If Only You Knew: An Easter DevotionalНамуна

Imagine yourself sitting at a table, sharing a meal with your closest friends. Perhaps you can picture the laughter and conversation, the taste of good food on your lips. Then imagine that very same night being betrayed by someone who sat at that table with you and deserted by all the rest.

Maybe you don’t have to imagine. Perhaps you have felt the bitter sting of betrayal before. Perhaps you know what it feels like to be deserted by people you love.

And thus brings us to the story of Maundy Thursday, at the beginning of the Easter weekend. We find Jesus sharing a meal with his closest friends, even as one of them has just recently arranged to betray him. By the end of the night, all his friends will have deserted him and one of his closest friends will have denied even knowing him three times.

Jesus understands betrayal. He understands the deepest of relational pain—what it feels like to be socially discarded, to have people you love turn their backs on you. Before Jesus felt the physical pain of crucifixion, he felt the deep relational pain of betrayal and abandonment.

Those relational wounds are often our unseen scars, the ones misunderstood and even belittled. But it is real, valid pain that we can sit with, knowing that Jesus meets us there with full understanding.

It’s fitting that the word maundy in Maundy Thursday comes from the Latin word mandatum, meaning “commandment”, referring to Jesus’ words in John 13:34-35: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Perhaps as we sit with the social and relational weight of what Jesus experienced in the Easter story, those are the words we need to hear: Love one another. According to Jesus, it’s what sets us apart as His followers, our love for each other.

Imagine yourself again sitting at a table, sharing a meal with friends. But this time, don’t imagine being betrayed or deserted. Instead, imagine yourself building, cultivating and investing in a love that sets you apart as a follower of Jesus—in all its vulnerability and hope.

The opportunity to do that is what Jesus accomplished for us through entering into the very human pain of the Easter story.