Great Thursday
Matins – Luke 22:1-39; Vespers with Liturgy – Exodus 19:10-19; Job 38:1-23; 42:1-5; Isaiah 50:4-11; 1 Corinthians 11:23-32; Matthew 26:2-20; John 13:3-17; Matthew 26:21-39; Luke 22:43-45; Matthew 26:40-27:2
Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat. According to liturgical prescriptions, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated today.
Read Isaiah 50:4-11
At the beginning of Great Lent, the Liturgy of the Church frequently beseeched God to make us worthy to make it to the Passion and behold Christ on the Cross. We have reached that time, and today we enter into the Passion of Christ, beginning with the Mystical Supper.
In the Liturgy of Holy Thursday, immediately before we hear the Epistle and Gospel recounting the Mystical Supper and the moments leading up to Jesus’ arrest, we hear this reading from the Prophet Isaiah. We once again hear Isaiah prophesy about the Servant.
The Servant is obedient, the Servant gives himself up to be beaten, the Servant does not turn from those who spit on Him.
Christ, the Servant, demonstrates perfect obedience and humility as He suffers the Passion. He consents to accept crucifixion, even though he was truly fearful in His humanity of the torture He would endure. As he was mocked and spat upon, He never lashed out against or cursed those who attacked Him.
Humility and obedience are both central parts of our mystical commemoration of these events in the Divine Liturgy. At the Last Supper, our Lord commanded that we offer bread and wine, as He did, in our worship. We obey that command. We never use milk and cookies, or coke and pizza.
Have you ever thought about the significance of simple bread and wine? The bread we use is just flour, water, and yeast. The wine we offer is pure grape wine, with nothing else added. They are the simplest forms of the simplest staples of human existence. They are the humblest of foods, just as the Servant is the humblest of men. There is nothing flashy about them. And they become our Mystical Food for the journey of life.