Maundy Thursday: “When You Woke That Thursday Morning”

Mirroring Jesus’s Last Supper, my church’s Maundy Thursday service is the only day of the year that we move from our usual sanctuary space to a smaller, more intimate table. With this comes a shift in music: no more grandeur of an organ, but instead the personal, deep harmonies of the piano. And with the piano, the hymn “When You Woke that Thursday Morning.” This hymn fits the piano perfectly, moving and flowing with Jesus’s experiences and wishes for us. The suspended tension and release in this hymn likewise encourage us to slow down, listen, and be present in this moment of remembrance and appreciation. 

When we set aside all our busyness and approach Jesus at his table as he calls us to do, we can ponder this marvelous invitation. Our Lord gave us one of his greatest gifts and Sacraments at his last meal, his very body and blood; not only that, but he gave himself even to the very person who had already sold him out to death. In the midst of this final, precious meal with his disciples, his closest friends, Jesus wanted to give us a hope in him that would live on: 

“Show Me and the world you love Me, 
Know Me as the Lamb of God: 
Do this in remembrance of Me, 
Eat this body, drink this blood.” 

Jesus sustained us, allowing us to be together with him and each other, even though he knew that he would soon have to die to pay for it. How can we comprehend this great love and sacrifice?

I think sometimes we forget that the Son of God was human, a person just like us. He woke up every morning, travelled, spent time with close friends and family, and ultimately experienced all the quirks of human life alongside us. So we can in some way imagine how he must have felt that Thursday morning, knowing that it would be his last day on Earth, his last time with his dearest disciples with whom he had spent the past three years. We can hear his cry in Gethsemane that night, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.” And yet, try as we might, we have difficulty with his next words: “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” Jesus’s resolve to take all our sins upon him, suffer, and die reminds us of just how loving of a God we worship. This Maundy Thursday, “When You Woke that Thursday Morning” gives us a glimpse into this sacrificial love of Christ on the last day of his life.

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1 When You woke that Thursday morning, 
Savior, teacher, faithful friend, 
Thoughts of self and safety scorning, 
Knowing how the day would end; 
Lamb of God, foretold for ages, 
Now at last the hour had come 
When but One could pay sin’s wages: 
You assumed their dreadful sum.

2 Never so alone and lonely, 
Longing with tormented heart 
To be with Your dear ones only 
For a quiet hour apart: 
Sinless Lamb and fallen creature, 
One last paschal meal to eat, 
One last lesson as their teacher, 
Washing Your disciples’ feet. 

3 What was there that You could give them 
That would never be outspent, 
What great gift that would outlive them, 
What last will and testament? 
“Show Me and the world you love Me, 
Know Me as the Lamb of God: 
Do this in remembrance of Me, 
Eat this body, drink this blood.” 

4 One in faith, in love united, 
All one body, You the head, 
When we meet, by You invited, 
You are with us, as You said. 
One with You and one another 
In a unity sublime, 
See in us Your sister, brother, 
One in ev’ry place and time. 

5 One day all the Church will capture 
That bright vision glorious, 
And Your saints will know the rapture 
That Your heart desired for us, 
When the longed-for peace and union 
Of the Greatest and the least 
Meet in joyous, blest communion 
In Your never-ending feast.