04/02/2026
It's Thursday in Holy Week. A lot is going to happen on this day. Please click the bottom to ponder more and join us this evening at Peace for Maundy Thursday service at 6 pm with Holy Communion (The Last Supper).
Rejoin us for a Good Friday Tenebrae service at 6 pm - a service of shadows and darkness, and the seven last words of Christ.
Thursday is where everything slows down and somehow gets heavier at the same time. The noise of the crowds fades out and you are left with a room, a table, and Jesus sitting with the people He loves, fully aware that within hours everything is about to fall apart. And the wild part is that He knows exactly how each person in that room is going to play a role in that falling apart, and He stays anyway.
The disciples, on the other hand, are not tracking the moment. They are still doing very human things, like arguing about who is the greatest, which feels almost painfully relatable. Jesus is carrying the weight of what is coming, and they are essentially comparing spiritual résumés. And instead of correcting them with a lecture or putting them in their place, He gets up, grabs a towel, and kneels down.
He starts washing their feet.
This was not a symbolic, slightly uncomfortable but still respectable task. This was the job nobody wanted. Dust, dirt, everything they had walked through all day, and Jesus is the One doing it. The One they call Lord is kneeling in front of them, washing the feet of men who are about to fail Him in just about every possible way.
And He does not skip Judas.
That part should stop us in our tracks. Jesus knows exactly what Judas is about to do. He knows the betrayal is already in motion. He knows the kiss is coming. And He still kneels down in front of him and washes his feet like he belongs there. No cold shoulder, no calling him out in front of everyone, no distancing Himself to protect His own heart. Just quiet, intentional love given to someone who is about to hand Him over.
At the same table sits Peter, full of bold promises and absolute confidence in himself. He is ready to declare loyalty no matter what happens, the kind of statement that sounds strong and admirable until you realize it is about to fall apart before morning. Jesus knows that too. He knows Peter is going to deny Him, not once, but three times, and still He does not push him away. He tells him the truth, but He keeps him close.
That is Thursday in a sentence. Jesus fully sees what is in people and He loves them anyway.
They share a meal together and Jesus begins to talk about things the disciples do not fully understand yet. He breaks bread and tells them it is His body. He passes the cup and tells them it is His blood. He is explaining what is about to happen, but it sounds different than what they expected. It does not sound like defeat. It sounds like something being given on purpose.
After the meal, they go to the garden, and this is where the weight of it all becomes undeniable. Jesus is not distant or detached from what is coming. He is praying with an intensity that shows exactly how real this is. He asks His closest friends to stay awake with Him, just to be there, just to not leave Him alone in this moment.
And they fall asleep.
Not because they do not care, but because they are human. Because they are tired. Because they do not fully understand what is happening. And honestly, that part might be one of the most relatable pieces of the whole story. Wanting to be there, wanting to do the right thing, and still missing it.
Thursday is not just about betrayal, even though that is coming. It is about the uncomfortable truth that we see ourselves in every person in that story. We want to be the faithful ones, the steady ones, the ones who would never walk away. But if we are honest, we have moments that look a lot like Peter, saying the right things and then folding under pressure. We have moments that look like the disciples in the garden, meaning well but not showing up the way we should. And if we are really honest, we all have parts of us that choose something else over Jesus at times.
And Jesus knows.
He knows every bit of that, every weakness, every failure, every moment we are going to get it wrong. And He still sits at the table. He still washes the feet. He still goes to the garden. He still moves forward toward the cross.
Thursday is the day that proves His love was never based on us getting it right.
It was always based on Him choosing to stay.
And if you sit with that long enough, it changes how you see everything.
