Join us for our Maundy Thursday Service
Pine City EFC, Lighthouse on April 1, 7:00 pm

“And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.”

Maundy Thursday is the day on which Christians remember the Last Supper. The word Maundy comes from the Latin word maundatum which means "command". Maundatum is from 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 all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Jesus’ new commandment, or mandatum, was that we love one another as He has loved us – which was to the point of death. Most people assume Jesus meant to love our neighbor in this passage, but Jesus is going deeper than that. He is also telling the disciples to love each other. He is establishing the Christian Church on earth and is telling them how they ought to behave towards one another. How fitting, then, that Christians observe Maundy Thursday to prepare their hearts for Tenabrae.

Tenabrae is a Latin term as well. It means, “darkening”, and this literally happened during Jesus’ Passion on the cross for several hours when God’s wrath was poured out on the innocent Son of God. Tenabrae, or Good Friday, as it is often called, is when seven candles are lit, in connection to the seven words that Jesus spoke from the cross in the Four Gospels. After each word is spoken, a candle is extinguished, and the sanctuary gets “darker”. Hence the term, Tenabrae.

The purpose of the Tenebrae service is to recreate the emotional aspects of the passion story. This is not supposed to be a happy service, because the occasion is not happy. The service has long scripture narratives, which are divided into seven, eight, or nine parts, each one assigned to a different reader. The service may include other parts, such as solemn hymns, a sermon, and communion, but the core of the Tenebrae service works like this: It starts out with the church in candlelight. There are as many candles as there are readings, plus a white Christ candle. The readers go up one at a time, read their assigned selections, and extinguish one of the candles, until only the Christ candle remains. Then someone reads the first part of Psalm 22, which Jesus quoted on the cross. Then the Christ candle is put out, leaving the congregation in near total darkness—and near total devastation. At this point, the service ends. There is no benediction and the people leave in silence.

The purpose of the service is to recreate the betrayal, abandonment, and agony of the events, and it is left unfinished, because the story isn’t over… until Easter Day.

An invite to Easter Sunday….
Join with us on Easter Sunday to celebrate our risen Savior.
April 4, 10:30 am
Pine City EFC, Lighthouse