Palm Sunday
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our King and Priest, Saviour and Lord, enters Jerusalem on this day. The wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace, the Unapproachable manifests Himself. No longer in thunder and lightening, no longer in fire and smoke and the sound of mighty trumpets as at Sinai, but meek and riding upon the foal of an ass.
As the Holy Spirit spoke through the Prophet Zacharias:
Rejoice greatly O daughter of Sion; proclaim it aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, the King is coming to thee, just, and a Saviour; He is meek and riding on an ass and a young foal. (Zacharias 9:9)
Rejoice O daughter of Sion at these strange and marvellous and unhoped for things! And babes and sucklings cry out Hosanna in the Highest, blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. The Son of David the Saviour of Israel, the Redeemer from darkness and the shadow of death hath come and a great light hath shined upon us. The Lord of Glory comes in meekness and what is more, in labours and toils for our sake. We shall see our Master gird Himself with towel and wash the feet of the disciples. Let none of us despise labouring for the Lord or our brethren.
The heavens were in awe-struck wonder during this Holiest of weeks and praised the boundless and mind-boggling love of our Creator for the work of His hands, the race made from clay and yet gifted sonship.
We began yesterday with Lazarus the friend of Christ. An amazing title! The friend of Christ! The titles of this world really are not for much, here today gone tomorrow, and their value is as a vanishing mist. But, the “friend of Christ” is a title that lasts unto eternity and is worth more than all of the things of the world! We should concern ourselves with acquiring just such a title. How to attain unto this? Our Saviour Himself explained how:
If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love. These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is My commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known unto you. (John 15:10-15)
Again, our Saviour promises us yet more. On one occasion, our Saviour was preaching and someone came up to Him and told him his mother and his brethren were outside and wanted to speak to him. Wanting to make a point our Saviour replied, Who is My mother? and who are My brethren? And He stretched forth His hand toward His disciples, and said, Behold My mother and My brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of My Father which is in the Heavens, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother. (Matt 12:48-50)
Our Saviour Himself teaches us that thus do we acquire the title of not only the friend of Christ, but His very kinsman. Lazarus, Mary and Martha heard these words and fulfilled them and became the friends and kinsman of God.
On this day we are commanded to rejoice and exult with the infants and cry out Hosanna in the highest, Blessed is He Who is the son of God by nature Who became the Son of David for our sakes, the king of Israel. We have been called to become sons and daughters of the Most High, but in order to be true offspring we must resemble the meekness of the Son of God. Let us ever remember the meekness of our Saviour in our dealings with our brethren and imitate Him.
As it says in today’s Gospel:
On the next day the great multitude that was come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. (John 12:12-13)
The word Hosanna means, save, we beseech and the immature children were inspired by the Holy Spirit to prophesy in recognition of Jesus, the Christ, Who came to save the race of man.
The Apostles had spread their garments on the back of a young foal of an ass that had not been under yoke and Christ Jesus sat upon this animal and road into Jerusalem on it. The asses foal signifies the nations that were once bound by error and sin, never under the yoke of the commandments of God and now loosed by the Apostles and led to Christ. The garments that were put upon the foal signify the garment of theology woven from on high, that is the revelation of truth that the Apostles clothe us with and it is only by wearing this garment that we can bear Christ.
There is also a prophecy of the patriarch Jacob regarding the events of this day that reads thus, A ruler shall not fail from Juda, nor a prince from his loins, until there come the things stored up for him; and he is the expectation of nations. Binding his foal to the vine, and his ass’s colt to the branch of it he shall wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape. (Gen 49:9)
It is written in the Gospel of Saint Matthew, And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. And when He was come into Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, Who is this? (Matt 21:9)
Men foolish and hard of heart! This is Jesus of Nazareth Who walked your streets and was made famous by mighty miracles beyond the power of man. He raised the paralytic and formed new eyes out of clay for one born without eyes (John 9:6) and ye say, “Who is this?” He raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead on one occasion and the son of the widow of Nain and ye say, “Who is this?” He raised Lazarus who was dead four days and ye say, “Who is this?”
Lazarus arose and the children rejoiced at this universal cause of rejoicing, yet the Pharisees and Sadducees disbelieved and sought to kill Him. How is it that they were so blind? The very words of Caiaphas explain this, for he said “it is expedient for us” that he dies.
In modern parlance, their self-absorbed personal agenda overcame all else. The very Lord of Glory manifested Himself by unprecedented miracles and they stubbornly rejected Him. Blinded by self-interest they fulfilled the prophesies that the Holy Spirit spoke by the Prophet Esaias concerning the voluntary passion of our Saviour. Alas, what can we say of our own day when we see Bishops, clergy and laity who imitate Annas and Caiaphas and slay the Body of Christ for the sake of personal agenda and expediency. In some cases, they promote heresy and/ or the violation of canons and in others; they ruin the good witness of the Church for those seeking Orthodoxy, all for the sake of personal expediency. Personal expediency caused the high priests to crucify the Lord of Glory and will be the special tool of the Anti-Christ to crucify local Churches in our times. Personal expediency will cause the stars of heaven to fall (Rev. 6:13), i.e., local Churches to fall away from Christ in the last days.
We Christians of the last times must cry out, come quickly and save O Lord, Hosanna! O Lord, make these evil men of our own day good by Thy goodness. May the scales fall from their eyes as they did for Saul the persecutor so that they would dedicate themselves in a spirit of self-sacrifice to the Church, as did the repentant Saint Paul!
We have completed the forty-day fast. Let us humbly entreat our God to accept our lowly offering and ask for the great gift of spiritual illumination, that with a clear mind and heart we may encounter and worship our Saviour’s saving dispensation. Now during this holy week let us as much as we can, put away the distractions and cares of this life. And if we have involuntary distractions that we cannot dispense with then let us at least refrain from voluntary ones.
As we enter this awesome week, let us savour the great acts of God for our salvation. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit we will be in Jerusalem, there where Judas covenanted with the Jews for thirty pieces of silver—“and the Lord was invisibly present and agreed thereto,” as it says in the hymnology of the Church. We will be there, at the washing of the disciple’s feet, at the Mystical Supper, the prayer in Gethsemane, at the Crucifixion, at the lament and praise at the grave.
May you all be deemed worthy to find freedom through the mystery of our Saviour’s self-sacrificing, co-suffering love for us and His radiant resurrection. Amen.