{"id":1893,"date":"2011-04-21T12:00:20","date_gmt":"2011-04-21T18:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=1893"},"modified":"2011-04-21T12:00:20","modified_gmt":"2011-04-21T18:00:20","slug":"why-is-monday-on-a-thursday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=1893","title":{"rendered":"“Why is Monday on a Thursday?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I was coming of age in a Southern Baptist church in the late 70’s\/early 80’s, the question that one of our own students recently asked our Student Pastor, “Why is Monday on a Thursday?” never really came up.\u00a0 I think\u00a0I\u00a0would have been confused as\u00a0well.\u00a0\u00a0Turns out, our church is not observing\u00a0Monday on a Thursday, but\u00a0rather observing what is known as\u00a0Maundy\u00a0Thursday<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Like our students (and many of our adults prior to my arrival as Senior Pastor four years ago), I had never heard of Maundy Thursday<\/em>\u00a0until I came to First Baptist Church of Poinciana, FL as Associate Pastor following graduation from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in December 1997.\u00a0\u00a0During my first Holy Week at Poinciana in 1998, I was introduced to Maundy Thursday<\/em>.\u00a0 What was Maundy Thursday<\/em> anyway?\u00a0 I knew it had to be about Thursday, but that was about\u00a0it.<\/p>\n

Turns out Maundy Thursday<\/em> is a widely observed day in the Christian calendar — just not\u00a0widely\u00a0observed in Southern Baptist life.\u00a0 Maundy Thursday<\/em> is<\/p>\n

also known as Holy Thursday<\/strong>, Covenant Thursday<\/strong>, Great & Holy Thursday<\/strong>, and Thursday of Mysteries<\/strong>, is the Christian<\/a> feast or holy day falling on the Thursday before Easter<\/a> that commemorates the Last Supper<\/a> of Jesus Christ<\/a> with the Apostles<\/a> as described in the Canonical gospels<\/a>. (here<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While many Baptist churches will hold a Good Friday<\/em> observance of some kind, not too many will observe Maundy Thursday<\/em>.\u00a0 Maybe that’s because it has traditionally been associated with Roman Catholicism and more liturgical churches in Protestantism.\u00a0 Sometimes I think that we are so afraid of being “ritualistic” that we miss out on some pretty neat spiritual experiences.\u00a0 I believe that Maundy Thursday<\/em> is one of those experiences that Christians — regardless of our traditions — should not skip.<\/p>\n

Why?\u00a0 Because, at its heart, Maundy Thursday<\/em> is simply a commemoration of Jesus’ Last Supper with His disciples before He was betrayed, put on trial, and hung on a cross.\u00a0 Maundy<\/em>, which comes from the Latin<\/em>, means “commandment” and is associated with Jesus’ words to His disciples in the Gospel of John just prior to His crucifixion:<\/p>\n

“A new commandment I give to you, that\u00a0you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”<\/span>(John 13:34 ESV)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After I left Poinciana, I “borrowed” the idea of a Maundy Thursday<\/em> observance and have incorporated\u00a0it into the Holy Week services of two churches that I have pastored.\u00a0\u00a0Most of the church members had never heard of Maundy Thursday<\/em>, but they\u00a0have come to appreciate the significance and meaning behind the observance.<\/p>\n

On this Maundy\u00a0Thursday<\/em>, we will gather in the\u00a0Sanctuary for a time of worship focused upon the Cross and Jesus’ great sacrifice for sinners.\u00a0 We want to be reminded of Jesus’ love, grace, and sacrificial\u00a0death on the old rugged Cross.\u00a0 As we conclude our time of worship, we will sit around tables (as close to “reclining at table” as we can get) in our new Conference Center’s multi-purpose space\u00a0and observe the Lord’s Supper together.<\/p>\n

As we remember Christ’s sacrifice, we will ask the Lord to prepare our hearts for Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.\u00a0 As we hold hands around the tables, we will sing “Were You There”<\/em><\/p>\n

Were you there when they crucified by Lord?\u00a0 Were you there when they crucified my Lord?\u00a0 Oh!\u00a0 Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.\u00a0 Were you there when they crucified my Lord?<\/p>\n

Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?\u00a0 Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?\u00a0 Oh!\u00a0 Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.\u00a0 Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?<\/p>\n

Were you there when they laid Him in the grave?\u00a0 Were you there when they laid Him in the grave?\u00a0 Oh!\u00a0 Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.\u00a0 Were you there when they laid Him in the grave?<\/p>\n

Were you there when He rose up from the grave?\u00a0 Were you there when He rose up from the grave?\u00a0 Oh!\u00a0 Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.\u00a0 Were you there when He rose up from the grave?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We were not there that day, but we will remember.\u00a0 We will remember the great sacrifice, as Jesus’ body was broken and His blood was shed for sinners.\u00a0 We will remember the death of our Savior and Lord.\u00a0 But, we will do all of this in remembrance of the One who is not dead, but is alive!\u00a0 On this Maundy Thursday<\/em> or Good Friday<\/em>, we can proclaim as we do on Easter<\/em> and on every Lord’s Day since that first Resurrection Sunday — He is Risen!\u00a0 He is Risen indeed!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I was coming of age in a Southern Baptist church in the late 70’s\/early 80’s, the question that one of our own students recently asked our Student Pastor, “Why is Monday on a Thursday?” never really came up.\u00a0 I think\u00a0I\u00a0would have been confused as\u00a0well.\u00a0\u00a0Turns out, our church is not observing\u00a0Monday on a Thursday, but\u00a0rather…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,35],"tags":[3370,336,552,598,620,639,3392,833],"class_list":["post-1893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-religion","tag-christianity","tag-easter","tag-jesus-christ","tag-last-supper","tag-lords-supper","tag-maundy-thursday","tag-religion","tag-resurrection"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-ux","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}