Finding Joy: Devotionals for Lent 2023

Finding Joy: Devotionals for Lent MAUNDY THURSDAY: The Bread of Life PREPARE Quiet your heart. Ask God to open your ears to his Word. READ: MATTHEW 26:17–75 On the night of the Passover feast, Jesus institutes the Holy Communion during his last meal with the disciples. After the meal, Jesus and the disciples go to the Garden of Gethsemane. In great anguish, Jesus prays fervently to his Father as he anticipates the suffering he will endure in a few hours. Following this time of prayer, Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss, and Jesus is arrested. REFLECT The word “Maundy” comes from the Latin word mandatum, meaning command, and refers to Jesus’s command to his disciples to love one another (see John 13:34–35). When the disciples heard these words, it’s unlikely that they could have imagined the great act of love they would witness: Jesus’s willing death on the cross for our sin. In his final hours with his disciples, Jesus administered what we now refer to as the Holy Communion, or the Lord’s Supper. Jesus broke bread and gave it to them, saying that it was his body. He gave them a cup of wine and said it was his blood, poured out for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus, who had referred to himself as the Bread of Life (John 6:25–59), again reminded his disciples that only through his sacrifice could one find forgiveness for sins. It was no coincidence that this conversation happened during a ritual meal celebrating Passover. Centuries earlier, during the first Passover, the Israelites in captivity in Egypt followed God’s command to cover their doorframes with the blood of a lamb. They ate unleavened bread as they waited for God’s deliverance (Exodus 12:1–28). During Holy Week, a different Lamb was slain. A different Bread was broken. Jesus, the Bread of Life, still represents our only hope for eternal life

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