Maundy Thursday – Striking a blow at pride

Thursday in Holy Week was a busy day! That evening, which was the beginning of Friday for the Jews, Jesus and his disciples observed Passover. This Passover was a special one for them because it was also the Last Supper. During the Passover meal Jesus instituted a new sacrament for his church: the Lord’s Supper. After supper they sang a hymn, probably from Psalms 113–118, he went to the Garden to pray, and was arrested.

It is known as Maundy Thursday. Maundy means commandment. Jesus gave several commandments that night, but it most likely refers to:

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another;

as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

Of course, when he instituted the Supper he commanded, Do this in remembrance of me.

And then there is the other commandment. But I am ahead of myself.

I’ve always liked Maundy Thursday. We didn’t always have a meeting that night, but eventually we did. We had a three-fold emphasis:

Passover    The Lord’s Supper    Foot Washing

Yeah, you read that right! As I read John 13 I became convinced that when Jesus said,

If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. 

For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you

he meant it. But convincing others of this, oy vey!

Oh how people resist foot washing! If you want to watch people shudder, or have a look of terror come over their face, invite them to a foot-washing service!

Why is this?

I became convinced it is a pride issue. Foot-washing strikes a blow at pride and encourages humility in a most unusual manner.

You would think that the pride being struck would be acting like a servant and washing someone else’s feet. I discovered this wasn’t the issue, at least for me. Serving others is a fundamental part of the Christian life. It was having someone wash my feet that was difficult! You see, I’m the servant. I serve you. You don’t serve me! Oh how utterly uncomfortable that was!

I can still picture the service. We reserved the foot-washing for the end. I had two basins, two pitchers filled with water, and some towels, stowed under the first two pews. We formed two lines. We only removed our right shoe. The first person would come and I would wash their foot. Then the role would be reversed and they would wash my foot. How humiliating to have someone be my servant and wash my foot!

I know there are plenty of people who reject any notion that Jesus intended us to literally wash one another’s feet. I think they are wrong, but that’s not my point. I believe that foot-washing was intended to produce and promote humility. It is very effective. That’s my point! As I mentioned, it was utterly uncomfortable for me having someone else wash my foot, and that was a good thing. Can you imagine how uncomfortable the disciples would have been having Jesus wash their feet?? And he said, Let me wash your feet and then you wash one another’s feet.

If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. 

For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you

"giving all diligence, add to your faith"

When I finished reading Ezekiel I began reading James and moved on to First and Second Peter. I really like Peter. I’ve decided his first epistle is one of my favorite sections of Scripture. Then, his second epistle begins with a bang! There is so much there, but I don’t want to provide a running commentary. I only want to share what impresses me every time I read it:

2 Peter 1
5  And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
6  And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7  And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

Verses 3 and 4 contain so much wonderful truth. I want to camp there, dwell there, elaborate on those things! But Peter moves right on:

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith
I cannot be satisfied that I have faith in Christ. I cannot rest content with faith. He says I am to add to my faith certain things. But not haphazardly, or as I think about it, or even as I have opportunity. No, giving all diligence, add to your faith. I can’t wait, I can’t let it just happen. I need to work on it. Peter was not one to say, “It’s cool, man, you’ve believed. Just chill.” No, no. no. He says, “You’ve believed. You’ve received some great things from God! Now, get up and get to it – add these things to your faith.”

And he provides us a list of seven virtues, graces or character traits we are to add. Seven attributes that I need to work on. Now!

Obviously, these are matters we need to study on and be sure we understand. I simply want to list them and provide a simple definition of how I understand each one.

Virtue – moral excellence

Knowledge – of God, His ways, His promises, His will, His warnings, His commands, His Word

Temperance – self-control. This is also listed as a fruit of the Spirit. Clearly, there is some sort of cooperation here. This is a grace He works in me, but it is also a trait I am to work on myself.

Patience – there are two kinds of patience mentioned in the Bible: ‘people patience’ which is the word longsuffering and ‘problem patience’ which is the word patience. Patience means the ability to endure, to hold on. Now, tribulation worketh patience. Obviously, I cannot create trials of faith for myself, so how can I add this to my faith? It seems to me this begins as an attitude, “I will not quit, I will not give in, I will not give up.” I love how James explains it, Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
Add patience and let her have her perfect work!

Godliness – this seems to me to be the trickiest one, because we so misunderstand godliness. For years I had the hardest time understanding godly and righteous. But I think I have a better grasp now. This word was a basic word for ‘religious.’ But it conveyed more than rigidly or superstitiously religious. It was an attitude of ‘being careful to be correct in my religious duties and obligation.’ This changes things for me. God is not pleased when I am sloppy in my Christian life. I need to be careful to be correct in my walk with the Lord.
I have to be at work at 11 pm. I can’t just show up whenever I want to, so I have to plan my evening accordingly. I have to leave the house by a certain time to be sure to be there on time. I need the same approach to my Christian life.

Brotherly Kindness – this is brotherly love (philadelphia). It is really neat how Peter says the same thing in the first epistle. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren [philadelphia], see that ye love [agape] one another with a pure heart fervently. Not too hard to add something that God has worked in! We are born again unto, resulting in, unfeigned love of the brethren. Now we are love one another with a pure heart, which leads us to the pinnacle of virtues:

Charity – this is love, agape. Paul says the same thing, And above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness” God gives me love, God works love into my soul, but I still have to add it, put it on. And consider the fullness of love:
Love suffers long [this is ‘people patience’] and is kind; love does not envy; 
love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;  
does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;  
does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;  
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 

By God’s grace, I have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. But I can’t rest there. By God’s power and promises I need to diligently add these to my faith. And this is the encouragement and warning he offers as motivation:

8  For if these things be in you, and abound, they make [you] neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9  But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
10  Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
11  For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Since I don’t want to be blind or forgetful, barren nor unfruitful, I need to be diligent! Practical Christianity!


"The soul of religion is the practical part" (Bunyan).

Sunday nights are different

I have decided that Sunday nights are different than other nights. You would think that people would be home getting ready for the work-week, but no, they are still out and about. And sometimes I have strange and humorous encounters. Just a few from last night:

This man came to the counter and had 4 kinds of candy. I looked at the shirt under his coat. It said “Planet Fitness.” I started to point the irony out to him, but changed my mind


Three people were in line. The first is a man and he asks for a pack of cigarettes. I’ve seen him before so I don’t ask for his ID. The second is a young lady. She also asks for a pack of cigarettes. I make a joke about her sweat shirt which says “Northwestern Track.” She offers me her ID, but she’s been in before and I say, “You’ve been here before, right?” I knew she had because I recognized her so I don’t ask for her ID either.
The third person is another guy. He has a couple of sodas and wants a pack of cigarettes. I don’t know him and don’t remember ever seeing him before, so I ask for his ID. He said he didn’t have it. So I tell him I’m sorry and put the cigarettes aside. He said, “My birthday is (something) ’94.” I said, “I’m sorry but I don’t remember ever seeing you or selling tobacco to you.” He said he would just buy the drinks somewhere else. But after a minute he’s back at the counter.
Him: You didn’t ask for their ID.
Me: I know. But I know them, I’ve seen their ID.
Him: Yeah, but you didn’t ask for their ID.
Me: I know. If I remembered you I wouldn’t have asked to see yours.
This repeats itself two or three more times and he is agitated.
Finally he declares, “That’s why you won’t get none of my money.”
I said, “Fine.”
His mistake was thinking I cared!
What’s a 19 year old doing out without his ID anyway? And trying to buy an age-controlled substance?!


This one was just weird. A Highway Patrolman comes in for coffee. Takes quite a while preparing it. Then he comes to me, holds out his cup and asks, “Do you have lids for this or did I get the wrong cup?”
He’s holding the large cup for boiled peanuts. It says BOILED PEANUTS. All I could say was, “Yes sir, that's the cup for boiled peanuts.” He then transfers his coffee to two 24 oz cups! Then he couldn’t figure out the lids. It was like he couldn’t read….


The folks who deliver the paper are our neighbors and I know them. The high school aged son brings two papers and the Mom brings the USA Today. The boy came first. We talked a moment and then he announced that they were going to see his brother today. His brother is in the Marines and this is the first time they can go visit him. I ask him where they are going. He has no clue! Not even what State! I tell him I'll ask his Mom when she comes in.
When his Mom comes in I tell her about this and she laughs. Tells me they are going to North Carolina. She said, "His only question was, 'What time do I have to get up?' " Ahhh, teenagers.


Finally, this morning a woman comes in and has a couple of transactions. She has reading glasses perched on her head, but doesn’t use them. I said, “I see you don’t like to use your reading glasses.” She said she hated them. I said, “I hate my glasses too.”
The she said, “I wish I could wear contacts but I hate them worse than my glasses.”
A kindred soul!

Henry Nott: Herald of the Love of God in Tahiti

This past week I came across the story of Henry Nott. I want to say I had heard his name before, but I’m not sure, so I will say this was the first time I ever heard of him. And what a story! And how it makes me search my heart. For the whole story, go here.

Henry Nott (1774-1844) was an English missionary to Tahiti. He was in the first group of missionaries sent out by the newly organized London Missionary Society (formed at the suggestion of William Carey). He arrived in Tahiti in 1797 and spent the rest of his life there. He returned to England only two times during 47 years on the field.

Tahiti – we thought we knew ye
Ahhhh Tahiti. The only thing keeping it from being considered paradise is that they speak French there! Seriously, for this Hawaiian boy, Tahiti is like the mother-lode. It is one corner of the triangle that is Polynesia and the first settlers in Hawai’i came from Tahiti and/or the Marquesas. The early sailors loved it so they often deserted ship. Robert Louis Stevenson moved there. Paul Gauguin moved there. Tahiti, island paradise. Right?

Not so fast.

“It would be difficult to exaggerate either the beauty of the island or the depravity of its inhabitants. A scene of unsurpassed beauty presented itself to the missionaries: verdant valleys and stupendous mountains, the rich foliage of the breadfruit tree, the luxuriance of the tropical pandanus, the waving plumes of the lofty coconut groves, the exquisite lacery of enormous ferns, and, around it all, the white-crested waters of the Pacific, rolling their waves of foam in splendid majesty upon the coral reefs or dashing in spray against the broken shore. It was of such a scene that Bishop Heber wrote: "Where every prospect pleases and only man is vile." The Tahitians wallowed in the abyss of sorrows into which flowed the contaminations and corruptions of barbarism.”

Concerning the lechery of the Tahitians, Capt. Cook, said: "There is an abyss of dissolute sensuality into which these people have sunk, wholly unknown to every other nation and which no imagination could possibly conceive." ~ This was written by a sailor!

I can sum up the spiritual state of the Tahitians, their immorality and violence, in a few words: Unimaginable. Unspeakable. Indescribable. Unfathomable. Such depths of depravity! (The link above offers a few particulars) “It was among such a people that the missionaries began their apparently hopeless labors.”

Henry Nott
Henry Nott was a bricklayer who felt called to Tahiti and was among that first group of 30 missionaries sent out by the London Missionary Society, 17 of whom destined for Tahiti. He doesn’t appear to have had any special training. They recruited. He responded. They prayed for him. And off he went!

Their ship arrived and they went ashore. No one was waiting for them. No one expected them. The ship left to deposit the other missionaries and they had to wait five years for fresh supplies! During the five-year wait, several of his fellow missionaries deserted, died or were killed, or seemed to go mad. By the beginning of 1810, Henry Nott was all alone - the only missionary still in Tahiti.

After thirteen years he is the last man standing. What kind of man is this? Oh, not only is he left alone, so far he has had no converts. He didn’t see his first convert until he had been in Tahiti 22 years!

I am amazed and impressed beyond measure at the man and the grace of God at work in him. How would I have responded? being dropped off in a land so far from home? among a people so desperately wicked? who made it clear they didn’t want me there? and with no fruit for my labors?? I’m too embarrassed to write it down. How did he respond?

He was "troubled ... persecuted ... cast down ... but not in despair," for he believed that the cause of Christ would one day triumph. Looking up at the majestic mountain, called "The Diadem," he said: "That mountain is symbolic. It is a prophecy. This island will yet become a diadem of redeemed Tahitian jewels." This is a hero!

What was he doing all this time? Learning the language (so he could preach in their own tongue), praying, and preaching everywhere. And when the people did begin to respond, he increased his preaching circuits and also established schools everywhere. What was his message? John 3:16 seems to have been a favorite passage. But he was also diligent to teach them “to repent and bring forth fruit worthy of repentance.” All the while he was working on translating the Bible into Tahitian - he finished that too.

Eventually, people began to respond and turn away from their idolatry. His fellow workers began to return to the field and finally, a baptism! And then souls began to pour into the kingdom. “Thus, after more than two decades of tears and toil, occurred the first baptism in Tahiti. Twenty-two years of hardships and disappointments, and Henry Nott began to see the travail of his soul satisfied. In all the thrilling annals of missionary heroism, is there to be found anywhere a devotion to duty in the face of manifold perils, a fortitude under accumulated sufferings, and a fidelity that held on so long with no evidence of harvest, to surpass that of the bricklayer of Tahiti?

The harvest was at last ready and the reapers were busy. During the ensuing decade hundreds of baptized Tahitians became eager students of God's Word and earnest seekers of souls. Some of them, and also some of the missionaries, went forth to take the gospel to Borabora, Raiatea, Huahine and other dark islands.”

What an amazing story! How convicting and how encouraging!