PALM SUNDAY — Entry of Our Lord into Jerusalem
Tone 1 Troparion (Resurrection)
By raising Lazarus from the dead before Your Passion, You confirmed the universal resurrection, O Christ God. Like the children with the palms of victory, we cry out to You, O Vanquisher of Death: “Hosanna in the highest!// Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord.”
Tone 4 Troparion
When we were buried with You in baptism, O Christ God, we were made worthy of eternal life by Your Resurrection. Now we praise You and sing: “Hosanna in the highest!// Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord!”
Tone 6 Kontakion
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 Who comes to recall Adam!”
Tone 4 Prokeimenon
Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord. / God is the Lord and has revealed Himself to us. (Ps. 117:26b, 27b)
V. O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy endures forever. (Ps. 117:1)
Philippians 4:4-9 (Epistle)
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy – meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
Tone 1
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
V. O sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things! (Ps. 97:1)
V. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. (Ps. 97:5)
John 12:1-18 (Gospel)
Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead. There they made Him a supper; and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him.Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. But one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, who would betray Him, said, Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money box; and he used to take what was put in it. But Jesus said, “Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial. For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always.” Now a great many of the Jews knew that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead. But the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also, because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus. The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ The King of Israel!” Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written: “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.” His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him. Therefore the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised him from the dead, bore witness. For this reason the people also met Him, because they heard that He had done this sign.
Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday
The week following the Sunday of Saint Mary of Egypt is called Palm or Branch Week. At the Tuesday services of this week the Church recalls that Jesus’ friend Lazarus has died and that the Lord is going to raise him from the dead (Jn 11). As the days continue toward Saturday, the Church, in its hymns and verses, continues to follow Christ towards Bethany to the tomb of Lazarus. On Friday evening, the eve of the celebration of the Resurrection of Lazarus, the “great and saving forty days” of Great Lent are formally brought to an end:
Having accomplished the forty days for the benefit of our souls, we pray to Thee, O Lover of Man, that we may see the holy week of Thy passion, that in it we may glorify Thy greatness and Thine unspeakable plan of salvation for our sake . . . (Vespers Hymn).
Lazarus Saturday is a paschal celebration. It is the only time in the entire Church Year that the resurrectional service of Sunday is celebrated on another day. At the liturgy of Lazarus Saturday, the Church glorifies Christ as “the Resurrection and the Life” who, by raising Lazarus, has confirmed the universal resurrection of mankind even before His own suffering and death.
By raising Lazarus from the dead before Thy passion, Thou didst confirm the universal resurrection, O Christ God! Like the children with the branches of victory, we cry out to Thee, O Vanquisher of Death: Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord! (Troparion).
Christ —the Joy, the Truth and the Light of All, the Life of the world and its Resurrection—has appeared in his goodness to those on earth. He has become the Image of our Resurrection, granting divine forgiveness to all (Kontakion).
At the Divine Liturgy of Lazarus Saturday the baptismal verse from Galatians: As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Gal 3.27) replaces the Thrice-holy Hymn thus indicating the resurrectional character of the celebration, and the fact that Lazarus Saturday was once among the few great baptismal days in the Orthodox Church Year.
Because of the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead, Christ was hailed by the masses as the long-expected Messiah-King of Israel. Thus, in fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament, He entered Jerusalem, the City of the King, riding on the colt of an ass (Zech 9.9; Jn 12.12). The crowds greeted Him with branches in their hands and called out to Him with shouts of praise: Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! The Son of David! The King of Israel! Because of this glorification by the people, the priests and scribes were finally driven “to destroy Him, to put Him to death” (Lk 19.47; Jn 11.53, 12.10).
The feast of Christ’s triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, Palm Sunday, is one of the twelve major feasts of the Church. The services of this Sunday follow directly from those of Lazarus Saturday. The church building continues to be vested in resurrectional splendor, filled with hymns which continually repeat the Hosanna offered to Christ as the Messiah-King who comes in the name of God the Father for the salvation of the world.
The main troparion of Palm Sunday is the same one sung on Lazarus Saturday. It is sung at all of the services, and is used at the Divine Liturgy as the third antiphon which follows the other special psalm verses which are sung as the liturgical antiphons in the place of those normally used. The second troparion of the feast, as well as the kontakion and the other verses and hymns, all continue to glorify Christ’s triumphal manifestation “six days before the Passover” when he will give himself at the Supper and on the Cross for the life of the world.
Today the grace of the Holy Spirit has gathered us together. Let us all take up Thy cross and say: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest! (First Verse of Vespers).
When we were buried with Thee in baptism, O Christ God, we were made worthy of eternal life by Thy resurrection. Now we praise Thee and sing: Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord! (Second Troparion).
Sitting on Thy throne in heaven, and carried on a foal on earth, O Christ God, accept the praise of angels and the songs of children who sing: BIessed is he who comes to recall Adam! (Kontakion).
At the vigil of the feast of Palm Sunday the prophecies of the Old Testament about the Messiah-King are read together with the Gospel accounts of the entry of Christ into Jerusalem. At Matins branches are blessed which the people carry throughout the celebration as the sign of their own glorification of Jesus as Saviour and King. These branches are usually palms, or, in the Slavic churches, pussy willows which came to be customary because of their availability and their early blossoming in the springtime.
As the people carry their branches and sing their songs to the Lord on Palm Sunday, they are judged together with the Jerusalem crowd. For it was the very same voices which cried Hosanna to Christ, which, a few days later, cried Crucify Him! Thus in the liturgy of the Church the lives of men continue to be judged as they hail Christ with the “branches of victory” and enter together with Him into the days of His “voluntary passion.”
Reflection
St. Nicholai Velimirovic
When they brought the martyr Crescens (a nobleman of Myra in Lycia) to court, the judge counseled him for a long time, trying to persuade him to worship idols. When he did not succeed, he finally said to Crescens: “Bow down only in body, but in spirit bow down before your God!” To this the honorable Crescens replied: “The body cannot do anything independently of the soul, which is its driving force and leader.” For that Crescens was killed—an obvious lesson that a Christian cannot be duplicitous. Still another lesson: A Christian has an obligation to serve his Creator not only with the soul but also with the body. This refutes the false position of certain Christians, who live physically as pagans, while praising themselves that they believe in God and love God with their souls. They divide themselves in two, placing themselves in the service of two masters, even though the holiest lips proclaimed that to be an impossibility.
Velimirovic, Saint Nikolai. The Prologue of Ohrid
Homily from St. Nicholai
Personal experience of all the apostles
That… which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, … declare we unto you (I John 1:1).
Behold, such is the apostolic preaching! The apostles do not speak as worldly sages or as philosophers, and even less as theoreticians who make suppositions about things in order to discover something. The apostles speak about things which they have not sought but which unexpectedly surrounded them, about a fact which they did not discover but which, so to speak, unexpectedly found them and seized them. They did not occupy themselves with spiritual investigation, nor did they study psychology, nor much less did they occupy themselves with spiritism. Their occupation was fishing—a totally experiential, physical occupation. While they were fishing, the God-man appeared to them and cautiously and slowly introduced them to a new vocation in His service. At first they did not believe Him, but ever cautiously and slowly—with fear, hesitation and much wavering—they came toward Him and recognized Him. It was not until the apostles had seen Him many times with their own eyes and examined Him and felt Him with their own hands, that they believed. What they experienced was supernatural, but their method of recognizing this was thoroughly sensory and learned through positive encounter. Not even one contemporary scholar would be able to use a more positive method to know Christ. The apostles saw not only one miracle, but numerous miracles. They heard not only one lesson, but so many lessons that they could not be contained in numerous books. They saw the resurrected Lord for forty days: they walked with Him, they conversed with Him, they ate with Him, and they touched Him. In a word, they personally had thousands of wondrous facts firsthand, by which they learned and confirmed the one great fact, that is, that Christ is the God-man, the Son of the Living God, the man-loving Savior of mankind and the All-powerful Judge of the living and the dead. O resurrected Lord, confirm us in the faith and ardor of Thy Holy Apostles. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
— Velimirovic, Saint Nikolai. The Prologue of Ohrid
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