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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Rev Dr Joel Edwards.

Good Morning.

It all happened a long time ago and I wish I could remember his name. But I can still see him leaping around the Butlins showroom. Everyday throughout the week he had come for help, a broken and disorientated teenager. And now here he was prancing around the building like joy on steroids.

It began the day before as the team met to plan the Maundy Thursday programme. It was to be the final night of an intense week. Bizarrely someone suggested that the team should wash the teenagers’ feet. Everybody laughed. I said it was something we still did in my local church. But I didn’t say that I also found it a bit weird.

So, just like Jesus did to his disciples we would wash the feet of the kids we had been teaching all week. And so, we set about the task. They were embarrassed, and we felt awkward. But we’d been talking about Jesus all week, and it was Maundy Thursday.

It was at the end of the session that everyone saw him. When he finally stood still, we asked him what was happening. So, he took the microphone and told everyone in the building.

Every day he felt worthless, he said. Really rubbish! So, he simply couldn’t believe that those of us who had been teaching him all week, would stoop to wash his feet. For this one youngster, an ancient ritual changed his world.

On Maundy Thursday this was what Jesus had in mind.

When the leader becomes the servant, the servants become great giants and something otherworldly happens.

Lord,
You came not to be served
But to serve and to give your life for everyone else.
Enrich us with this quality of giving.

Amen.

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