Holy Thursday Reflection 2025

We gather together this evening, meeting Jesus as we have for the past 40 days.

As He did, we are…together…as friends. 

We come to this table…as friends.
As friends of Jesus, we have been chosen and find ourselves among friends.

We come, concretely aware of the violence and anxiety of the our broken world, at the same time trusting our Provident God and each other.

Jesus said to his disciples, “I have made known to you everything I have heard.” Not as servants…but as friends.

“I do not call you servants,” Jesus said as he “got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself” (John 13:4).
“I do not call you servants,” Jesus said as he poured water into a basin and began to wash their feet and wipe them with the towel.”

“I do not call you servants” he said. “I have called you friends.”
He washed their feet and then asked them to care for each other, not as a master commands servants, but as friends
not as a teacher instructs students, but as friends.

“Why friends rather than servants?” You might ask.
Why friends rather than students? You might ask.

Where there are servants there are masters. Where there are students, there is a master teacher.

 That is not the case in a community of friends. Servants can become masters, but friends cannot.

Friends share with each other as equals. 
They know and seek to be known, with their strengths and vulnerabilities.

Friendship is the deepest kind of love, as Jesus explained, “There is no love greater than that of a life laid down by a friend.”

Tonight, we are celebrating the gift of friendship. 
With friendship, we find genuine community.
On that night, Jesus looked at the room, and gave his friends the imperative “Love one another”.
“Love one another. 
Just as I have loved you. 
Love one another