Holy or “Maundy” Thursday and Good or “Passion” Friday

This is part 3 of a 4-part series on Passion Week.

Passion Week: Maundy Thursday

“Maundy” comes from the Latin for mandate and refers to the new commandment (mandate) Jesus gave on Thursday night.

Preparing for the Passover Feast

Location: Jerusalem

On Thursday afternoon of Passion Week, priests slaughtered the Passover lambs. Jesus sent two of his disciples to find a man carrying a jar of water. They were to ask him where Jesus’s guest room was for the Passover feast that night.

Later, Jesus gathered with his disciples in the large upper room of that house. There he removed his outer garment, tied a towel around his waist, and washed his disciples’ feet—normally the duty of the lowest household servant. Then he told his disciples that just as he served them, so must they serve each other.

Jewish days start at sundown. So when the disciples sat down to eat the Passover feast, for them, the Day of Preparation (Friday) had begun. The Passover feast commemorated how years before, lamb’s blood protected the Israelites from death so they could journey to the earthly promised land.

The Last Supper

Jesus testified that one of them would betray him. Peter motioned to John to ask Jesus who. John reclined next to Jesus and leaned over and asked quietly. Jesus replied, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it” (John 13:26). Then he dipped the morsel, gave it to Judas, and told Judas, “What you are about to do, do quickly” (verse 27). Judas left to betray him.

Then Jesus told the Eleven that now he would be glorified. He began to teach them urgently:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

John 13:34

Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take, eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup of wine, gave thanks for it, and passed it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28).

Afterward, they went to a garden where Jesus frequently met with his disciples. It was not long before Judas appeared, leading a band of soldiers.

Little Details

This day is sometimes called “Holy Thursday” or “Maundy Thursday.” “Maundy” comes from the Latin mandātum, from which we get the word “mandate.” Novum mandātum refers to the new commandment Jesus gave: “Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos” (“A new commandment I give to you: That you love one another, as I have loved you”).

Read

• Mark: 14:12–16
• John: 13:1–38

Passion Week: Good or “Passion” Friday

The Arrest

Location: Gethsemane to Jerusalem

The soldiers arrest Jesus. Peter and John follow them at a distance. The rest of the disciples flee. John knows the high priest and gets them entrance to watch Jesus’s trial. Trials at night were illegal, but the Jewish leaders seem to have found a loophole.

The former high priest Annas questions Jesus, trying to get him to incriminate himself. That is illegal too, and Jesus exhorts him to question witnesses instead. It is an opportunity to repent. But an officer strikes Jesus for impertinence and Annas sends him to the current high priest, Caiaphas, who sends him to the governor, Pilate, for crucifixion.

The First Flogging

Location: Jerusalem

Pilate knows the Jews have delivered Jesus out of jealousy. So he sends Jesus to be flogged with the lightest form of flogging, the fustigatio. The soldiers put a crown of thorns on his head and a purple robe on his shoulders. They mock and beat him. Pilate shows the beaten, wounded Jesus to the Jews, demonstrating he is no threat and has now been publicly humbled. He declares Jesus’s innocence and his decision to release him.

But the Jewish leaders threaten to report him for releasing someone who claims to be the Messiah, the King of the Jews. Pilate takes Jesus within his headquarters again and asks him if he is king of the Jews. Jesus replies, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).

The Second Flogging

Torn, Pilate offers again to release Jesus, but the Jews will have none of it. Finally, Pilate gives in and sends Jesus for a second flogging, this time the most severe, the verberatio. It is the flogging that precedes crucifixion, ripping away flesh and exposing bones and muscles.

The Crucifixion

Location: Golgotha

Pilate’s soldiers crucify Jesus, pounding nails through his wrists and feet, attaching him to a wooden cross. Two criminals hang on wooden crosses beside him. Above Jesus’s head, Pilate attaches a placard describing the crime for which he must die:

Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.

Soldiers gamble for his clothes. The Jewish leaders mock him for not being able to save himself after all his claims.

Of the Eleven, only John witnesses the day’s horrific events. The women who travel with Jesus are there, as is Jesus’s mother. Seeing her, Jesus tells John to take her home and care for her as his own mother. He leads Mary away to his home. Even in Jesus’s time of greatest suffering, he cares for others’ needs.

At noon, darkness covers the land. Sometime after, John leaves Mary and makes his way back to the cross. He hears Jesus say, “It is finished,” and watches him die. Just then, the curtain of the temple tears in two and a great earthquake shakes the land. The sun’s light returns.

The Burial

Location: Jerusalem

The Jewish leaders want the bodies taken down because the next day is a Sabbath, a day of rest. So the soldiers break the legs of those crucified with Jesus so they will die quickly, no longer able to lift themselves to breathe. When the soldiers see that Jesus is already dead, they leave his legs unbroken. Instead, they pierce his side with a sword. John witnesses the blood and water pouring out. For as the Old Testament declared, the Passover Lamb’s bones could not be broken, and they will look on the one they have pierced (Exodus 12:46; Zechariah 12:10).

Two followers who were among the Jewish leadership, Nicodemus and Joseph, take down Jesus’s body and place it in a new tomb belonging to Joseph.

To his disciples, nothing seems to be going according to plan.

Little Details

Note that since Jewish days start at sunset, Jesus is crucified on the same Jewish day (Day of Preparation) on which he eats the Passover Feast. This gives new meaning to his claim during the meal that eating the bread is eating his flesh, and drinking the wine is drinking his blood.

Read

Arrest

• John 18:2–12

Trials

• John 18:13-14
• John 18:19-24
• John 18:38—19:16a (first Flogging)
• Mark 15:6–15 (second flogging)

Crucifixion

• John 19:16b–30

Burial

• John 19:31–42

---

In This Series

1. Here’s What Happened During the Remarkable Passion Week: Palm Sunday and Holy Monday
2. Holy or “Fig” Tuesday and Holy or “Spy” Wednesday
3. Holy or “Maundy” Thursday and Good or “Passion” Friday
4. Holy or “Black” Saturday and Resurrection or “Easter” Sunday

Related Post

• An Easter Poem
• Why did Jesus say, “Eat his flesh”?

Books You Might Like

• Easter Enigma: Are the Resurrection Accounts in Conflict? by John Wenham
• The Biblical Theology Study Bible, ed. D.A. Carson
• Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament, by Jean E. Jones, Pam Farrel, and Karla Dornacher
• Discovering Good News in John, by Jean E. Jones, Pam Farrel, and Karla Dornacher