Maundy Thursday: Gethsemane

As I enter this time of prayer, I repeat the words of Psalm 86:1–4, slowly, several times, making them my prayer to God:

‘Hear me, LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.

Guard my life, for I am faithful to you;

save your servant who trusts in you.

You are my God;

have mercy on me, Lord, for I call to you all day long.

Bring joy to your servant, Lord, for I put my trust in you.’

Pause and repeat

On Maundy Thursday, Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with His disciples, as described in Mark 14:22–26.

Pause to read the passage

These words must have haunted the disciples the following day as Jesus’ body was literally broken and His blood shed on the cross, and then again on the Saturday with His body barely cold in the tomb: ‘Lunch on that Sabbath, straight after synagogue, would have begun as it always did with a blessing spoken out—are you ready for this?— over the bread and wine that were to be served with the meal. If any of the eleven remaining disciples were capable of eating that day, the grace spoken before lunch on Holy Saturday would have stabbed their hearts with remembrance of that Last Supper shared with Jesus … When God is silent and our prayers are unanswered—when the Word of God is flavourless in our mouths—there can sometimes still be faint flickers of hope and meaning expressed to us and for us in Scripture, in fellowship, and in the bread and wine’*

I take a little time now to examine my life. In what ways am I broken physically, emotionally, or mentally?

Pause and reflect

I acknowledge this brokenness before the Lord, thanking Him for the promise of wholeness that rises from His broken body, and the forgiveness that flows from the blood that He shed on the cross.

Pause and pray

As I bring this time with God to a close, I pray a prayer of surrender from the Anglican Service of Communion:

‘Almighty God, we thank you for feeding us with the body and blood of your Son Jesus Christ. Through him we offer you our souls and bodies to be a living sacrifice. Send us out in the power of your Spirit to live and work to your praise and glory.’

Amen.

* Pete Greig, God on Mute, David C Cook, (Colorado Springs, 2020), p230