Patristic Wisdom for Maundy Thursday

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, “Lord, are You washing my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.” Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, “You are not all clean.” So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” … So, when he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately. Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ so now I say to you. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:1–17, 31–35)

After this, since the passion was getting closer, our Lord began to tell the disciples what He thought should be heard by all of them before His passion. Therefore He said, Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in Him. “The time is near in which the Son of Man who was assumed will be glorified in an amazing way, and in which, above all, God will be revealed before everyone through the things that happen to Him.” The events that happened at the time of the crucifixion—the earth shook, the light of the sun was hidden and darkness covered the earth, the tombs opened and the rocks were broken—all of these demonstrated how great He already was, and how great the magnificence of the One who had been crucified would become. At the same time, these events were also the reason why people admired God who had made the Son of Man worthy of such an honor. If God has been glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself and will glorify Him at once. “Evidently,” he says, “as much as God is glorified by those things which happened to Him, so much greater will God Himself glorify Him. God would not have been glorified if the things that happened to Him had not themselves been great. And these things,” He says, “were not given to Him only after a long time, but had in fact already been given to Him.”

Theodore of Mopsuestia, Commentary on the Gospel of John 6.13.31–32

The Lord Jesus attests that He is giving a new commandment to His disciples, that they love one another. “A new commandment,” He says, “I give to you, that you love one another.” Was not this commandment already in the ancient Law of God, where it was written, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”? Why therefore is that called new by the Lord which is clearly shown to be old? Can it be therefore that it is a new commandment because the old has been stripped off and He has put on us the new man? For love renews one who hears, or rather one who obeys, not every but this love which the Lord, in order to distinguish it from carnal love, added: “As I have loved you.” … Therefore, Christ has given a new commandment to us: that we love one another as He also has loved us. This love renews us that we may be new men, heirs of the New Testament, singers of a new song. This love, dearest brothers, renewed even then those just men of ancient times, then the patriarchs and the prophets, as it did the blessed Apostles later; even now it also renews the nations, and from the whole human race, which is scattered over the whole world, it makes and gathers a new people, the body of the new spouse, the bride of the Son of God, the Only-Begotten…. Because of this the members in her are concerned for one another. And if one member suffers, all members suffer with it; and if one member is glorified, all members rejoice with it. For they hear and keep: “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another,” not as those who are corrupt love one another, not as men love one another because they are men, but as they love one another because they are gods and all, sons of the Most High, so that they may be brothers to his only Son, loving each other with the love with which he himself loved them, who will lead them to that end which may suffice for them, where their desire may be sated in good things. For when God will be all in all, then nothing will be lacking to their desire.

Augustine of Hippo, Tractates on the Gospel of John 65.1.1–3