A HOMILY FOR PALM SUNDAY
About Christ’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem and the Services of Passion Week and Pascha
Brothers and sisters!
On this day, the Sunday of Palms, we commemorate the glorious entry of the Lord Jesus into Jerusalem before His Passion. Our Lord triumphally entered the Holy City after raising Lazarus to show that He was truly the King of Israel and of all creation and that He was surrendering Himself voluntarily to suffering and death.
Six days before the Pascha, that is, before the Jewish feast of Passover, Jesus ate at Bethany with His friend Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead not long before. At the supper, Lazarus’ sister Mary anointed His divine feet with extremely expensive ointment of spikenard. The next morning, the Lord continued on His way toward Bethphage, a hamlet on the Mount of Olives. Before Him, He sent two disciples, with these instructions: “Go into the village, and you will find a donkey tied together with her colt, on which no one has ever sat. Untie them and bring them to Me. If anyone objects, tell them, ‘The Lord needs these animals.’” The disciples found the donkey and the colt, brought them to Jesus, and laid their garments upon them in place of saddles. When they had done so, He Whose throne is heaven seated Himself upon the young, unbroken ass: a symbol of the unbroken, unruly nations of the Gentiles, which would soon submit to Him as their sovereign. Then the Lord continued on His way to Jerusalem and prepared to undertake the mightiest conquest ever accomplished by any King: the subjugation of the powers of Hades, corruption, and mortality itself.
Meanwhile, the people of Jerusalem had learned about the raising of Lazarus, a stinking corpse four days dead, and heard that the great miracle worker Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem. Multitudes from every land had come to the Holy City to celebrate the Passover, and they went out to meet Him. The Hebrew children and even many of the adult Jews threw off their outer garments and, out of branches and the garments, made a carpet on the road for the Lord’s donkeys. Others in the crowd held palm fronds, which people in ancient times waived to greet victors in wars or athletic contests. They did this now to acclaim Jesus as King of Israel, but unknowingly as the One soon to gain the victory over death. Everyone, both those following Christ and those who came out to meet Him, was filled with the Holy Spirit and cried joyfully, “Hosanna (meaning, ‘save’ or ‘grant good fortune’) to the Son of David! Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!”
These events were foretold hundreds of years earlier in the Old Testament by the prophet Zechariah, who wrote, Rejoice, O daughter of Zion (that is, “city of Jerusalem”), for thy King cometh lowly, seated upon an ass and a colt, the foal of an ass.[1] Likewise, David prophesied concerning the Hebrew children, Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou perfected praise.[2]
As He approached Jerusalem, the Saviour, with a heavy heart, looked out over the city. He knew that its people would end by rejecting Him, and that it would be utterly destroyed by the Romans. He wept and moaned, “If only you knew from whence comes salvation! But now this is hidden from your eyes! You stubbornly shut your eyes to God’s favor, to the great blessing of the Messiah’s presence in your midst. Nevertheless, the days shall come upon you when your enemies will cast up ramparts about you and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and dash you to the ground, you and your children with you, and they will not leave one stone upon another, because you did not wish to acknowledge the Lord’s visitation.”
The whole city was in an uproar, and people were asking one another, “Who is this man?”
To this the crowd answered, “It is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee and the wonderworker Who restored Lazarus to life.”
Next Christ went to the Temple and, as in the first year of His public ministry, drove out everyone who was buying and selling in the House of the Lord. He proclaimed, “It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer,[3] but you have made it a den of robbers.”
Hearing that Jesus was in the Temple, the infirm hastened there, hoping to be healed. When they saw Christ’s wondrous works, the people shouted His praises with ever greater fervor. Even the little children cried, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” But the chief priests and scribes were burning with indignation and demanded of Jesus, “Do you hear what they are saying?”
The Lord answered, “Indeed I do. And have you never read the Scripture, Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast Thou perfected praise?”[4]
After this Jesus continued teaching for several days in the Temple, but when evening came, He would leave the city. Meanwhile, the chief priests and scribes and the other leaders of the Jews looked for their opportunity to destroy Him. But for the time being they could achieve nothing, for whenever the Lord returned to the city, He was thronged by people eager to hear Him.
And so now, dear Christians, having ushered us into the Holy City, where the Lord Jesus would be crucified, the Holy Church begins to prepare us for the Passion with three days of examples and lessons from the Scriptures. Thus at Matins tonight (actually, the service is Matins for Great Monday) we commemorate the Old Testament patriarch Joseph the All-comely, whose innocent sufferings prefigured Christ’s. We also commemorate the cursing of the barren fig tree by our Lord, which symbolizes the judgment awaiting those who produce no fruits of repentance, and more specifically symbolizes the judgment awaiting the unbelieving synagogue of the Jews.
At Matins for Great Tuesday (the service we hold on Monday evening) the liturgical texts pertain chiefly to the Parable of the Ten Virgins, a parable which also provides a general theme for all of the first three days of Passion Week. Additionally, this service alludes to the Parable of the Talents, which, in the text of the Gospel, immediately follows that of the Ten Virgins. Both stories elucidate the coming judgment of all mankind and are warnings for us to awake and to use wisely the time that remains to us, for the purposes of repentance and attaining salvation.
At Matins for Great Wednesday, which is served on Tuesday evening, we commemorate the sinful woman who anointed Christ’s feet in the house of Simon the Pharisee. Another theme of this service is the treacherous agreement made between Judas and the Jewish leaders. The moving repentance of the wretched harlot is contrasted with the tragic fall of the chosen disciple, and we are urged to follow the example of the former and to spurn that of the latter.
Throughout the first three days of Passion Week the Holy Church prepares the faithful for heartfelt contemplation of the Saviour’s suffering on the Cross, while at the same time urging us to contrition for our sins.
On Wednesday evening the Lenten cycle comes to an end and a new and different round of services begins. No longer do we hear the soul’s weeping and lamentation for its offences; instead, lamentation of another sort begins: mourning for the Son of God betrayed, seized by iniquitous men, falsely accused, unjustly judged, mocked, spit upon, beaten, crowned with thorns, scourged, forced to carry the Cross, nailed to the wood, slain, pierced with a spear, and sealed in a tomb. At the same time other feelings -- indescribable gladness and boundless gratitude to the divine Redeemer -- fill the heart of the Christian. Even as we grieve over Him Who suffered blamelessly and lament beneath the Cross of the Saviour, we experience the ineffable joy of knowing that our sins were nailed to the Cross together with the most pure flesh of the holy Word of God. The sacred narratives, stirring hymns, and expressive rites stir up in the believing soul innumerable feelings both bitter and joyous, both humbling and rousing. The Christian soul is moved as at no other time of the year, and unless one has gone through Passion Week and Pascha as it lived by the Holy Orthodox Church, it is simply impossible to imagine the experience.
Revealing in its full majesty the meaning of the Lord’s Passion, the services for the second half of Holy Week noetically transport us now to Jerusalem; now to the Mount of Olives; now to the upper room in Zion; now to Gethsemane; now to Golgotha; now to Joseph of Arimathea’s garden where, with the myrrh-bearing women, we draw near to the grave of the Saviour “very early in the morning” and behold His life-giving Resurrection. The Divine Services permit us to contemplate every detail of Christ’s voluntary sufferings; they provide us with the priceless opportunity to hear His final discourses and last words, and to behold His precious blood being poured out for us. In our thoughts we are crucified with the Lord and rise with Him. Because of this, Passion Week and Holy Pascha constitute the most notable, the most elevating time of the entire year. And so, dear Christians, put aside your other concerns now, and turn all your attention to the Divine Services and their inner content. Lift up your soul to the celestial Bridegroom and prepare it diligently for contrite reflection, for heavenly delight, and for the ecstasy of union with its infinite Beloved! Amen.
[1] Zech. 9:9; Matt. 21:5
[2] Ps. 8:2
[3] Is. 56:7; Matt. 21:13, Mark 11:17, Luke 19:46
[4] Ps. 8:2
