29 March 2018
Holy Thursday
On Holy Thursday, Jesus knows that his life on this Earth is about to be ended. With his arrest and execution only hours away, Jesus chooses to spend time with his apostles, eating a sacred meal with them, washing their feet, and praying with them in the garden of Gethsemane.
These are not the actions of man who is weak, scared and powerless. On the contrary, scripture tells us that at this time, Jesus was “fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power” (Jn 13:3). Can such a claim be made for any other man in history? Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and Caesar Augustus had vast power, but they had their limits. Unlike Jesus, they did not have “everything” in their power. The astonishing conclusion is that Jesus was more powerful than they were, and the question raised is “what is true power?”
To answer this question, we must look more carefully at the events of Holy Thursday. Jesus spends time with the apostles. He eats a sacred meal with them. He washes their feet. He prays with them in the garden of Gethsemane. By these actions, Jesus is using his supreme power to prepare the apostles for his bloody sacrifice on the cross, and to prepare you for unity with him.