A Message from Pastor Andrea Chaumont
April 2, 2026
Dear MBPPC,
“So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.” -John 13:14-15
Today is Maundy Thursday and "Maundy" comes from the Latin mandatum (commandment).
Jesus said to his disciples “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By that we will all know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).
MBPPC has long been committed to loving God and loving others. Love is a very vulnerable business. Love involves risk. As Jesus bent down to wash the disciples feet, he modeled the way of love, of vulnerability and of service. Walter Brueggemann says,
“Jesus offered an example to his disciples that was a sharp alternative to all the available models around him. He broke decisively with the model of control used by the Roman Empire. He broke with the model of his religious context of stratification and purity. He broke with all the social realities that control and stratification produce and found himself free and traveling light. In his great act of humility and washing, he broke with all the models of humanity that are visible in our own time and place: the rat race of productivity, the fear for survival, the frenzy of accumulation, and the deathly sense of self-sufficiency.” (A Way Other Than Our Own)
Jesus' dramatic act of humble service happened just before the Passover Festival, just before the cross. Jesus knew what lay before him and yest, he stepped forward in love and vulnerability. John 18:4 says "Then Jesus, knowing all that was to happen to him,
came forward and asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” Jesus, knowing what was before him stepped forward, leaned in and loved us to the very end (John 13:1).
Questions for reflection:
1. What small (or big) act of love and service is God inviting you to today?
2. When is the last time you let one of your own needs be made known?
3. Is it easier for you to give or receive? How might God be inviting you into greater dependence, and inviting you to break with self-sufficiency?
Maundy Thursday Blessings,