04/11/2017
As we are in the midst of Holy Week, let us ponder a hymn which we will sing at our Maundy Thursday service this week:
When You woke that Thursday morning,
Savior, teacher, faithful friend,
Thoughts of self and safety scorning,
Knowing how the day would end;
Lamb of God, foretold for ages,
Now at last the hour had come
When but One could pay sin's wages;
You assumed their dreadful sum.
Never so alone and lonely,
Longing with tormented heart
To be with Your dear and only
For a quiet hour apart;
Sinless Lamb and fallen creature,
One last paschal meal to eat,
One last lesson as their teacher,
Washing Your disciples feet.
What was there that You could give them
That would never be outspent,
What great gift that would outlive them,
What last will and Testament?
"Show me and the world you love Me,
Know me as the Lamb of God:
Do this in remembrance of Me,
Eat this body, drink this blood."
One in faith, in love united,
All one body, You the head,
When we meet, by You invited,
You are with us as You said.
One with You and one another
In a unity sublime,
See in us Your sister, brother,
One in ev'ry place and time.
One day all the Church will capture
That bright vision glorious,
And Your saints will know the rapture
That Your heart desired for us,
When the longed for peace and union
Of the Greatest and the least
Meet in joyous, blest communion
In Your never-ending feast.
Hymnwriter Jaroslav Vajda (April 28, 1919 – May 10, 2008) was an American Lutheran hymnwriter of Slovak descent whose father and two brothers were LCMS pastors. He began his poetic endeavors at age eighteen, but did not write his first hymn until 1968, after which time he wrote more than 200 hymns that appear in about 65 hymnals worldwide, including ten original hymns or translations in Lutheran Service Book. (Among his better-known hymns are “Go, My Children, with My Blessing” and “See This Wonder in the Making.”) He translated a number of Slavic/Czech hymns into English, of which there are surprisingly many (“Let Our Gladness Banish Sadness,” 371, among others.) A Fellow of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, Vajda ended his career as a book developer and editor at CPH, from where he retired in 1986. The tune was composed by contemporary American composer Marty Haugen.
Maundy Thursday can take on multiple liturgical meanings. Some say that “Maundy” comes from Jesus’ words in John 13: 34: "Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos" ("A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you"). As part of this “new command,” Jesus washes His disciples feet, and this footwashing has been worked into the liturgy through the centuries (in medieval times a priest or bishop would ceremonially wash the feet of peasants.) It is also possible that “Maundy” comes from the “maundsor baskets” given by the King of England to peasants on the way to Mass that day. (In this case, the word derives from the Latin mendicare, meaning “to beg.”)
Wherever that term may originate, no doubt the most important focus of Maundy Thursday is Jesus institution of the Lord’s Supper which our hymns, liturgy and sermon will proclaim.
