April 21, 2008

•   ~Palm Sunday~

  Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-10; Luke 19:28-38; and John 12:12-18

  On the Sunday before the Feast of Great and Holy Pascha and at the beginning of Holy Week, the Orthodox Church celebrates one of its most joyous feasts of the year. Palm Sunday is the commemoration of the Entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem following His glorious miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead. Having anticipated His arrival and having heard of the miracle, the people went out to meet the Lord and welcomed Him with displays of honor and shouts of praise. On this day, we receive and worship Christ in this same manner, acknowledging Him as our King and Lord.

   

     

  Prayer at the Blessing of the Branches

  O Lord our God, Who sits upon the Cherubim, You have reaffirmed Your power by sending Your Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to save the world through His cross, burial and resurrection. When He came into Jerusalem to suffer His voluntary passion, the people that sat in darkness and in the shadow of death took boughs of trees and branches of palms as signs of victory, thus foretelling His Resurrection. Do You, Yourself, O Master, keep and preserve us who, in imitation of them, carry palms and branches in our hands. As we join the crowds and the children who sang Hosanna to You, may we, with hymns and spiritual songs, attain the life-giving resurrection of the third day.

  Icon of the Feast

  Icon of the Entrance Into Jerusalem provided by Athanasios Clark and used with permission.

  In the Icon of the Feast of Palm Sunday, Christ is the central figure, depicted seated upon the colt of a donkey as He enters Jerusalem, a fulfillment of the prophecy found in Zechariah 9:9 (1). Christ is blessing with His right hand, and in His left hand is a scroll (2), symbolizing that He is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah, the Anointed One who has come to redeem us from our sins and break the power of death. The colt, one of the animals that were considered unclean according to the Law, is symbolic of the inclusion of all peoples of all nations in the new covenant that will come through the death and Resurrection of Christ (Isaiah 62:10-11). It is also a sign that our Lord has revealed a heavenly and spiritual kingdom that offers true and enduring peace.

  1. “…See your King comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Zechariah 9:9	2. Christ blesses the crowd with His right hand and carries a scroll in His left.

  On the left, the disciples accompany Jesus in His Triumphal Entry (3). Depicted on the right are the Jews (4) who greet Him crying “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” The word “Hosanna” means “Save, I pray” or “Save now.”

  3. The disciples accompany Christ on his entry into Jerusalem.	4. The crowd greets Christ with palm branches and shouting “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”

  The children are the small people who are greeting Christ with palm branches (5) and laying these and their garments on the ground before Christ as tokens of honor for one who is acknowledged as a King. The city of Jerusalem is shown as the walled buildings, and the temple is depicted as the building with the dome (6).

  5. The children also greet Christ with palm branches and lay their garments on the ground honoring Him as King.	6. The walls of Jerusalem.

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