Maundy Thursday

Today is Thursday of Holy Week—Maundy (Holy) Thursday. Tomorrow is Good Friday, when we observe the night that Jesus died. But on the night before Jesus was betrayed, Thursday, Jesus observed the Passover meal with His disciples and instituted what Christians know as Communion (or the Lord’s Supper, or the Eucharist).

Maundy Thursday is a day for “turning” or repentance. To repent is to make a 180. We turn from ourselves to God. We turn from our wrongs and make restitution with others—parents, spouses, children, coworkers, other believers. This is also a day for those estranged from the faith community to be reconciled.

And it’s a day for baptisms—public identification with burial and resurrection. How fitting, then, that we received this photo today from our friends “on the ground” in Kenya. They have seen many turn to faith in recent weeks after receiving some basic training, and they sent us this shot along with words of joy.

Christianity was in Africa about 1,600 years before it came to America. In the first century, a eunuch in the court of the Ethiopian Candice received help from the apostle Philip in understanding the ancient words of the prophet, Isaiah, about the Messiah (Acts 8:27). Tradition tells us that after his baptism, this court official returned to his country and spread the news—just like our Kenyan friends are doing.