THE ENTRY OF THE LORD INTO JERUSALEM OR PALM SUNDAY

Title

Patient Jesus for Whom the Cross is Glorification

Outline

We find it difficult to be patient, let alone joyfully patient

We find it hard to wait, even wait in line in a grocery store or for a COVID immunization

We find it very difficult to patiently endure the healing process after an operation

But Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let all men know your forbearance. The Lord is at hand. 6  Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”

Jesus is our model of patience, seeing the joy set before him after a most horrible journey

In the first scene, 6 days before Passover, Jesus is anointed

Whether Mary thought she was anointing him as king or realized his death was near, Jesus interprets it with “The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.” This was “for my burial.”

In the second scene, 5 days before Passover, Jesus responds to an adoring crowd of Galileans crying “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And comes, not as a conquering king, but as a king in peace, as Simon, the first Hasmonean king did. He is king, but he is not going to fight.

In between we have the scene of the chief priests planning to kill Lazarus as they fear their power base of Judeans slipping away to Jesus’ side. Why? Because he could raise the dead. Destroy the evidence. (They already planned to kill Jesus.)

But Jesus patiently and graciously orchestrating the events is looking past his death to his glorification that gave meaning to his death.

What do we learn from this?

Jesus can patiently wait, counting down the day, graciously dealing with all, knowing that he was heading into death but then glorification.

He can do that because he embodied what Paul taught - in fact, he was the reason Paul taught it. He spent time in prayer and was one with the Father; he rejoiced in what God was ultimately doing; he was a model of forbearance, for he knew that God’s time was at hand; and he embodied God’s peace, being God in flesh, and therefore was silent at his coming trial and enabled to see through it to the resurrection.

This, brothers and sisters, is the stuff martyrs were made of, and it helps us understand their stories.

The question for us is whether we have learned from Jesus and, because we know of his glorification and have anointed him ourselves, we are living in such joyful patience as we await the outcome of the divine plan in our lives.

Readings

Byzantine Lectionary (Gregorian) 3-28-2021: The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem or Palm Sunday

MATINS GOSPEL

Matthew 21:1–11, 15–17

21  And when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. 3 If any one says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and he will send them immediately.” 4 This took place to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet, saying,

5 “Tell the daughter of Zion,

Behold, your king is coming to you,

humble, and mounted on a donkey,

and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; 7 they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their garments on them, and he sat on them. 8  Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9  And the crowds that went before him and that followed him shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 10 And when he entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, “Who is this?” 11  And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.”

15  But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant; 16  and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,

‘Out of the mouths of babies and infants

you have brought perfect praise’?”

17  And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.

Byzantine Lectionary (Gregorian) 3-28-2021: The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem or Palm Sunday

EPISTLE

Philippians 4:4–9

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let all men know your forbearance. The Lord is at hand. 6  Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9  What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, do; and the God of peace will be with you.

GOSPEL

John 12:1–18

12  Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 There they made him a supper; Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at table with him. 3 Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment. 4  But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” 6  This he said, not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box he used to take what was put into it. 7  Jesus said, “Let her alone, let her keep it for the day of my burial. 8 The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”

9 When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came, not only on account of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10  So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus also to death, 11 because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.

12  The next day a great crowd who had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13  So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” 14 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it; as it is written,

15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion;

behold, your king is coming,

sitting on a donkey’s colt!”

16  His disciples did not understand this at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that this had been written of him and had been done to him. 17 The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead bore witness. 18 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign.

Notes

Byzantine Lectionary (Gregorian) 3-28-2021: The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem or Palm Sunday

SUNDAY, MARCH 28, 2021 | TRIODION AND GREAT LENT

THE ENTRY OF THE LORD INTO JERUSALEM OR PALM SUNDAY

Bright Vestments

Our Venerable Father Hilary, monk, and St Stephen, wonderworker (died during the reign of Leo the Armenian); St Jonas and his brother St Barachisius, and others, martyrs (m. 327 by King Sapor of Persia)