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My childhood was filled with special church events and services. We moved a lot, and consequently were involved with a variety of denominations, each with their own take on Christmas and Easter. I remember at one of those churches we gathered for something called “Maundy Thursday”. There were hymns, prayer, and communion. No one ever explained to me what “Maundy” was, and it remained a mystery even after we no longer attended that church. To this day I have not been at another Maundy Thursday service.
Today I know that “Maundy” comes from the Greek word mandatum which means "command”. John 13 tells us that when Jesus gathered with His inner circle to celebrate what was to be their last meal together, He introduced them to a new command—Mandatum (command), Novum (new). Because this happened on Thursday, the 14th day of Nisan, the observance of this event is now referred to as “Maundy Thursday”.
In John 12 Jesus is dining at a friend’s house. Lazarus, Martha, and Mary are in attendance. At one point in the evening Mary approaches Jesus carrying a decanter of expensive perfume. Going against all social norms she breaks it, spilling the luxurious contents over His feet, and then proceeds to take her hair down and wipe His feet with her hair. Scandalous? You bet! She places all she has, including her reputation, at His feet.
Does Jesus chastise her? No. Rather, He accepts her attempt to honor Him with her humble and selfless gift and chides those in the room that would criticize her action:“Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me” (John 12:7-8, ESV).
A few days after the event with Mary, Jesus is in a room with His disciples preparing to observe the last divinely-ordained Passover. Traditionally, when guests were invited to a meal the host would provide someone to wash the feet of his guests. Typically this was someone of the lowest class of servants: a gentile slave. As the disciples gathered and reclined at the table, no one volunteered for the dirty, smelly job that would have surely pointed to them as inferior to the others, an already hotly debated topic.
And so, setting aside His garment, Jesus wrapped the servant’s towel around His waist and proceeded to wash the feet of each His friends including the betrayer Judas. In a moment, theoretically, He had exchanged His kingly garb for the uniform of a servant. The apostle Paul captures this concept in Philippians 2:6-7 (ESV): though he (Jesus) was in the form of God, (he) did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
John 13 tells us that Jesus knew who He was, what His place and purpose were, and that He had full assurance of His return to the Father. Therefore, perhaps with Mary’s recent example in mind and in direct response to the disciples squabbling, He asked the following question of them: “For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves” (Luke 22:27, ESV).
In this rare declaration of the character of the Father, Jesus became the perfect manifestation of God. “The form of God was not exchanged for the form of a servant, it was revealed in the form of a servant.” (F.F. Bruce, The Gospel of John).
The foot washing by Jesus was in direct contrast to the self-seeking disciples and the current cultural and social boundaries of that time.
When Jesus gets to Peter’s feet, Peter, sensing a role reversal and finding the whole idea unthinkable, objects. As Warren Wiersbe (The Wiersbe Bible Commentary NT) interprets: “Lord, is such a one as You going to wash the feet of such a one as I?”
In addressing Peter’s reaction Jesus corrected a misunderstanding of His mission. He was not coming as a conquering King, but rather as a suffering servant: “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45, ESV).
“The foot washing illumines the underlying motivation for the cross: God’s sacrificial love for the people He has made.” (Andreas Kostenberger, The Final Days of Jesus). Jesus, ever confident in what He knew about the Father and Himself, showed that by serving others we glorify God and experience joy.
That night in the upper room, hours before His betrayal, He broke bread, shared the cup, and told of a new covenant: 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.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:19-20, ESV).
And He gave them a new command: “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” (John 13:34, ESV).
Today, Maundy Thursday is an opportunity to reflect on that last evening Jesus had with His disciples when He ushered in not only a new command but a whole new paradigm—something new, better, and eternal.
“We should ask ourselves from time to time, ‘Whose feet am I washing?’” Frances Schaeffer, No Little People, 1974, p.69.
Nanette Smith
A transplanted Texan, Nanette Smith spent most of her life in western Pennsylvania where she and her husband Tom raised their 6 children. When not homeschooling her children or helping her husband run his construction business, Nanette volunteered with Samaritan’s purse, crisis pregnancy centers, and served as Women’s Ministry Director. In 2013 God moved Nanette and her family to Texas and she attended her first Womenary class in 2016. Currently Nanette works as the Missions Coordinator at Mobberly Baptist Church in Longview, TX. When not working or playing with one of her 11 grandchildren, Nanette enjoys reading, writing, photography and baking. 
