Holy Week - Thursday

On this day our Lord went to the Upper Room in Jerusalem, He washed His disciples’ feet; instituted the sacrament of His Body and Blood. He spoke to His disciples words of comfort and peace, gave the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit, and offered the prayer of the Great High Priest. He endured the trial of the garden of Gethsemane; was betrayed by Judas and arrested.

Mark 14:12-52



Events now tumble, one after another.
Seemingly out of control, inevitable and terrible.

Yet one character in this drama is calm and focused,
the centre around which all else moves.
(Except perhaps when he prays in the garden,
filled with the sorrow of death, troubled by a weak flesh,
and then sustained and strengthened by prayer.)

The Passover sacrifice always meant Jesus,
now he makes this clear.
His body broken, his blood poured out,
not for himself, but for us.

He attracts betrayal and denial,
like a servant with no beauty to be desired,
one from whom we all hide our faces.

All happens under the titlos
'Let the Scriptures be fulfilled' (v. 49)
The God who has the whole world in his hand
will not let his one-of-a-kind Son slip through his fingers.
Tumble as they may,
nothing is out of His control,
nothing is out of His purpose.