon us, most gracious and merciful God and Father, through your Son our Lord Jesus Christ.

Grant to us and increase in us your Holy Spirit, so that we may recognize our sin and unrighteousness from the depth of our heart, feel true contrition and grief for them, die to them completely, and please you wholly in a new, godly life.

Amen.

Martin Bucer

Video 5: The Cross

The person crucified was laid on his back on a piece of timber. A cross pieces was nailed to it near one end- or on the trunk of a tree with branching arms which answered the same purpose: His hands were spread out on the cross-piece, and nails driven through each of them, fastening them to the wood. His feet in a like manner, were nailed to the upright part of the cross.

Then, the body having been securely fastened, the cross was raised up and fixed firmly in the ground. And there hung the unhappy sufferer, till pain and exhaustion brought him to his end- never dying suddenly, for no vital part of him was injured; but but enduring the most excruciation agony from his hands and feet, and unable to move. Such was the death on the cross.

Such was the death Jesus died for us! Six long hours he hung there before a gazing crowd, naked and bleeding from head to foot- his head pierced with thorns, his back lacerated with the flogging, his hands and feet torn with nails, and mocked and reviled by his cruel enemies to the very last. This was the death that Jesus died for you and me.

Prayer: Written Confession;

1 John 1:5–10 ESV

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

1 John 2:1–2 ESV

1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

1 Corinthians 11:27–29 ESV

27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.

Video 6: The Lord’s Supper

The last part of our Maunday Thursday service is taking the Lord’s Supper.

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 ESV

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Luke 22:14–20 ESV

14 And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. 15 And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. 18 For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.