MAUNDY THURSDAY

MAUNDY THURSDAY 

We return to Mark's account today of the crucifixion of Jesus, preparing ourselves for Good Friday. This day is set aside in church history for remembrance and reflection on the Last Supper, the Passover.   We return to Jesus's story of His sacrificial death. 

Lord help us to perceive you in the shadows of our circumstances as we join you Jesus on this dark, difficult journey to Calvary. Give us faith to believe in your perfect plan for our lives and grace to receive new mercies today. Lord carry us through the darkness with you into the light of life and victory. 

"And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.”

Mark 15:33-36 (ESVUK)

On the cross dying, Jesus did not pray new words.  He was quoting from the Psalms, borrowing David's prayer written some 1500 years earlier. Jesus was quoting from Psalm 22:1,' My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'  However, scripture is careful to note that Jesus did not pray in the Hebrew language of David but in Aramaic. Jesus prayed in Aramaic which was the common language of the streets and schoolyard.  By praying in Aramaic Jesus was personalising the prayer. It was a language relevant to Him. Jesus was not being analytical in connecting the biblical dots, but crying out loudly to God across history, past, present, and future. The truth is Jesus is the connector of all the dots both biblically and in our lives. Therefore, just like Jesus we can adopt the same Psalms in our prayer and make it our personal prayer in our own language.

Jesus felt the agony of being forsaken by God and separated from Him.  Just like Jesus, we know that feeling all too well. If we are feeling forsaken and wondering where God is, then we can pray this prayer from the Psalms and God will answer.  We are not forgotten by God.  We can also rejoice in God's family today:

I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters.

    I will praise you among your assembled people.

For he has not ignored or belittled the suffering of the needy.

    He has not turned his back on them,

    but has listened to their cries for help. (Psalm 22:22,24, NLT)

In Mark's account of Christ's death on the cross, we see how his enemies abused him but God honored him in his death. Thick darkness covered the land (some think over the whole world) for three hours. Now the scripture was fulfilled as spoken by the prophet Amos:

“In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord,

“I will make the sun go down at noon

    and darken the earth in broad daylight. (Amos 8:9, NIV)

The Jews had demanded of Jesus a sign from heaven. Now they had one and it was such a sign that signified the blinding of their eyes; it was a sign of darkness that was come and coming on the Jewish church and nation.  They were doing their utmost to extinguish the Sun of righteousness who had come 'with healing in his wings' (Malachi 4:2, NLT).   The Sun was now setting and his rising again they would never own; and what might be expected among them but a worse than Egyptian darkness when they were held as slaves?  The things that belonged to their peace were now hidden from their eyes.  The day of the Lord was at hand and now they were under the power of darkness with the works of darkness they were doing.  They loved darkness rather than light.  Thus, this was a day of gloom and darkness.  But the Sun does rise!  Glory to God.

They that stood by Jesus as he hung on that cross poked fun at Jesus saying he was calling Elijah or Elias because Jesus had cried out Eloi, Eloi.  According to the Syrian dialect, they knew very well what he said, 'My God My God, why have you forsaken me?'  Therefore, they misrepresent Him as praying to the saints as someone who had abandoned God or God had abandoned him.  The twisted truth again about Jesus.  So they offer him a sponge with vinegar on it to cool his mouth which was even more of an affront and abuse and thus they added to His reproach.

Dear God this day I reflect on Jesus' words from the cross and I invite you to bring to mind the places in my life where I feel forgotten by you.  Show me those places of painfully felt absence, that you might fill them with your comforting presence.  Yes, Holy Spirit is the comforter.  Come now Holy Spirit to those painful places right now and bind our wounds.

Now, Father, I bring to mind someone in my life who feels forgotten by You at the moment -someone waiting on a prayer, someone grieving or alone, someone in the midst of suffering.  I pray Jesus that you would meet them right where they are at today, and they'd know they are not forgotten, they are not alone.

As I return to the passage I reflect again on Jesus' cry on the cross as he prayed Psalm 22.  Everyone in the majority, the Jewish crowd would have recited this prayer from childhood.  They all knew it by heart.  Jesus prayed verse 1 as a shortened way of referencing the whole prayer - a prayer that opens up in turmoil and isolation but ends in exultation, 'For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him

but has listened to his cry for help.' (Psalm 22:24, NIVUK).  God hears His agonising prayer and by praying this Psalm, Jesus was pointing ahead and indicating that His experience of God's absence was not the last word.  Hallelujah!

Dear Jesus, in my own suffering this day, I take up Your faith as I carry my own cross and agree that, with God, suffering, loneliness, isolation, and chaos never have the last word.  Suffering is sufferable because I know that the great story, and my story within it, does not end in pain but in joy, not in isolation but in communion.

And now as I close in prayer, the Blessed Lord who loves me does not despise my suffering or ignore my cry for help.  Wipe away my tears within as you have promised in Revelation.  

"And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling-place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death” or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’ (Revelation 21:3-4, NIVUK)

God is never absent.

The old order has passed the new one has come.

In His presence, there is joy and peace.  Draw me after you Lord Jesus until my mourning turns to joy on this Maundy Thursday.  I am blessed by Jesus forever.  Amen.

Shalom

Sharon