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Today is Palm Sunday


an article published in The Dove 9 April 2023


Lazarus Saturday


We are in Jerusalem, and it is the time of the Passover.   The city is full, not only of the usual inhabitants, but also of thousands of others who have come for this holy time of year.  And yet this year is different – on everyone’s minds and lips is one event – the raising of Lazarus from the dead.


It’s true that “Jesus the Prophet  from Nazareth of Galilee” had raised other people from the dead, but in those instances, they had just recently died, or were being taken for burial.  As stunning as those events were, this one was more singular.   Lazarus and his sisters were well known  throughout the Jewish community, and Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days, already entering into a state of corruption, when Christ raised him from the dead.  Many were present and witnessed this event as Lazarus, obedient to the Powerful and lifegiving words of Christ, “Lazarus come forth,” exited from the tomb still bound, “For Christ who strengthened him proved greater than him that held him back” {from the 5th Ode of the First Matins Canon for Lazarus Saturday].


Many people of that time also saw Lazarus in the days afterwards.  We know from the Gospel account that shortly after his being raised from the dead, Lazarus was alive and well, present at a dinner with his sisters Martha and Mary, and many others; a meal in which Christ was with them as their honored guest.  How grateful and joyous the family of Lazarus must have felt to have their brother back alive and well, beyond all ordinary hope of expectation!


And the majority of the people were also beside themselves with joy -  truly this must be the Messiah, the long-awaited One, the King of Israel.  As incredulous as it was, they had witnessed it themselves and continued to witness it in the person of Lazarus – Christ could conquer even death itself!


The words of Christ to Martha, in answer to her plea, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died,” still reverberate through the ages for all of us to hear, embrace, and ask ourselves:  “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.  Do you believe this?”


Palm Sunday



“Sitting on Thy throne in heaven, carried on a foal on earth, O Christ God,

accept the praise of angels and the songs of children who sing: 

Blessed is he who comes to recall Adam!”

[Kontakion for Palm Sunday].


Six days before Passover, Christ entered Jerusalem not with armies and chariots, but rather very humbly upon the foal of an ass.  Cutting down branches and strewing their garments along the pathway, the crowed went out to meet him, crying out from the depths of their hopes “Hosanna in the Highest, Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.”   Even young children, full of the Holy Spirit, also cried out.   Many earthly rulers have been greeted triumphantly after victories, but this was a totally different experience – the people were welcoming the One who brought hope that death itself – that final and hideous enemy of the human race -  had now met the Immortal Conqueror.



Such an event had never taken place.  And rightly so, as the Prophet Zacharias, writing over 500 years before this day, wrote to the people of Israel: 

 

“Rejoice greatly O daughter of Zion!  
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! 
Lo, your king comes to you;
 triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on an ass”

[Zechariah 9.9 ]


The Patriarch Jacob, who lived even earlier, said to his sons almost  1700 years before the day that Christ entered Jerusalem: 

  “ … and he is the expectation of the nations.
Binding his foal to the vine,
and his ass’s colt to the choice vine,
he washes his garments in wine
and his vesture in the blood of grapes…”

[Genesis 49.10-11]

 


The Holy Spirit has borne witness through the ages that the Messiah would come.   The Prophets spoke in mystical terms of this Deliverer.  Christ is the only One who fits and fulfills all of the prophecies, or who ever will.


As long as the human spirit longs for true freedom – from fear, from the tyranny of sin, the pangs of corruption, and the torment of death and Hades – then it will never be disappointed in its hope because Christ has now come, not only to dwell among us, but to heal us and conquer the last great enemies – sin, the devil, and death – on our behalf.  Our job is to cleave to him to become united to him.   “God became man so that man could become gods by grace.”


In the hymnology of the Church for this great feast, we see a mystical foreshadowing of what is to come: no longer will the sword guarding the Tree of Life be barring the entrance to us, but rather Christ’s side will be pierced, pouring out blood and water and signifying our new life, born of the Baptismal waters and nourished by being united to his divinized humanity.  This is a great Mystery:  Christ himself is the Tree of Life and he invites us to partake of him.


“Thou  hast bound hell, slain death, and raised the world. 
Therefore, the children carry palms and praise Thee  as Victor, O Christ.
Today, O Immortal Lord, they cry to Thee:  Hosanna to David’s Son! 
No longer shall little children be slain for Mary’s Child. 
Thou art crucified for us all, both young and old. 
Thy side is pierced with a spear, defeating the sword drawn against us. 
We cry aloud in great exultation: 
Blessed is he who come to recall Adam!”

[Ikos for Palm Sunday]


From “A Priest’s Remembrances” (printed in Nadezhda, №13, Oossev, 1986)

 

(he is speaking about the believers going back to their homes after the evening Vigil Service (Saturday night) for Palm Sunday:


“Pale stars stud the dark sky above, while below, the flames of burning candles run from the church in all directions – as if alive.  Together with the willow branches, the worshippers guardedly carry home these flames, and with them the joyful knowledge that ‘the Lord is at hand’.   All of this is so ineffably simple and profound!   Nothing more than a small willow branch and a penny candle – and yet, those carrying them experience a joy which all the latest wonders of science and technology cannot impart.”