Palm Sunday
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, your King comes to you. He is righteous and victorious, meek and riding on an ass, even on a colt, the son of an ass. (Zec 9:9)
Dear Beloved,
The Entrance into Jerusalem and all that happen there has been long time foretold by the prophets. Christ enters today into Jerusalem, not as a random event, but as always fulfilling the words of the Scripture. He enters today acclaimed by an enthusiastic crowd, attracted by the news of the miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus that we have witnessed yesterday. They were seeing in this a sign of God's presence on earth, a sign of the coming of the long awaited Messiah, proclaimed by the prophets.
However, with all the pomp and the royal welcome, Christ does not enter as a true emperor, but as humble ordinary man, not dressed in golden clothes but as a modest traveler, not surrounded by a flashing army but by a handful of disciples, not riding a beautiful white horse but a simple donkey.
But appearances are many times deceiving! If today under the simple garments of a traveler sits the King of Glory, in the same way the enthusiastic crowd that now acclaims Christ singing Hosanna tomorrow will be transformed in an angry mob shouting: Crucify Him! Crucify Him! Sic transit Gloria mundi says an old Latin proverb. Thus passes the glory of the world. Today acclaimed as a King , tomorrow a killed as a common thief. This is to show that no glory lasts into this world, no appreciation that the world can offer us is durable but only in heaven the glory of God lasts forever.
Under the appearances of a simple travel story lays also the spiritual understanding of today's Gospel. Because the entrance into Jerusalem on the colt of donkey, the clothes of the disciples laid on the ground, the palm branches and the Hosanna, all have their inner meaning deciphered for us by the Holy Fathers.
The Gospel of Mathew says that Christ sent His disciples in the village across from them where they found "an ass tied, and a colt with her". (Mat 21:2) Christ asked them to untie them and bring them to Him. St. Athanasius says that the ass and her colt represent the entire humankind. The colt is our ancestor Adam, the one that was tied up by Satan when he fell into his temptation in Paradise. The ass is an unclean animal representing the pagan people, the gentiles, the idols worshipers. Christ sent the Apostles to bring these two animals to Him, meaning to bring them to salvation, both the people of Israel, the Jews, but also the gentiles, so together they would shape His Church of Salvation.
Another explanation says that Christ "sat on them" as we further read, wishing that both would come to salvation. And He tried first to sit sat first on the female ass (the People of Israel) and she, being a stubborn animal, did not let him ride on her. But the young colt (the gentiles) allowed him to ride on and this is how He entered into Jerusalem. And the ass followed the colt, behind it, showing the Christ will bring the gentiles forst to salvation and only at the end the people of Israel.
We read further in the Gospel of Mark that the Apostles "brought the colt to Jesus, and they threw their garments on it. And He sat on it. And many spread their garments in the way, (Mar 11:7-8)" St. Teophilactus explains that the garments of the Apostles on the colt represent the virtues of the Apostles, showing that if the man's soul is not adorned with the apostolic virtues, God cannot come and rest over it.
The spreading of the people's garments in front of Jesus is nothing else but a symbol of our own obedience to God, the subduing of our own will to the will of God. Without this, without aligning ourselves God's commandments we cannot partake in the Passion and the Resurrection of Christ.
This is why the garments of the Apostles also symbolize the commandments of Christ. The Apostles spread their clothes on the ground so we don't taint our feet in the mud of temptations and passions of the flesh, but to step without fear onto the clean road of salvation.
The joy of the Jews was great at the entrance into Jerusalem. They were shouting freely Hosanna! "Blessed is the King of Israel who comes in the name of the Lord!" (Joh 12:13). Hosanna is a Hebrew word that means "save us". The word in the Highest addresses the angels that glorify Him together with the crowd.
The Kontakion of the Feast reads: "Sitting on your 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 that comes to recall Adam!"
Here is a hymn sung together by the men and the angels. The men were singing Hosanna! Save us! with joy because in their narrow mind they were seeing in Christ a worldly Messiah meant to save them from the slavery of the Romans, someone to save them from the earthly struggles. But the Angels discovered the true meaning of the word. They were singing because through the resurrection of Lazarus it was discovered to them the true mission and full glory of Jesus Christ. They were singing with joy that this mystery known only by God was finally revealed to them. They have found out the Adam will be resurrected by seeing the resurrection of Lazarus and they started singing Hosanna as a joyful hymn. Christ is not a Savior of the flesh but of the Spirit! We should shoult therefore
The palm branches have also their explanation. St John writes: „On the next day, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, a great crowd who had come to the Feast took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him." (Joh 12:12-13) This scene reminds us of a military parade when a victorious Army leader returns in his home town. Today on Palm Sunday the Christians carry palm branches, reminding us the entering of Christ into Jerusalem, the one that conquered death, in anticipation of His resurrection. After a preparation of forty days we receive today Christ prepared and with great joy, knowing that He will rise from the dead, in a short trampling death by death, conquering once and for all the armies of Satan that were enslaving humankind.
But St. Andrew from Crete warns us to receive him not by offering branches at His feet, but trying to offer ourselves at His noble feet through the humbleness of our souls and through the right judgment. We shouldn't proclaim Jesus with tree branches but with a life full of virtues. The branches that we are holding today they shouldn't be mere historical objects but the proof of a life lived imitating Christ. A Proof that we receive Christ into our hearts crying loud together with the angels: Hosanna! "Blessed is the King of Israel who comes in the name of the Lord!"