Orthodox Sermons & Articles

Today, dear brothers and sisters, we gathered in the church to celebrate one of twelve Major Feasts of the Orthodox Church. This feast is called Palm Sunday or The Entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. Today is the First Day of the Holy Week and technically this day and the whole week is outside the Great Lent, but we observe our fasting during this time too.

As you heard from the Gospel reading, in five days before the Passover Jesus entered into Jerusalem and people treated Him as He was their King. But why? We can find many answers on this question. First of all, many of them were witnesses of many miracles Christ performed during His preaching. Secondly, many of them witnessed yesterday’s great miracle—raising Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus was in the tomb for four days and his body already had been discomposing, but by mighty word of Jesus his soul returned to his body and he became alive. You can imagine feelings of the present people who saw the miracle. Yes, some of them could not understand how the work of God can be done by a Man, others were trying to put together in their minds all facts and all miracles Jesus performed, others were certain that Jesus is the Messiah. But there was the fourth party too—party that wanted to kill Jesus and Lazarus because they were jealous and that there won’t be any witness of this great miracle. This part of people was afraid of the miracle because it shows that Jesus is real Son of God. Besides this, they did not care about their souls but about their social position. So, as we see, it is always better to stand on a firm position of eternal truth than follow the shaking fabrications of this temporal world. Thank God, this part of people did not last long. Lazarus eventually became bishop of Crete.

Let’s go back to our feast. Jesus commanded to bring Him the foal of a donkey, but why? If we look into Bible, this event was prophesied by the Prophet Zechariah: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon a donkey, and upon a colt the foal of a donkey.” (Zechariah 9:9). This prophecy points out to the King of Israel. And here Jesus fulfills this prophecy. Every single Jew should recognize this prophesy on Christ’s riding the donkey. And many did, but then, when Jesus was seized and brought to Pilate as a bandit and troublemaker, they all shouted: “Crucify Him!”

Jesus uses donkey because it is an animal that works and works hard. It helps its master to feed his family. Jesus was the one who came into this world to help us humans to feed our hungry souls with spiritual food. This is the second explanation why Jesus uses a donkey. There are more explanations. The Fathers teach that mystically, the donkey, being an unclean animal according to Jewish law, represents the Gentiles. Jesus led the Gentiles into "Jerusalem" as well as the Jews, and this was made evident after Pentecost. Because by doing sins we make ourselves unclean, in this particular moment, donkey also is a symbol of our human nature that the Son of God uses to fulfill His goal of salvation His people. Human nature worked hard and was still outside that heavenly Jerusalem. The Son of God, the Divine Nature, sits on the human nature and brings it into Heavenly Jerusalem, which is God’s eternal Kingdom.

People were happy. They were expecting Jesus to become their King, Ruler. They wanted to get rid of Romans and they thought that Jesus is going to fight Romans and to free people of Israel. As a sign of joy, they took palm branches to greet their Savior. Some of them took off their clothes to put them on the ground that Jesus would not touch dusty soil with His feet. This is where this custom of willow branches comes from. We use willow branches because we do not have palm trees here and because willow is actually the first tree that resurrects after winter sleep. So it is also the symbolic custom of using willow branches.

“Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord!” What a beautiful words! People gave their greetings to their King as we do on the Liturgy in Church. “Crucify Him!” What a terrible words! Since that time people used to switch between these two exclamations. Even we, Christians, Christ’s followers, do it from time to time. Correct me if I am wrong: on Sunday we sing “Hosanna in the highest, blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord” and very next day we fall into sins and by doing unworthy deeds we shout Crucify Him. If our mouth is shut and did not pronounce these words, then our deeds cry it for us. Yes, until this time we humans crucify Christ when we sin. Until this time we agree that Christ is inconvenient for us because we cannot do those sins we like so much. This is why we have to come to church – to cry “Hosanna” and forget about “crucify Him”. We come to church to participate in greetings and to reject damnations. We come to church to enliven ourselves by participating in the mysteries of Christ, to enlighten ourselves with the Holy Spirit that gives us strength to follow Christ not forget about Him.

Today’s feast, dear brothers and sisters, shows us that because of Christ’s coming, this world have been divided in two parts—those who sings “Hosanna” and those who cries “Crucify Him”. Which part of the world are we with our deeds and thoughts? Holy Church wants us today to think about it. Holy Church of Christ wants us to check our conscience and if there is a seed of spiritual unconcern in us, Holy Church wants us to put it on fire of confession and repentance and to prepare in our souls a worthy place for the Resurrected Christ.

Let us, my dear, look at our salvation much closer. Let us pray much harder. Let us follow Jesus Christ more devotedly. Let us come to church and learn how to sing “Hosanna” to our Lord. Let us humble our nature under the Divine Providence that God would by able to bring us to His Heavenly Jerusalem and to sit us on His right side. May the power of the Holy Spirit help you to conclude this Holy Week and worthy celebrate Christ’s Glorious Resurrection. Amen