“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)
The start of tour events is traditionally today, Thursday. Excitement welcomes each new tournament and anticipation sets up what is to come during the following three days. Winners remain unknown on Thursday, but we often get a hint on that first day’s play.
In our spiritual lives with Christ, today is such a day. Let’s rewind 2,000 years and remember a significant part of Holy Week, leading up to Easter, Maundy Thursday.
I know of no more influential Thursday than Maundy Thursday or, as it is called by some denominations, Holy Thursday. “Maundy” comes from the Latin word mandatium, which means command. During the Last Supper, Jesus gave the disciples a new command; it sounded like an old command, but it actually was new. Jesus commanded the disciples to love one another as he loved them. Jesus’ love was on another level and had never been exemplified before making it a new command. Here was a new kind of love that only a righteous and holy God could demonstrate: perfect love.
It is not a request or a suggestion; it is a command to love one another. By this love we will be known.Never had God taken on human flesh in such a way until Jesus entered the scene in Bethlehem. This is paramount! Throughout the Old Testament we see theophanies, visible manifestations of human form of God, like God speaking to Moses through the burning bush or the pillar of cloud in Exodus, but Jesus takes on the whole human experience from birth to life to death and back to life.
On Maundy Thursday, the day before his crucifixion, Jesus washed his disciples’ feet and broke bread with them. Jesus personified humility and servanthood. He not only spoke the truth but lived it out, even when this truth meant death. Here are his words in Mark 10:45: “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Jesus gave the world what it truly needed—a spotless, sinless Savior who lived the life we couldn’t and paid the price we deserved, so that we could be made right with the heavenly Father. Jesus loved us and gave his life up for us. Hallelujah!
I pray that today we spend time praising God for sending Jesus into this world, thanking God for our perfect loving example and Savior, Jesus. May we be like Christ and in humility put others needs above our own. It is not a request or a suggestion; it is a command to love one another. By this love we will be known. It is the kind of love that we do not have the strength for on our own and, unless we receive the love God freely gives us, we cannot share. Lord, open our hearts and minds to receive your love and to share it with others.
—
Aimee Neff
April 18, 2019
Copyright 2019 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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