Day Thirty-Eight

Day Thirty-Eight // April 9 // Abandoned to Man (Maundy Thursday)

“It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely.” – Albert Einstein –

He had stooped. Heaven bowing near the earth to wash their mud-caked feet – all Divinity wiping worthless and fouling dirt. And He had blessed: breaking the bread and pouring the wine – the Savior serving sinners. And when He was done, He said that it is in being broken that we are made whole. He said that it is in being poured out that we are filled. He said that it is in accepting the very moments of pain that we long to avoid that we find our meaning and healing and peace. But it didn’t make sense – not then, and sometimes not even now.

It defies all that we think we know. It presses us beyond all with which we’re comfortable. To break, stoop and serve - to hurt in places we’d rather defend.

The words still ambled through their thoughts as they made their way to a garden.

There, amidst the snarled olive grove of Gethsemane, He prayed. Like the branches of those trees, He was knotted, conflicted; His humanity fighting against His deity. “Let this cup pass from me,” He prayed, “but not my will, but Yours be done.” Father, I don’t want to do this… but I will for You… and I will for them. And returning to His disciples, the stillness of that tender, excruciating moment was broken – the demonic hiss of Roman steel bouncing off jagged rocks, snarled glee lit by flickering torches. He was arrested and abandoned – abandoned by those He’d just blessed, abandoned by those He’d just served. He was abandoned to man’s feckless whims and to the silence and loneliness and pain.

For on that night when Jesus would be betrayed by a traitor’s kiss, on that night when our Savior would willingly give Himself up for us, He showed us what it is to bring about the Kingdom of God on earth. He showed us how to live out our sacred call – with one foot on holy ground and the other in the world’s common mud. In this garden, in this act of selfless obedience, in this moment of pure surrender, Jesus showed us that it is in the stooping selflessness of the believer that God’s glory dwells. It is there that His will for us is accomplished. It is there – where master becomes servant and enemy becomes friend – that Jesus becomes Lord.