Sermon for Maundy Thursday

April 2, 2026
By Kristin Berkey-Abbott




Maundy Thursday




On Palm Sunday, I talked about the different kinds of crowds on Palm Sunday—and then, the different crowd yet again on Good Friday. In between Palm Sunday and Good Friday, we have Maundy Thursday. Maundy Thursday and Good Friday give us two very different insights into the ideas of sin and redemption—and liberation.


You may have been taught a version of Good Friday that I was taught as a child. We are a sinful people, and because Jesus knew that I was going to be mean to my sister two thousand years later, Jesus had to come and die on a cross so that God wouldn’t send me to Hell. And yes, I was taught this version of Good Friday in a 5th grade Sunday School class at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Montgomery, Alabama.


Many adults have a similar belief. Modern Christianity tends to focus on personal salvation and to see the cross as the source of that salvation. In one of my seminary classes, I heard a fellow student say that without Judas and his betrayal, we wouldn't have had salvation because we wouldn't have had the resurrection. I would counter that Jesus was on a collision course with the Roman empire and that he would have been killed anyway. He was crucified, a capital punishment reserved for those who were a threat to the state. He was on Rome's radar.


If we see Jesus as following in the steps of the ancient prophets, we get a much richer view. Much as we might want to believe that we can read the Bible as a prophecy for our current age, Biblical prophets weren’t forecasting the future. They came to remind the people of the ways that they had fallen away from God. They came to the people to tell them that God was disappointed. But much more important, they came to the people to help them remember that God has a much more expansive vision for the people, a vision where everyone is included and everyone has a chance for flourishing. The prophets came to help the people reclaim that vision.


Jesus doesn’t spend much time talking about individual sin, the way that 21st century people might expect. There’s not much pro-family or anti-sexuality language in the speeches of Jesus. The disagreements about moral questions that consume us in the 21st century, that rip churches apart, those aren’t evident in much of what Jesus says. But the dangers of empire that Jesus criticizes aren’t very different today, in the 21st century.


Jesus was calling out the sin of colluding with empire, and many of those sins would be familiar to us today: the people in power taking advantage of those who have fewer resources. Often the people in question had fewer resources because of the way the empire set up life. So widows found themselves not only having to grieve the loss of a spouse, but they also faced the loss of income. Refugees found themselves without safety, often because of decisions made by a distant empire. Orphans faced a much bleaker future, slavery, than children with parents. All of the people faced increasing taxes to fund the projects of the Roman empire, and many of the people would lose everything they owned when they couldn’t pay.


Then, as now, people were desperate for change.



The events of Holy Week take place against a back drop of Passover, the holiest days of the Jewish calendar. Jesus has spent much of his ministry reminding people that they serve a God who brought them out of bondage in Egypt. The festival of Passover celebrates that deliverance. Jesus offers people similar deliverance. But it may not be in the form they were expecting.


Many people in the time of Jesus yearned for a homeland free of Roman occupiers. Jesus Jesus showed them a way, but it wasn’t a military way. Jesus showed them what could reweave the ripped and torn social fabric. Jesus showed them the way of love.


Jesus spends much of his ministry feeding people. Often, after a miracle healing, there’s a feeding. It might be another miracle, like multiplying loaves and fishes. It might be a regular meal, which for many households, then and now, might seem like a small miracle. We gather here tonight to celebrate Maundy Thursday, which some call The Last Supper. But it wasn’t the last supper. If we look at the post-Resurrection stories of Jesus, he’s still there, sharing meals, providing sustenance.


In addition to his preaching and teaching, Jesus spent his ministry doing the tasks that were often relegated to the lower rungs of society, tasks like washing feet and preparing meals. Jesus spent his ministry looking for ways to include those who were on the margins—and he had plenty of people to invite to join them. In the time of strong empires, many people find themselves in precarious positions.


Then, as now, the people wondered if they had found the true Messiah. Then, as now, they doubted whether the way of Jesus would be enough to defeat the forces of empire. Good Friday can make us doubt everything we’ve been taught as we watch that distant empire show how deadly it can be to show up armed with nothing but love. Easter shows us how empty that deadly force is. It’s Maundy Thursday that shows us how we are to love: by service and by sharing a meal together. Through these actions rooted in love and care, we defeat the powers of death.