Youth Basketball and Maundy Thursday

Recently, I helped coach the final game of my son Hayden’s basketball season. I have served as the assistant coach for this team of nine 6 and 7-year-old boys, and a week prior to the season’s penultimate game, I was called upon to lead practice in the coach’s stead. One thing became evident in those 60-minutes of herding cats – I mean, instruction. It was not enough to tell these boys what I wanted them to do. I had to show them, then participate with them, as they dribbled, passed, shot and played something faintly resembling defense.

On the Thursday night of his betrayal, Jesus gathered with his disciples and told them what he expected of them. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another…(Jn. 12:34a). Not only did Jesus tell his disciples what he expected, but he showed them and us, exactly what that looked like. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another (Jn. 12:34b). Later that evening, he continued, This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. In this Jesus participates in our place, laying down His life in the greatest display of sacrificial love the world will ever know, so that we might be those who love Him and love one another, as we are forever changed by His love.

The word maundy means commandment, and on Maundy Thursday night, March 24, Calvary will gather to remember the evening in which Jesus told his disciples this “new” commandment to love one another, even as he showed what this meant. And we will participate together in a meal and communion, abiding in the love that is ours because of the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ.

We hope you will join us on Maundy Thursday, March 24, 6:30 – 8pm, and participate with us, as we celebrate the great drama of redemption.