Maundy Thursday: A Message from our Faithful Commander-in-Chief

This day of remembrance teaches us how to remain faithful to the calling that is on our lives as followers of Christ. We go forward facing the obstacles, not concerned about the lack of physical weapons;

Joseph J. Bucci ——Bio and Archives--April 3, 2026

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Picture of the scene: a small band of renegades are hiding from the authorities. They are huddling in an upper room, risking their lives to gather together in hostile territory. They are defenseless, in the sense of lacking true offensive weapons, having only two swords (Luke 22:35-38). They have no significant weaponry and no noticeable armor.

The only map they have to guide their escape is the testimony of ancient writers--prophets they were called--but most of their direction described a future far-off kingdom which did not appear to have relevance to the desperate situation at hand. By the following evening their Leader will have passed on, crucified by the same enemies that is now out to get them. If their Leader couldn’t escape His own destruction, how would they stand a chance?

What odds would you give this disorganized band of dissimilar personalities to make it out alive? Not very much honestly. But this is no ordinary ‘Band of Brothers.’ This is the organizational meeting for the Army of God, led on by King Jesus, commissioned to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every nation (Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:15). So how did their Leader prepare them, besides giving them three years’ worth of instruction? This did not seem to be so effective on this night, since they were still bickering around the dinner table regarding which one of them would be the greatest (Luke 22:24). On the last night of His life, their Lord and Master (John 13:13) gave them specific directions--actually He gave them specific commands to follow (see John’s gospel chapter 13).

That is the significance of this day that we call ‘Maundy Thursday.’ Maundy Thursday gets its name from the Latin word mandatum, meaning “command” (Crain, 2026). Jesus, their Commander-in-Chief, gave specific commands to the men assembled in the room that evening. The application of these specific commands are what has kept the church focused and prospering in the midst of a........

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