Easter and Good Friday are approaching. (Aren't they always?) And this is the highest day of the Christian calendar. That is if you observe one day as greater than another. Christmas is pretty big, but then lots of people have been born. Most anyway. But NEVER has anyone raised from the dead and received an eternal body that will never die, decay, see corruption, be hungry again, or desire to go to a NASCAR race. Jesus proved His Divinity, Lordship, and being The Best Ever by doing this.
Birth was the first time in history God took on flesh, being born of a woman, which is a big deal. But Resurrection enables our Salvation to occur. His death, also a BIG DEAL, purchased our redemption by the sacrifice of His life, which is seen in the shedding of His blood. But as the old song says,
"Living He loved me, Dying He saved me, buried He carried my sins far away.
Rising He JUSTIFIED, FREELY, FOREVER. Someday He's Coming, oh glorious day."
Besides the oncoming of Good Friday and Easter-or as I prefer to call it: RESURRECTION DAY; another day coming is Maundy Thursday. What is that?
Some of you already know, but us baptists kinda blew off special days that were so described by the papists. Sometimes it was a 'baby with the bathwater' thing.
Often passages of scripture became known by their opening words in Latin. The Magnificat is from Mary's "My soul does magnify the Lord." etc.
So in the last days of Jesus' earthly life he told the disciples in the upper room of the passover supper; "A New Commandment I give to you, that you love one another even as I have loved you." Those words "New Commandment" are Mandatum Novum" in Latin. The word Mandatum was shortened to Maunday, or Maundy, and the day before Good Friday, which was ostensibly the day of the week Christ said this, became the day to remember His NEW COMMANDMENT. Hence, Maundy Thursday.
But WHY is it NEW? The Law already commands us to love our neighbors. Jesus already illustrated who our neighbor is. Notice though the last phrase, "As I have loved you." Jesus' love is a DIVINE love. It is perfect. It issues from the Trinity as the glue of the universe. That which displays the unity of the Godhead. Notice I didn't say it unifies the Godhead. They are already one, that is what binds them together; They are a He. But the love for each other is the reflection of the Divine as surely as Christ reflected the Father.
So this New Commandment commands a new level of love. It is divine, it is unifying, it is perfect, and it can only be got at through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Only through Christ can we access the Father and all that is the Trinity.
This Maundy Thursday, remember to love others with divine Love, on the eve of Jesus displaying the divine love-for us all-on the cross.
I love you with the Love of the Lord....
Clark
Friday, November 8, 2024
17 hours ago