Basket
0 Items
Thursday 2 April 2026 Maundy Thursday
A Very Divine-Human Answer to Very Human Questions
Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-17, 31b-35
Context: an urban, multi-cultural parish beginning its celebration of the Triduum of Jesus’ Passion and Resurrection
Aim: to move people from headspace questions about God to heartfelt responses to the Paschal Mystery
Many years ago, when I was a trainee teacher, I remember preparing particularly well for a lesson that was going to be observed by the Head of RE, as well as my mentor from St Mary’s College. I knew I had to demonstrate my ability as a good teacher if I was to progress to the next stage of my training.
The theme of the lesson was the sacrifice of Isaac with a Year 8 class. The day came, my lesson had been prepared to the nth degree and the class were in cooperative mood.
The lesson was going really well until one student put up her hand and proclaimed that God was a murderer. For the rest of the class it was a valid statement; no one batted an eyelid. For me, I was battering every brain cell in my head. How could she make such a comment, today of all days, I thought to myself? Of course, I had no answer and glossed over her remark. The Head of Department and my college mentor didn’t. Quite rightly they picked me up on it.
Why am I recounting this to you on Maundy Thursday? I’m doing so because we can’t always explain away the actions of God that don’t fit with our perception of Him.
God is a good, loving and merciful Father. Why then, in the first reading, is God prepared to ‘strike down every firstborn’ of the Egyptians. Yes, Pharaoh had made slaves of the Jews, they needed to be freed and Pharaoh was refusing to release Egypt’s cheap labour. However, why should every Egyptian family suffer for the decisions of one man. What of those Egyptians who did not share Pharaoh’s views? Why should they suffer? Surely striking down Pharaoh’s firstborn alone would have had the same outcome. So why make every Egyptian family suffer? We have no answer.
As Christians, we have a marvellous ability – as I did with my class – to be able to gloss over anything in the Bible that does not portray God in a good light. God is loving and all good and so we protect God and find ways to guard God’s reputation, no matter what. However, it still leaves us with the uncomfortable fact that the Bible reveals God not only wiping out the firstborn of all the Egyptians, but those of the Egyptian animals too! My goodness, what on earth did the animals have to do with the enslavement and mistreatment of the Jews in Egypt? Why oh why, should animals be pulled into a power struggle between God and the pharaoh?
So there we have it. Questions and more questions but no satisfactory answers and this is something we must live with.
However, what we can know may outweigh what we don’t, in terms of incredibility. From St Paul’s extract today, and all four Gospels, we know that Jesus gave Himself to us in bread and wine at the Last Supper. We know that He was betrayed by a disciple, that He did not exact revenge.
We also know that He instructed us to love through service, which he demonstrated in the washing of His disciples’ feet. So whilst we may not be able to marry our understanding of God with everything written about God, we do have a guide for how to live our lives from the life of Christ. That is, a life free of revenge or tit-for-tat, a life of service wherever we find ourselves, be it in the police force, as a parent, a religious, a politician, etc. A life caught up in the Eucharist – being obedient to the command of Jesus to, ‘Do this in memory of Me’. To know that here is truly His Body and Blood for me. Broken and poured out for all humanity irrespective of gender, race, caste or creed. An act so selfless and full of love that it still has the power to reduce people to tears 2,000 years after the event.
Christ is God incarnate. This is God so up close and personal, that we can touch and consume God physically in order that we can become what we eat – holy.
Can I explain away some of the uncomfortable claims about God in the Bible? No. Can I explain
all of Church doctrine about God sufficiently for you? No. However, what I can tell you, is that through the Eucharist God wants to ‘hook up’ with us before we cross over to the other side.
Welcome to The College of Preachers
To explore the website fully, please sign in or subscribe.
Non-subscribers can read up to three articles a month for free. (You will need to register.)
This is the last of your 1 free articles this month.
Subscribe today for the full range of resources from The College of Preachers, including Lectionary sermons for every Sunday, book reviews and more.
