I'm so overjoyed. The moat here between me and
you needs to be filled with people, not water.
So if you don't mind moving up a little bit.
I'm so overjoyed to be with you all on this festive
day, this unique day in all the church year.
It's maybe perplexing or just interesting that
most of the gospel you just heard spends time
on the account of Mary bringing precious ointment
to Jesus and pouring it on him. Jesus says, she
does this for my burial. Judas objects, we could
use this money in better ways. Jesus says, the
poor you will have with you always. That's not
a description, that's an accusation. That's how
that needs to be heard. And anyway, most of the
gospel is about this encounter. So, just as a
little preface to what I have to say today, let's
give thanks to God for all that's been done here.
this beautiful decoration, the beautiful singing,
the serving, the reading, the meals, the preparation,
the newly illumined who are with us. Because
like that precious ointment, you and I only have
so much activity of the soul and the body that
we can give. Let us not waste it, especially
this week. We want to pour it out on the Lord.
This is the activity of our soul. It's precious.
God has given us something. Let it be directed
to the Lord. We can pour it out on all kinds
of other things this week and waste it. But like
the woman, and Jesus says, she does this for
my burial, we do that also for his burial and
his resurrection. For some weeks, we've heard
in the gospel, on the third, the fourth, and
the fifth Sundays of Lent, Jesus telling his
disciples that he would be arrested by the chief
priests and the scribes and the authorities.
He would be condemned. He would be crucified,
die, and rise, buried and rise from the dead.
Over and over and over, he's telling them, telling
us. I suppose that if I had been there, seeing
the reception on Palm Sunday, you see the fresco
there and the icon in the middle, and you heard
what happened. Seeing the reception given to
the one who raised Lazarus from the dead, an
astounding thing. Yes, I would have thought,
well. Jesus, you know how he speaks in parables
all the time and mysterious exaggerations like
cut off your right hand, pluck out your eye,
and hate your parents and so forth. Well, he
didn't mean that about being crucified, probably.
It was meaning something else. And the disciples,
St. John says this accusation, they really didn't
know what Jesus was all about here. And they're
thinking, now is our time. Victory is at hand.
The people have palm branches. That's a sign
of military victory. Military victory. So a military
procession is what they want. A man who was dead,
buried for four days. Stinking was brought back
to full life with Jesus and they had a meal together.
It was no ghost. He must, Jesus, This man must
be the Messiah, the anointed of God. This raising
of Lazarus is what excited, enthused, and ignited
the people there in Jerusalem. Christ the King.
And couldn't he? Certainly he would, they think.
I would have thought. For sure. Being the Messiah,
he would bring a great victory like Joshua. of
old over Jericho and all the lands that God had
given to them. Military victory with the might
of God destroying the enemy. The king, Jesus
Christ, saw things quite differently. Not a military
procession. It's the steps on the way to Golgotha.
It's a vision. of the destruction that would
come to Jerusalem at the hands of the Roman military
in 6970 A .D. St. Luke tells us this about this
Palm Sunday procession. And when Jesus was come
near, he beheld the city and wept over it, saying,
If thou hast known... even thou at least in this
thy day, this day, the things which belong unto
thy peace. But now they are hid from thine eyes.
For the day shall come upon thee, O city, that
thine enemy shall cast a trench about thee, and
compass thee round about, and keep thee in on
every side, and shall lay thee even with the
ground, and thy children within thee. and they
shall not leave in this place one stone upon
another, because thou knewest not the time of
thy visitation. Jesus sees this procession very
differently, and so do we. However, we're encouraged
today, aren't we? Not to mourn, but to rejoice.
Lent has ended. We might consider the great blessings
we received during the 40 days. Over and over
and over we hear today and last night the command,
Sing, O daughter of Jerusalem, rejoice for your
king is with you. Be glad, rejoice with all your
heart. And the epistle, magnificent epistle from
St. Paul. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I
say rejoice. Let your gentleness, your moderation
be known to all people. especially when you're
driving. The Lord is at hand. And that particular
verse is there to encourage us to be faithful
during these holy days that are coming tonight
and all the way through to Pascha. The Lord is
at hand. Can you walk with him as much as you
can? Can you spend that precious ointment of
your soul that is prayer and mercy and love for
him with him? In a sense, his triumphal entry,
not in a sense, it is. It's not the result, but
it's the prelude to battle and victory, a different
kind of battle. Jesus sent to Jerusalem not to
face Caesar and armies, nor to eliminate religious
establishments. Just think, if he had done that,
this whole thing would be a footnote in some
history book. Nobody would care. Because it happened
over and over again in history. But Jesus enters
into Jerusalem, the holy city, the king of peace,
as the conqueror to build another city, that
kingdom that cannot be shaken, that St. Paul
told us about yesterday in Hebrews. A city that
will have no walls, no boundaries, that God will
be the light of. There will be no need for the
sun. We are receiving a kingdom which cannot
be shaken, therefore let us have grace. And he
enters that city preparing to encounter, defeat
the one who has held creation in the prison of
sin and death. And again, to say what I said
yesterday, all devouring death becomes... begins
to tremble is what one hymn said. Jesus, the
Lamb of God. Lamb is gentle. Lamb is obedient.
Yet in the book of Revelation it says they are
fearful of the Lamb that are sinners. Jesus takes
upon himself all that sin and death. So we hold
our We wave our palms. We wave our branches.
And we're not trying to reenact an event that
cannot be repeated. We hold these branches and
palms as a sign that we are people that live
in that kingdom that cannot be shaken, the new
Jerusalem. And we are fed by God himself in the
Eucharist, the kingdom in which there is no death.
And those who were baptized yesterday have experienced
that first resurrection, the renewal of their
soul. We are gathered around the one who destroyed
the dominion of darkness. We hold our palms and
branches, affirming that we are brothers and
sisters of the Messiah, the one who came. Look
at that fresco. There's a crowd of people on
one side. There's the church. tree there's Jesus
and his disciples between the crowd of people
there's this mountain which cuts a line telling
us that that's the line between the believer
and the unbeliever the one who will say Hosanna
in the highest blessed is he and then be disappointed
that God doesn't do what we want him to do it
cuts the line between The one who will follow
Jesus even to the cross. And the tree with the
children, the innocent children, that's the tree
of life, which is now the Holy Cross, which gives
us life, by which Christ died and entered death
and rose from the dead. Keep that fresco, that
image in mind, with that sharp delineation between
the world and Jesus. He is coming to save that
world. Stick around, brothers and sisters, for
the rest of this week, and you will see that
not enacted, not remembered, but realized in
your own soul and in this community which loves
God. To our Lord be glory now and ever, to ages
of ages. Amen.