Maundy is a latin word that means “command”. On Maundy Thursday Jesus and his disciples participated in the passover meal and during the meal, Jesus gave the command to his disciples to love one another. He gave an immediate example of loving his disciples by an act of service and washing their feet.

19And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance  of me.”

20In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

Luke 22:19-20 CSB

2Now when it was time for supper, the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son, to betray him. 3Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into his hands, that he had come from God, and that he was going back to God. 4So he got up from supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took a towel, and tied it around himself. 5Next, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel tied around him.

6He came to Simon Peter, who asked him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

7Jesus answered him, “What I’m doing you don’t realize now, but afterward you will understand.”

8“You will never wash my feet,” Peter said.

Jesus replied, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with me.”

9Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.”

10 “One who has bathed,” Jesus told him, “doesn’t need to wash anything except his feet, but he is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you.” 11For he knew who would betray him. This is why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

The Meaning of Foot Washing

12When Jesus had washed their feet and put on his outer clothing, he reclined again and said to them, “Do you know what I have done for you? 13You call me Teacher and Lord — and you are speaking rightly, since that is what I am. 14So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done for you.

16 “Truly I tell you, a servant is not greater than his master,   and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him. 17If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

John 13:2-17 CSB