Maundy Thursday
God is love" is a theological statement that is true to the core. But "God is friend" - this is the deeper mystery made real in Jesus.Friendship is salvation. All else is theological pretense and drivel. The Friend who dines with us and washes our feet today will lay down his life tomorrow. "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.... I have called you friends"
John 15:13-15
April 17, 2014, Words By: Kris Rocke, Image By: By Giotto di Bondone from Ruslan's Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
Jesus calls us friend today, knowing we will betray him tomorrow. If there is an order to salvation, this is it.
“You, heart closed up in a chest, open,
for the Friend is entering.”
– Rumi
Hear afresh these words at the meal of friendship,
On the night that Jesus was betrayed , he took bread, blessed it, broke it, gave it to his disciples, and said, ‘Take and eat; this is my body, broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, blessed it, and gave it for all to drink, and said, ‘This cup is the blood of the new covenant, shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin. Do this in remembrance of me.’
Dear friends of Jesus, who will soon be enemies, we are forgiven – now – completely! May the great befriending of God break our hearts wide open.
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