day five of my week long fast

Isaiah 53:1-6 NLT

        Who has believed our message
           and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
        He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
           and like a root out of dry ground.
        He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
           nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
        He was despised and rejected by men,
           a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
        Like one from whom men hide their faces
           he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
        Surely he took up our infirmities
           and carried our sorrows,
        yet we considered him stricken by God,
           smitten by him, and afflicted.
        But he was pierced for our transgressions,
           he was crushed for our iniquities;
        the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
           and by his wounds we are healed.
        We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
           each of us has turned to his own way;
        and the LORD has laid on him
           the iniquity of us all.

It is day five of my week long fast. We are moving towards the end of Jesus’ earthly life and the beginning of his kingdom.

This day is called Maundy Thursday. Sometimes it is also called Holy Thursday. Maundy comes from an old English word that comes from the Latin, mandatum or commandment. It was named after the comment Jesus gave in John 13 at the Last Supper. The new commandment superceded all the old commandments.

That new commandment is love.

Maundy Thursday is also a day in which foot-washing is traditionally done. Again following Jesus’ example.

But it is the last normal day of Jesus’ life. If you can call Jesus’ life normal.

But it is a full day. He celebrates the last Passover that will be sanctioned by God. There will be more held, but now the Passover and what it signified is gone. In a few days, Jesus will be our Passover.

In 1 Corinthians 5:7, the apostle Paul says: Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us.

Today he also sees a friend betray him. That is such an exquisite pain. It is heart-rending to see one that you trusted and loved turn on you for no real reason. It has happened to me and I suppose will happen again. One that ate at your table and accepted your love and hospitality can stab you in the back. And it hurts almost like that.

Jesus not only sees Judas betray him, but sees all his apostles, people he loved and trusted, turn on him.

About the only difference between them was that Judas got some money for it, while Peter and the others sold him out for a place at a communal fire.

Except for amount of return, there isn’t really any difference. Peter tried to fight first, at least, while Judas went out with a whimper.

But Jesus knew that would happen. And he loved them anyway. He kept the commandment.

1 John 3:16 says: We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.

There was real love: to sacrifice yourself for people who run away from you.

Father God, I ask you for strength to love people anyway. I ask you to give me my fire back and renew my passion. I praise you. Amen.