Palm Sunday: The Feast Of The Entrance Of Our Lord Jesus Christ Into Jerusalem

Introduction

On the Sunday before the Feast of Great and Holy Pascha and at the beginning of Holy Week, the Orthodox Church celebrates one of its most joyous feasts of the year. Palm Sunday is the commemoration of the Entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem following His glorious miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead. Having anticipated His arrival and having heard of the miracle, the people when out to meet the Lord and welcomed Him with displays of honor and shouts of praise. On this day, we receive and worship Christ in this same manner, acknowledging Him as our King and Lord.

St. Romanos the Melodist on Palm Sunday

FOR THE FEAST OF PALMS

Acrostic: OF ROMANOS FOR THE PALMS

Proemium 1

Mounted on the throne in heaven, Christ God, and on the colt on earth, You accepted the praise of the angels and the hymn of the children who cried to You, ‘Blessed are You Who come to call back Adam.’

The Temporary Recognition of Christ

Varnavas, Metropolitan of Neapolis and Stavroupolis 

The raising of Lazarus was an event which could hardly have passed unnoticed. The resurrection­­­­­­­ of a dead person, four whole days after their death, produced an enormous impression in Jerusalem and the surrounding area and there were many who believed in Jesus and wished to see Him at first hand. As soon as they were told that he was coming into the city, therefore, they lost no time in receiving Him with great enthusiasm.

Traditions: remembering St. Lazarus

Sylvia Leontaritis

I can remember jumping off the front porch steps in excitement as I hurried into the car to get to the church as quickly as possible to find out which group I was in. Every year the Jr. Choir of Archangel Michael Church in Campbell, Ohio would split into groups and go to all the Orthodox homes in town to sing the kalanta or carols. We did this three times a year, Christmas, St. Basil’s and Lazarus Saturday.

Abba Dorotheos on the Sunday of Palms

Palm Sunday + Entrance into Jerusalem 

(John 12:1-18)

From The Explanation of the Gospel of St. John

by Blessed Theophylact, Archbishop of Ochrid and Bulgaria

Synaxarion For Palm Sunday

By Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos

PALM SUNDAY

On this day, the Sunday of Palms, we celebrate the radiant and glorious Feast of the Entry of our Lord Jesus Christ into Jerusalem.

Sitting on a foal, He Who stretched out the Heaven

By a word seeketh to loose mortals from irrationality.

Synaxarion

After Lazarus had been raised from the dead, many, on beholding this event, came to believe in Christ.

Palm Sunday - Gospel Commentary

By Saint Theophylact, Archbishop of Ochrid and Bulgaria

From The Explanation of the Gospel of St. John (John 12:1-18)

1-3.Then Jesus six days before the Pascha came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He raised from the dead. There they made Him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with Him. Then took Mary a pound of myrrh of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the fragrance of the myrrh. 

The Lord's Entry Into Jerusalem

by Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

30 March 1980

In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Today Christ enters the path not only of His sufferings but of that dreadful loneliness which enshrouds Him during all the days of Passion week. The loneliness begins with a misunderstanding; the people expect that the Lord's entry into Jerusalem will be the triumphant procession of a political leader, of a leader who will free his people from oppression, from slavery, from what they consider godlessness - because all paganism or idol-worship is a denial of the living God.

On the Services of Passion Week

As we approach the great solemn days of Holy Week, we bring to mind how our Lord Jesus Christ was betrayed and seized, tortured and crucified, died and was buried, and arose from the dead. The services of Holy Week, beginning with Lazarus Saturday, show us in symbols, readings and chants the account of our Saviour’s love and sacrifice ‘unto death, even the death of the cross’ for our sake (Phil. 2:8).

Homilies on Hebrews (Chrysostom)
Hebrews 12:28-29

 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace [or gratitude,] whereby we serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.

Homilies on the Gospel of John (Chrysostom)

John 11:1-2

Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, of the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment.

The Feast of Friendship: On Lazarus Saturday

Metropolitan Daniel of Arkhangelsk and Kholmogory 

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!

I wish to congratulate you all – Fathers, brothers, and sisters – on the completion of the Holy Forty Days and on the feast of the Rising of Lazarus and Palm Sunday!

Holy Week is a special week. As the Church teaches, Great Lent is a time when we go to God, and Holy Week is when God comes to us.

HOMILY 

ON THE ENTRY OF THE LORD INTO JERUSALEM (PALM SUNDAY)

St. Nikolai Velimirovich

One of the most miraculous details of our Savior’s life was foreseen by the Prophet Zacharias through the dark glass of time, and described thus: And 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  when he had thus spoken, he went before, ascending up to Jerusalem. And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called the mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying, Go ye into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither. And if any man ask you, Why do ye loose him? thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him.(Zach. 9:9). The Apostle Luke, an eyewitness, describes this event:

And they that were sent went their way, and found even as he had said unto them. And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt? And they said, The Lord hath need of him. And they brought him to Jesus: and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon. And as he went, they spread their clothes in the way. And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.

And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,

And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves. And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him, and could not find what they might do: for all the people were very attentive to hear him (Lk. 19:28–48).

This is the description of an historical event that took place twenty centuries ago, as related by an eyewitness. But this event has more than historical significance; it also has a spiritual meaning, and therefore also a moral meaning for every modern-day Christian. According to the spiritual meaning, Jerusalem signifies the human soul, and the entry of the Lord into Jerusalem signifies the entrance of God into the soul.

The multitudes of people, crowded and pushing one against another, joyfully awaiting and greeting Christ, symbolize the noble sentiments and exalted thoughts of a person who joyfully greets God, his Savior and Deliverer. The leaders of the crowd of people, who hate Christ and want to kill Him, personify the lower desires and earthbound thoughts, which take the upper hand over man’s noble nature and oppress it. Now this lower human nature rebels against God’s entry into the soul, for when God is enthroned there, the lower nature will inevitably be destroyed.

The Temple in Jerusalem symbolizes the holy of holies of the human soul—that sacred place where the Holy Spirit has if only a miniscule haven even in the greatest sinner. But earthly passions penetrate there also, and lower human nature has used even it to achieve its base aims.

Christ heals the soul of those sick ones who fall down before Him with faith, and this means that certain impulses of the soul, although sick, thirst for unity with God and seek for Him, the only true Doctor in the world. Christ’s prophecy of Jerusalem’s destruction symbolizes the destruction of any soul that God rejects, lays low, and spews forth from Himself.

No one in this world is happy unless he has opened wide the gates of his spiritual Jerusalem—his soul—and received God into himself. A godless man feels lonely to despair. The society of others does not make his loneliness go away, but only increases it. However he who has taken God into his soul will never feel lonely even in a desert. No one dies an eternal death other than one in whom God has died.

ON PALM SUNDAY

Archpriest Andrew Phillips

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Today the Maker of the Universe enters Jerusalem. He is seated not on a white stallion with a 100,000 strong army to escort Him like the King of Babylon. He is seated on a young ass, the lowest of creatures, and escorted by street children like the King of Jerusalem. For He is not the King of Babylon, the King of War and Power and Pride and Riches, He is the King of Jerusalem, the King of Peace and Humility. And this is only right, for the name 'Jerusalem' means 'the City of Peace'; Christ alone, the King of Peace, is therefore its rightful King.

Children greet Him with palms, the symbols of victory, and they cry 'Hosanna', meaning 'Save, we pray'. Their cry and their deed are greater than they know, for in their innocence they speak and do truth, for Christ alone saves us, if we pray to Him; and the palm branches are indeed tokens of victory, for Victory comes through the Tree of the Cross.

This is not just an historic event, but an event that can be repeated at every communion. For whenever we seek peace and humility as if seated on an ass, as innocent as children crying 'Save, we pray', then Christ enters our souls and makes them into Jerusalems within us.

However, we know that in Jerusalem there were not only children, 'babes and sucklings', who greeted Him, there were also others, Scribes and Pharisees who, as the Gospels say, 'were displeased'. They are those who wanted a worldly leader, a man of violence, a rival to the Romans, and they will lead Christ to Golgotha, preferring an unrepentant thief to the Son of God. Within a few days our Lord will suffer, because He is innocent and all the innocent suffering of the world, of which we have seen so much in our own days, is taken up in Him.

The division between, on the one hand, babes and sucklings and, on the other hand, the worldly Scribes and Pharisees is a division which is repeated through time and space, and all of us have at some time or another been on both sides. For whenever we sin we are on the side of the Scribes and Pharisees, and whenever we are innocent, we are on the side of the babes and sucklings. But whose side are we on today and whose side will we be on this coming week?

For in this coming Great and Holy Week, Passion Week, the Church calls us to follow Christ. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we begin to relive the dramatic events in Jerusalem of this Week. On Thursday morning we come to the celebration of the Last Supper, which was and is the First Liturgy. On Thursday evening we have the beautiful Service of the Twelve Gospels when the Church tell us all the details of Christ's betrayal, of Judas, of Christ's trial, of Pilate, of Christ's scourging and Crucifixion. On Friday afternoon Christ is taken down from the Cross and on Friday evening He is buried and we shall sing together the Lamentations around His Tomb. On Saturday morning, we shall witness the first Resurrection Liturgy with the changing of vestments from violet into white and then on Saturday at midnight Christ will make clear His Resurrection. This by tradition is the moment when Christ returns to earth and we feel His presence amongst us most clearly.

How can we not come to these services and yet still call ourselves Orthodox? How can we not follow Christ through all the events of this Great Week which changed the history of the whole world? Let us be as babes and sucklings, let us put away our worldly calculations and free ourselves from our laziness, let us be with the family of God, with the Mother of God and St John, and follow Christ to the Cross, so that then we can follow Him to His Resurrection, to Victory and Triumph, and so be resurrected in spirit together with Him.

Amen.

Saturday Of The Holy And Righteous Friend Of Christ, Lazarus

Introduction

On the Saturday before Holy Week, the Orthodox Church commemorates a major feast of the year, the miracle of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when he raised Lazarus from the dead after he had lain in the grave four days. Here, at the end of Great Lent and the forty days of fasting and penitence, the Church combines this celebration with that of Palm Sunday. In triumph and joy the Church bears witness to the power of Christ over death and exalts Him as King before entering the most solemn week of the year, one that leads the faithful in remembrance of His suffering and death and concludes with the great and glorious 

The Lazarus of the Parable and Lazarus who was Four Days in the Tomb

By Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky

Have you ever noticed, dear reader, that in all of Christ’s Parables there occurs but one proper name? If you have noticed, have you ever tried to ascertain why our Lord calls only this Lazarus by name, while even his rival during his earthly sojourn remains under the title of the Rich Man?... Perhaps we would sooner find what we seek, were we to attempt to make a little clearer the individual ideas expressed in the Lord’s parable. Is everything in it clear?

Saturday of the Raising of Lazarus

By Sergei V. Bulgakov

On Saturday of the Sixth Week, the Holy Church commemorates the miracle of raising Lazarus accomplished by the Savior six days before the Jewish Passover during which He suffered (John 11:45-57). The Holy Church glorifies the raising of Lazarus, as proof of the divine power of Jesus Christ and as evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and in the general resurrection of all the dead, as is expressed in the Troparion of the feast. The faithful finding out the great value accomplished by the Lord remembered in today's miracle, the Holy Church hymns:

Saint Lazarus In Orthodox Tradition

Superior-Priest of the Church of St. Lazarus in Larnaka, Cyprus

Bethany is a Jewish word which means "the home of the Phoenicians". It has remained known in history as the homeland of Lazarus the friend of Christ. Although it is a small and insignificant Palestinian village, it has an important place in the history of Christianity. It was one of the places for which Christ had a special affection and would visit frequently. This was due to the strong bonds of friendship that Jesus Christ had with the family of Lazarus and with the leper who some believed was the father of the saint.

Lazarus Saturday

Archbishop Andrei (Rymarenko)

“In the same way we cry to Thee, O Conqueror of death: Hosanna in the highest, blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord”

 Troparion on Lazarus Saturday

Great is this Holy Day, brothers and sisters! Just think of it, “Conqueror of death”! There have been many conquerors in the history of humanity: many gifted doctors have conquered many sicknesses, many military leaders have conquered tremendous armies, even entire countries. There have been conquerors of space such as the inventors of automobiles, airplanes; conquerors of distance — the inventors of the telephone, telegraph, and so on. 

The resurrection of Lazarus, the four days dead, of Bethany

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.