Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to God. Sprosnikum.
Sprosnikum. Over a thousand years ago, over 2
,000 years ago, more than 2 ,500 years ago, the
prophet Zechariah lived. And the following words
are written in the book of Zechariah in chapter
9, verse 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Lo, your
king comes to you. Triumphant and victorious
is he. Humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt,
the foal of an ass. And if you look up above,
on the left side, on the south side of the church,
you'll see this great icon painted there of that.
that happened in history. Zechariah, for him,
that event in history was far off in the future.
For us, it is back a ways in the past, but it
happened just as prophesied. It happened, and
we see it depicted there for us, and we celebrate
it today, and we hold these palms. because of
the occurrence of that event, which was prophesied,
that would happen in the earthly ministry of
our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And
so, for us, in our perspective, it happened in
the past. And today, we celebrate this joyous
event, and we are told to rejoice. Zechariah
says to rejoice. And today's epistle reading
says, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say
rejoice. And why are we to rejoice on this special
Sunday of Palm Sunday? We rejoice because the
Messiah, the Savior of the world, the Redeemer
of humanity, has arrived and entered into Jerusalem.
Jesus has fulfilled the words written centuries
ago. before. Jesus is making his triumphal entry.
He is publicly demonstrating that he is the King
of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Messiah.
So a great multitude took branches of palm trees
and went out to meet him and cried out, Hosanna!
Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord,
the King of Israel. And so today we too hold
these palms and we rejoice for our Lord and God
and Savior Jesus Christ, the Messiah, rode triumphantly
into Jerusalem. But this triumphant entry into
Jerusalem was not what the masses of that day
expected. The crowds expected something different.
the Messiah, the Christ, to return to conquer,
to conquer the Romans, to come in power at that
time in history. They did not understand that
Jesus had come to Jerusalem to die upon the cross,
to conquer death, to conquer sin, that he had
come to die and on the third day be resurrected.
They thought they knew God's plan. They thought
they understood God's timing. But scripture tells
us that no one knows the day or the hour when
Christ will return in power. Yet people still
claim they know. When I was a Protestant Christian
decades ago now, a book came out. It was called
88 Reasons. why Christ will return in 1988. I
bought it. I read it. I was convinced by this
author that certain Old Testament prophecies
and New Testament writings all pointed to Christ's
return in glory in the year 1988. And so I looked
for it, and obviously it did not occur. But I
learned a lesson from that book, that God does
not want us to know the day or the hour. And
if he did, he would have told us clearly. It
would have been written in the scriptures somewhere
in the prophecies or perhaps in the New Testament.
He would have revealed it to us. And I was so
busy. that year, trying to figure it out. I wasted
time that I should have spent on my own spiritual
growth, on getting myself ready for Christ's
return. And what a blessing it is for us that
God has given us more time, time to repent, time
to be baptized and chrismated, time to be sanctified,
time to prepare. for his second and glorious
coming still ahead of us. Saint Nectarios Cephalus
says these words, It is necessary for our spirit
to follow the Spirit of the Lord, and for our
will to seek the will of the Lord. And in so
doing, we become his true followers, and we walk
unhindered, along the way of freedom, which is
also the way of salvation. So let us use this
time that God has given us to seek God's will
for our lives, to better prepare ourselves for
that great day in the second and glorious coming.
And this day, let us rejoice in celebrating his
triumphant... entrance into Jerusalem, where
he rode humbly into Jerusalem. Hosanna! Blessed
is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the
King of Israel. Glory to Jesus Christ.