How the Old Masters Saw Maundy Thursday and Good Friday

 

Da Vinci’s painting “The Last Supper” is well known. He painted it on the wall of a church in the 1490s, and it has deteriorated and been restored several times since. It’s possible that nobody has a full knowledge of the original details, especially around the edges. If you don’t know what I mean, compare the one above with this one.

Regardless of its accuracy, the painting shows Jesus celebrating the Passover with His disciples on the day we now call Maundy Thursday. If you want to be a fly on the wall and listen in to what Jesus said during the meal, read John Chapters 13–17. He clearly knew what was to come even if his disciples didn’t get it at the time.

Jesus’ heart was heavy, and after the meal He went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. Matthew 26:36-46, Mark 14:32-42, and Luke 22:39-46 all tell us that He asked His Father to take away the cup (the painful crucifixion) that God had planned for Him. Yet every time He prayed He ended with, “Yet not my will but thine be done.” In spite of His agony, He was willing to sacrifice Himself for us.

The next image is a 1465 painting by Giovanni Bellini titled “The Agony in the Garden.”

That agony didn’t last forever. The final piece of art showcased this week is by an apparently unknown painter from the Antwerp School in the early 17^th Century. I like this depiction of the crucifixion because the two thieves appear to be writhing in pain while Jesus is at peace. When He died, the battle was over and Satan had been defeated.

The evidence of that would come three days later, at Easter. That’s the subject of next week’s post to end this series.

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These works of art are all in the public domain because of their age.

Gethsemane

 

This post from April 3, 2017 reminds us that we are not alone in these uncertain times.

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As we get ready to enter Holy Week, I am reprinting a poem that I wrote many years ago. It isn’t great poetry, but it responds to the uncertainty I was going through at the time and that we all experience now and then.

Gethsemane

 I often wonder if God understands
When I feel deserted and all alone;
Then I remember three sleeping men
As Jesus knelt on the garden’s stone.
 
Or does God understand my anguish
When from life’s cares I want relief?
“Let this cup pass” were my Savior’s words
As He voiced His anguish and His grief.
 
Sometimes it’s hard to follow God’s will
When He asks for a sacrifice from me;
Yet Christ was giving so much more
When He followed God’s will to Calvary.
 
Whenever I wonder if God understands,
I remember Christ’s love for me;
How, because of that love, He has felt what I feel,
As He had His own Gethsemane.

 As Hebrews 5:17-18 says, “For we do not have a high priest [Jesus] who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (NIV)

Thanks be to God.

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The picture at the top of this post is “Agony in the Garden” by Giovanni Bellini.” It was painted sometime around 1465 and is in the public domain because of its age.

The poem is © 1974 by Kathryn Page Camp

Who Ever Heard of Maundy Thursday?

This post is reprinted from March 25, 2013.

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When I grew up, we always went to church on Maundy Thursday. It was an important day to my father, and it’s an important day in my current denomination.

But many Christians don’t even know what it is.

Maundy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper. That’s when Jesus and his disciples celebrated the Passover meal in an upper room and Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper (also called “Holy Communion” and “the Eucharist”). The same meal where Jesus told his disciples that they were to serve one another and washed their feet as an example to them.

The commonly accepted derivation of the term “Maundy” is that it comes from the Latin word “mandatum,” meaning mandate or commandment. After washing the disciples’ feet, Jesus told them, “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)

Jesus left the upper room with a heavy heart. He knew he would be crucified the next day, but he did it for us because he was our servant.

And our Lord.

That’s why I celebrate Maundy Thursday.

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The picture is called “Christ Washing the Feet of His Disciples,” and the artist is Nicolas Bertin. The painting was created sometime around 1720 or 1730 as an oil on panel. It is in the public domain because of its age.

Gethsemane

As we get ready to enter Holy Week, I am reprinting a poem that I wrote many years ago. It isn’t great poetry, but it responds to the uncertainty I was going through at the time and that we all experience now and then.

Gethsemane

I often wonder if God understands

When I feel deserted and all alone;

Then I remember three sleeping men

As Jesus knelt on the garden’s stone.

Or does God understand my anguish

When from life’s cares I want relief?

“Let this cup pass” were my Savior’s words

As He voiced His anguish and His grief.

Sometimes it’s hard to follow God’s will

When He asks for a sacrifice from me;

Yet Christ was giving so much more

When He followed God’s will to Calvary.

Whenever I wonder if God understands,

I remember Christ’s love for me;

How, because of that love, He has felt what I feel,

As He had His own Gethsemane.

As Hebrews 5:17-18 says, “For we do not have a high priest [Jesus] who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (NIV)

Thanks be to God.

__________

The picture shows the Garden of Gethsemane as it looked in 1998 when Roland, the children, and I took a trip to the Middle East with my mother, my brothers, my niece, and my nephew. The photo is © 1998 by Roland E. Camp and the poem is © 1974 by Kathryn Page (Camp).

Who Ever Heard of Maundy Thursday?

When I grew up, we always went to church on Maundy Thursday. It was an important day to my father, and it's an important day in my current denomination.

But many Christians don't even know what it is.

Maundy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper. That's when Jesus and his disciples celebrated the Passover meal in an upper room and Jesus initiated the Lord's Supper (also called "Holy Communion" and "the Eucharist"). The same meal where Jesus told his disciples that they were to serve one another and washed their feet as an example to them.

The commonly accepted derivation of the term "Maundy" is that it comes from the Latin word "mandatum," meaning mandate or commandment. After washing the disciples' feet, Jesus told them, "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)

Jesus left the upper room with a heavy heart. He knew he would be crucified the next day, but he did it for us because he was our servant.

And our Lord.

That's why I celebrate Maundy Thursday.

* * * * *
The picture is called "Christ Washing the Feet of His Disciples," and the artist is Nicolas Bertin. The painting was created sometime around 1720 or 1730 as an oil on panel.

A Mountain-Top Experience

As Christians, we use the phrase "mountain-top experience" to refer to an emotional high: often one where we feel especially close to God.

The Bible is full of mountain-top experiences, literally as well as figuratively.

Imagine how Noah and his family felt when the flood waters began receding and the ark came to rest on a mountain. Think of the awe Moses experienced in his mountain-top encounters with God: on Mount Horeb as a voice came from a burning bush, on Mount Sinai as Moses received the Ten Commandments, and on Mount Pisgah as God showed him the lands the Israelites would possess. Or the adrenaline rushing through Elijah when God defeated the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.*

The mountain-top experiences continued in the New Testament. Again, imagine the emotional high the disciples must have felt when they looked out at the crowd that filled nature's auditorium during the Sermon on the Mount. Picture the awe on Peter's face as he saw Jesus standing with Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration.**

But there are two mountain-top experiences that don't fit the pattern.***

After celebrating the Passover with his disciples on Thursday, Jesus went out to the Mount of Olives and pled with God to take away the agony Jesus knew was coming. He was still there when he was betrayed and arrested.

Then came Friday. We often picture Jesus dying on top of a rolling green hill, the central figure with a cross on each side. While the Bible says he was crucified at the place of the skull, called "Golgotha," we don't know exactly where that was. It probably wasn't the pastoral setting of the old hymn and children's drawings. Still, Jesus was crucified just outside the walls of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem itself was (and is) perched on a mountain. There Jesus cried, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" And there Jesus died.

Not my idea of a mountain-top experience.

But that doesn't change the fact that it was one.

If a mountain-top experience occurs when we are closest to Christ, how much closer can we get than these times when his humanity was at its height? On the Mount of Olives, his humanity made him want to escape the horror that lay ahead. As he hung on the cross, his humanity felt the separation from God that, to me, is the essence of hell.

So why did he do it? For me. And for you.

Or, as I recently heard in a radio sermon, he did it because God's divine nature demanded it. Because God is just, he must have justice. I'm grateful that he executed it on himself rather than on me.

And that's a true mountain-top experience.

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* See Genesis 8:1-5, Exodus 3:1-6, Exodus 19:1-20:21, Deuteronomy 34:1-6, 1 Kings 18:20-39.

** See Matthew 5:1-8:1, Matthew 17:1-8.

*** See Matthew 26:36-56 (the Garden of Gethsemane is on the Mount of Olives), Matthew 27:45-50.