Page 158 - Eggs and Ashes pages

Maundy Thursday 157

Ending

After the meal Jesus and his disciples sang a hymn and they went out to the Mount
of Olives. Jesus said to them, ‘All of you will run away and leave me, for the scrip-
ture says, “God will kill the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered”.’
(Matthew 26:31)

Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane.

He was arrested and they all forsook him and fled.

(In silence, the candles are extinguished, one at a time in reverse order, beginning with
Judas Iscariot’s candle and ending with Simon Peter’s. The large candle symbolising
Jesus is carried out of the room, still alight.)

Ian Cowie

A story from Birmingham

He was only a little lad was Leonard –
well, he was five, nearly,
and he had a big brother, Dean, who was eight,
and they both lived round the corner from me.

It was Maundy Thursday,
and a few of us were celebrating it in a friend’s flat;
and we’d got to the bit in the story
where Jesus washed the disciples’ feet.

We sometimes acted things out.
We said it was to help the kids
understand the story,
but most of the grown-ups liked to do it too.

The washing-up bowl
was full of warm water
and soapy bubbles,
and Leonard had been invited
to wash his brother’s feet.