What happened on Thursday is amazing.

Steve Brown:
What happened on Thursday is amazing. Let’s talk about it, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
God’s grace changes everything, how we love, work, live, lead, marry, parent, evangelize, purchase and worship. This is Key Life with practical Bible teaching to get you home with radical freedom, infectious joy, and surprising faithfulness.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Justin Holcomb and I are sitting around in the studio and we’re spending this week, Holy Week talking about the events of that week, what happened on each of the days, and we’re doing it in a sort of devotional way for us and for you. And it’s Thursday. And we’re going to be talking about Eucharist, The Lord’s Supper, The Last Supper. But something happened there that was incredible. And I’m going to read it from John, it’s at the 31st verse to the end of the chapter, the 13th chapter, where John writes as follows.

When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and in him God is glorified. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where you going?” And Jesus answered, “Where I’m going you cannot follow me now, but you shall follow afterward.” Peter said to him, “Lord, why cannot I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” and Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly. I say to you, the cock will not crow till you have denied me three times.”

Ooh, let’s go to something else. I don’t even want to talk about this thing.

Justin Holcomb: Let’s talk about foot-washing or something.

Steve Brown:
That’s right. Well, they just, they just had dinner together and it’s a Passover dinner. And Jesus changed the ritual in the middle of it, so something big was happening just before what I just read.

Justin Holcomb: What did he change? So what was going on there?

Steve Brown:
I don’t know. Listen, you’re the scholar.

Justin Holcomb: Okay. So, so it’s a Passover meal and they’re celebrating, they’re celebrating God’s deliverance from bondage. Do this in remembrance of my faithfulness. Not, not you, not your faithfulness to me, but my faithfulness to you.

Steve Brown:
Yeah.

Justin Holcomb: And here’s some cups of wine and here’s some bread. And then Jesus says, oh, this is really about me. This is, this is the body of the covenant. This is the blood of the cup. So Jesus is basically saying all of that deliverance, redemption language from Passover, I’m the fulfillment of them.

Steve Brown:
I’m the lamb.

Justin Holcomb: He’s the lamb that was the slain.

Steve Brown:
The lamb was a part of the Passover. And I, and it’s me. That is so cool. And it’ll blow you away when you see it.

Justin Holcomb: And he’s saying who he is, he saying what, he is the Redeemer from bondage. And then what does he do? Right after that, he says, you know, he knows who he is. All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. And I, he knows where he’s going. So he has his authority. He knows who he is and he knows his destiny. He knows he’s going to a cross and he’s going to rise again. And so what does he do? He washes their feet. So this is why some churches have, this is called Maundy Thursday, in some churches. And, not Monday Thursday, but Maundy come from the Latin, mandatum, which means a command, but part of what we celebrate on Maundy Thursday is the institution of the Lord’s Supper. What you were talking about, the transformation of the ritual Passover to being about Jesus. This is why we do communion on a regular basis as Christians, also the foot washing is he’s the Lord, who’s the servant. And what does that look like for us? Something that stands out to me. I just want to highlight briefly in John, which you read. And we promised we’d talked about this back on Monday, about Son of Man. This is the second or third time he’s referred to himself as the Son of Man, just in the text we’ve been reading this week, but he says now is the Son of Man glorified. Son of Man was Jesus’ favorite self designation, title. It wasn’t Son of God, it wasn’t Messiah, it wasn’t Lord. It was Son of Man, which was the most intense, many people think Son of Man means that he’s, that’s emphasizing his humanity. That comes from Daniel 7 and Daniel 9. It’s him being the cosmic judge of the universe. There’s a reason people picked up stones, when he called himself Son of Man. He’s, he’s going around acting like he’s the, and so here he is, Son of Man. If you’re Peter and he comes out with Son of Man. And then the Son of Man, and you know what that means, is telling you, you’re going to deny me. That’s not a place you want to be at all. But the reason this is called Maundy Thursday with the mandate is because of that passage in verse 34.

A new command, (a new mandate, a new law) I give you, love one another as I have loved you. So you must love one another.

That sounds nice.

Steve Brown:
But it’s hard.

Justin Holcomb: That, that scares me. I mean, love one another, the way I have loved you, Steve ,Jesus laid his life down for me.

Steve Brown:
I know.

Justin Holcomb: And I’m supposed to do that for my enemy and other people, like how did, how do, what’s going on with this passage that people distort this to make it sound like a neat thing to put on a throw pillow or a bumper sticker as opposed to fall on their knees and repent? Like, do you talk about this passage?

Steve Brown:
Oh, it’s scary. And it’s hard. I mean, it really is. It’s not, we’re not very lovable people. And we, and Jesus knew that from the very beginning, you think you’ve got in enemies, you don’t have any idea of what Jesus knew about us. And then he said, and he said it later on in John in the 15th chapter.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And you’re my friends.

Justin, I don’t want to go to the cross for you. I love you. I mean, I would help you with your mortgage. I’d bring food, if you were hungry. If you’re in the hospital, I’d go. But I’m not going to die for you.

Justin Holcomb: If I went to jail, you would visit.

Steve Brown:
If you go to jail, I’d visit. If you killed somebody, I’d forgive you. And I’d help you bury the body. But this is, this is major and it is so good. And let me give you a principle.

You can’t love until you’ve been loved. And then you can only love to the degree to which you have been loved.

Justin Holcomb: Let’s unpack that. I mean, people need to hear that.

Steve Brown:
Well, that’s where it starts. I mean, we have been loved so unconditionally without reservation, no matter where we’ve been, what we’ve done or doing, who we’ve hurt, we were sleeping with, what we’re drinking or smoking, who we’ve hurt, the greed that’s been a part of us. He loves us.

Justin Holcomb: Even betrayal?

Steve Brown:
Betrayal, like Peter.

Justin Holcomb: To the Lord of the universe?

Steve Brown:
Peter found that out too. And once you get that, then you begin on a road of loving people who like you, have been loved.

Justin Holcomb: And if we’re not doing that, the other option is to hear this passage and go, I need to be more loving, I need to act more loving, I need to generate love. Like, that’s the thing, a command doesn’t have within it, the power to generate what it commands.

Steve Brown:
So good.

Justin Holcomb: So this commandment doesn’t make me able to love.

Steve Brown:
It just makes you guilty.

Justin Holcomb: It makes me guilty and it drives me to where I get love. I mean, so that principle is the principle that I’m banking on for parenting. Like my parents loved me well. If I’m a good parent, it’s cause my parents loved me well, and I know what unconditional love as a parent to a child looks like, which gives me some type of experience to love my children. And that’s what you’re saying is, be loved by God. And get some of that on ya and be a vessel through which the love of God goes to others. And you finally have a category, you have an experience of what love would look like to someone else.

Steve Brown:
And it’s the only way it works. It really does. You know, if you’re having trouble loving your brothers and sisters in Christ, much less Joe pagan and Jane cynic, If you’re having trouble, then read the Bible more or pray more and be a little bit more religious and go to church more and you’ll be able to… No, that’s going to make it worse. Just be still and let him love you. And when you have been loved sufficiently, you’ll be able to do what Jesus said we’re supposed to do.

Justin Holcomb: The image that comes to mind is you’re not telling hungry people, Hey, go, go feed yourself. You’re saying, be fed. And the picture of this is, we are starving beggars, who have been invited to a feast that we didn’t make, that we didn’t buy, that we didn’t cook. And all we’re being invited to do by this command, this new, this new mandate is enjoy the feast. And then, leave a trail of crumbs back to the table as you go off from this, to other people who are starving beggars. That’s the picture that you’re describing of what it looks like to love one another, is invite the other hungry beggars to the table of goodness that we just came from.

Steve Brown:
Boy, that kind of turns institutional religion on its head, doesn’t it?

Justin Holcomb: Yeah, it messes things up quite a bit at that point cause it changes the, you’re still worshiping God, you’re still celebrating everything, you’re doing all of this stuff. We’re still focused on Scripture, Jesus Christ, The Lord’s Supper. But, and there’s a reason in my tradition, why the doors are open when we read the gospel, there’s a motion to go from the table of allegiance with Jesus, where you met Jesus and go from here to the world because the world, he came to make all things new and he came for the sake of the world. Go get them.

Steve Brown:
That’s so good. Maybe your prayer and my prayer ought to be Lord, you know how much trouble I have loving. Could you love me, even me. And if I’m still and quiet enough and know your love, give me the grace to love others. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
And that was Steve Brown and Justin Holcomb continuing their conversation about the events of Holy Week. Today, we explore details of Maundy Thursday. And if you’re hearing this, then you definitely don’t want to miss tomorrow as Steve and Justin discuss Good Friday. Powerful, powerful stuff. I hope you will join us. And if you’re enjoying this teaching from Justin, then you’ve got to check out his episode of Steve Brown Etc from a few months ago. On that show, we discussed the new book that he has edited, something Justin refers to as the anti-devotional devotional. What in the world is an anti-devotional devotional? Well listen, Justin explains it better than I can. And we would love to send you that whole conversation from Steve Brown Etc on a CD for free. Would that be okay? All right. Well, if so, then call us up right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to ask for that CD. If you’d like to mail your request, send it to

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