Break Our Hearts! Practicing Compassion Together. Sample

Today we will read about Maundy Thursday.

It is the day set aside to commemorate Jesus’ inauguration of communion during the last supper as well as the washing of the disciple's feet.

This was the last day Jesus had with his disciples before he was brutally executed on a Roman cross. He spent part of that day on his knees washing his disciples’ feet. When explaining to his disciples what this meant, he told them, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you” (John 13:14-15). Later in this same chapter, Jesus tells his disciples, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). The word “Maundy” is a word that comes from the Latin word for command which is a reference to this command to love one another.

As Christians we are called, or I should say commanded, to love and serve one another as Christ loved and served us. This is what it means to follow Jesus: It means humbling yourself, it means putting the needs of others before your own, it means serving people who don’t deserve to be served, and it means loving people when it’s hard. Don’t think your salvation is achieved by doing any of these things, you are justified not because of what you have done but by what Christ has done for you. Yet, as you follow Christ, allow him through the power of the Holy Spirit to transform you into the sort of person who can love and serve like him.

Today’s Prayer of Illumination:

God, source of all light, by your Word you give light to the soul. Pour out on me the spirit of wisdom and understanding that my heart and mind may be opened. Lord Jesus, as I follow you today, help me practice compassion, break my heart for what breaks yours. Amen