Homily on The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem
Philippians 4: 4-9; John 12: 1-18.
This Sunday, we celebrate the triumphant entry of our Lord and Saviour into Jerusalem. The king of all welcomed by His people – the Jews. How does Christ choose to enter into Jerusalem? Does He enter in with a powerful army at His side? No, for He is adamant that His Kingdom is not of this world – for He says to Pilate:
“My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now my kingdom is not here (John 18:36).
We know that He is the second Person of the All-Holy Trinity for this was revealed at His baptism which we celebrate on the feast of Holy Theophany (Matthew 3: 13-17) and again at His Transfiguration where the Apostles Peter, James, John witnessed the God-man appearing in all His glory emanating the uncreated energies and light of the All-Holy Trinity.
Despite all His power, Christ, our King, chose to enter Jerusalem on a lowly colt. Showing us a perfect model of Christian humility which all are called to follow. Yet this humble entry goes against what the Jews had hoped for, they wanted a strong warrior who would liberate Israel from Roman rule. Yet His kingdom is within for Saint Theofan the Recluse states thus:
“The Kingdom of God is within us when God reigns in us, when the soul in its depths confesses God as its Master, and is obedient to Him in all its powers. Then God acts within it as master ‘both to will and to do of his good pleasure’ (Philippians 2:13). This reign begins as soon as we resolve to serve God in our Lord Jesus Christ, by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Then the Christian hands over to God his consciousness and freedom, which comprises the essential substance of our human life, and God accepts the sacrifice; and in this way the alliance of man with God and God with man is achieved, and the covenant with God, which was severed by the Fall and continues to be severed by our willful sins, is re-established.”
Through His humble entry, Christ shows us that only a humble heart that is seeks to do the will of God can enter into His kingdom.
This is one of the great mysteries of the Gospel for to the world strength is what is what commands respect. Yet the Church preaches a resurrected Lord who opened His arms on the Cross so that all may have the ability to be saved should they wish to follow Him. To the unbelievers a crucified Lord is foolishness, yet this is where the Gospel gets it strength; Christ emptied Himself so that man might be reborn of water and the All-Holy Spirit.
Saint Paul puts it eloquently in His first letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 1:18-19):
“The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written – ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”
There you have it; the wisdom of this world is nothing compared to the wisdom of the All-Holy Trinity. This is why many people sink into the depths of spiritual suicide refusing to believe because Christ does not fit in with the ways of this world. He is opposite to many of the values of this world He does not command us to conquer nations with the sword or gun. Rather, we are called to win hearts hardened by sin and disbelief via love, via the preaching His saving words.
If Christ had wanted us to conquer the countries of the world, making an earthly kingdom, he would have not said to Saint Peter when he cut off the ear of the servant of the High Priest:
“Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will die by the sword (Matthew 26:52).”
For those who seek to subjugate people via arms will only be victorious as long as they have the upper hand through the force of arms. Yet the arms we are called to take up are not physical, but rather spiritual. We are all called to enter the spiritual battle wearing our spiritual armour.
Saint Paul makes this clear in his letter to the Ephesians for he writes:
“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armour of God, that you might be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6: 10-12)”
How does one put on the whole armour of God? Principally, one does so via the frequent worthy reception of the Holy Mysteries of Christ’s Orthodox Church and prayer; these Mysteries being penance and the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist. Without these we are like the person in the land mentioned in Psalm 63:
“O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth after thee in a dry and thirsty land, where there is no water (Psalm 63: 1). “
Christ makes it evident that to have life within us we must partake of the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist for He says in John 6: 51- 59:
“I am the living bread which came down from Heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give is My flesh, which is given for the life of the world… Most assuredly, I say to you unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you have no life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise Him up on the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from Heaven – not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”
There we have it, without receiving the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist we are spiritually empty and like the person in Psalm 63. When we receive the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist, we truly receive Christ’s Body and Blood and in so doing we are joined to Him and have life in Him. In a way, without this great Mystery of the Church man becomes like the prodigal son squandering every blessing give him by his God (Luke 15: 11-32). Without, receiving the Holy Eucharist man is weighed down with all the cares of this world and left to his vices with no hope of redemption.
Moreover, when we receive the Mystery of the Holy Eucharist, we do not receive a dead Lord and Saviour, to do so would make one a cannibal but rather we received the living totality of the resurrected Lord who is alive in a way beyond our mortal life– and when we receive Him in His totality, we are brought into to Him, joined to the source of our life. In this moment it is not Him who is consumed but rather us - for in that moment we are joined to Him in a way that is beyond what the world can understand.
What this means is that as soon as you partake of the Holy Eucharist the joining of your soul to Christ is complete and you are made alive in Him; the first step in the process of Theosis.
This is why, we do not see the words of John 6: 51-59 as symbolic but as the literal truth about the Eucharist.
Indeed, there is the story of a wealthy Muslim scribe in Constantinople who lived in the seventeenth century. Ahmed worked in the official archives of Constantinople and made copies of important texts for the Ottomans. He had two Russian slaves who piously practiced their faith. The older lady would often bring antidoran (the blessed bread) and holy water to give to the younger slave to consume, as only one slave was allowed out to go to Church.
Every time, the young Russian ate the blessed bread and drank the holy water a beautiful fragrance emanated from her mouth. This got Ahmed curious so one day, he spoke to an Orthodox Priest who organised a secret spot for Ahmed in a Church in the Church of Hagios Georgios in Phanari so he could learn how the Orthodox Christians worshiped.
When he was in the Church every time the Patriarch of Constantinople blessed the people with his trikiri and drikiri candles, light beamed onto the heads of the faithful and not Ahmed. Ahmed witnessed this miracle three times in the course of the Divine Liturgy which caused him to have a change of heart and accept baptism at the hands of his priest friend. Needless to say, Ahmed’s faith grew and one day in an argument with friends as to what was the best religion, Ahmed did not deny that he was a Christian. As a result, his friends informed the authorities about his conversion to Christianity, and he died a martyr’s death on the 3rd of May, 1682.
If his young concubine received such blessings from the blessed bread and holy water how many more graces can be obtained from worthily receiving the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist the source of our eternal life.
Dositheus II of Jerusalem has this to say on the reality of the Eucharist in his work the Orthodox Confessions of Dositheus (1672):
“He is not present typically, nor figuratively, nor by superabundant grace, as in the other Mysteries, nor by a bare presence, as some of the Fathers have said concerning Baptism, or by impanation, so that the Divinity of the Word is united to the set forth bread of the Eucharist hypostatically, as the followers of Luther most ignorantly and wretchedly suppose.
But truly and really, so that after the consecration of the bread and of the wine, the bread is transmuted, changed, converted and transformed into the true Body itself of the Lord, Which was born in Bethlehem of the ever-Virgin, was baptized in the Jordan, suffered, was buried, rose again, was received up, sits at the right hand of the God and Father, and is to come again in the clouds of Heaven; and the wine is converted and changed into the true Blood itself of the Lord, Which as He hung upon the Cross, was poured out for the life of the world.”
Saint Irenaeus of Lyons talks about the realities of the Holy Eucharist in this way in his work on heresies:
“He took from among creation that which is bread, and gave thanks, saying, "this is my body." The cup likewise, which is from among the creation to which we belong, He confessed to be His blood.
He taught the new sacrifice of the covenant, of which Malachi, one of the twelve prophets, had signified beforehand: [quotes Mal 1:10-11]. By these words He makes it plain that the former people will cease to make offerings to God; but in everyplace a sacrifice may be offered to Him, and indeed, a pure one; for His name is glorified among the Gentiles. (Against Heresies 4:17:5)
But what consistency is there in those who hold that the bread over which thanks have been given is the body of their Lord, and the cup His blood, if they do not acknowledge that He is the Son of the Creator… How can they say that the flesh which has been nourished by the Body of the Lord and His blood gives way to corruption and does not partake of life? …For as the bread from the earth, receiving the invocation of God, is no longer common bread but the Eucharist, consisting of two elements, earthly and heavenly… (Against Heresies 4:18:4-5)
If the body be not saved, then, in fact, neither did the Lord redeem us with His blood; and neither is the cup of the Eucharist the partaking of His blood nor is the bread which we break the partaking of His body…He has declared the cup, a part of creation, to be His own blood, from which He causes our blood to flow; and the bread, a part of creation, he has established as
His own body, from which He gives increase to our bodies.
When, therefore, the mixed cup and the baked bread receives the Word of God and becomes the Holy Eucharist the body of Christ, and from these the substance of our flesh is increased and supported, how can they say that the flesh is not capable of receiving the gift of God, which is eternal life -- flesh which is nourished by the body and blood of the Lord…receiving the Word of God, becomes the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist, the body and blood of the Lord… (Against Heresies 5:2:2-3)”.
And Saint Ephraim the Syrian talks about the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist in this way:
“Our Lord Jesus took in His hands what in the beginning was only bread; and He blessed it, and signed it, and made it holy in the name of the Father and in the name of the Spirit; and He broke it and in His gracious kindness He distributed it to all His disciples one by one. He called the bread His living Body, and did Himself fill it with Himself and the Spirit. And extending His hand, He gave them the Bread which His right hand had made holy: "Take, all of you eat of this, which My word has made holy. Do not now regard as bread that which I have given you; but take, eat this Bread [of life], and do not scatter the crumbs; for what I have called My Body, that it is indeed. One particle from its crumbs is able to sanctify thousands and thousands, and is sufficient to afford life to those who eat of it. Take, eat, entertaining no doubt of faith, because this is My Body, and whoever eats it in belief eats in it Fire and Spirit. But if any doubter eat of it, for him it will be only bread (in their perception despite the reality of what it truly is). And whoever eats in belief the Bread made holy in My name, if he be pure, he will be preserved in his purity; and if he be a sinner, he will be forgiven." But if anyone despise it or reject it or treat it with ignominy, it may be taken as a certainty that he treats with ignominy the Son, who called it and actually made it to be His Body.
After the disciples had eaten the new and holy Bread, and when they understood by faith that they had eaten of Christ's body, Christ went on to explain and to give them the whole Sacrament. He took and mixed a cup of wine. Then He blessed it, and signed it, and made it holy, declaring that it was His own Blood, which was about to be poured out…Christ commanded them to drink, and He explained to them that the cup which they were drinking was His own Blood: "This is truly My Blood, which is shed for all of you. Take, all of you, drink of this, because it is a new covenant in My Blood. As you have seen Me do, do you also in My memory. Whenever you are gathered together in My name in Churches everywhere, do what I have done, in memory of Me. Eat My Body, and drink My Blood, a covenant new and old." (Homilies 4:4; 4:6).”
What all these Orthodox Church fathers and writers make clear to us is what a wonderous Mystery the Holy Eucharist is and how it is vital to joining us to the source of our life; Christ the light of the World.
Moreover, when asked how we should pray Christ taught us this prayer (Matthew 6: 9-13; Luke 11:2-4):
“Our Father Who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us but lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.”
On a literal level each part of the pray expresses the basics of the Christian faith to worship God, to trust in His providence, to forgive others the wrongs which they do to us and finally, that we not be led to do wrong by the evil one and his minions. Yet on a higher level, Christ asks us to pray that we begiven our daily bread. What is this daily bread?
Well since we know that Christ has told us not worry where we will get our food from (Matthew 6:25), then this daily bread is none other than the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist. This is why it is vital that the Christian receive Holy Communion as often as possible for in it is the source of their life and the sustenance needed to feed the body and soul on its journey home to its Creator.
Therefore, the Church has always held to the reality and importance of the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist and to say that Christ meant the Holy Eucharist to be a mere symbol is to deny what the Church has always taught.
Saint Irenaeus of Lyon makes it clear that the Church has not changed any of her beliefs or teachings and teaches what Christ taught the Holy Apostles for he writes:
“As I have already observed the Church, having received this preaching and faith, although scattered throughout the whole world, yet as if occupying one house, carefully preserves it. She also believes these points (of doctrine) just as if she had but one soul, and one and the same heart, and she proclaims them, and teaches them, and hands them down, with perfect harmony, as if she possesses only one mouth (1.10.2).
Therefore, those who claim that the truths of the faith have been corrupted, have been corrupted by their very arrogance and spiritual pride. It is clear that many of the Reformers of the 16th Century meant well, but unfortunately, they were blinded by their spiritual pride to the point that they believed that the Holy Church Fathers had erred and that they, the reformers, were the ones to find the real message of the Gospel of Christ. What arrogance to try and deny, at that point, over 1000 years of Church teaching; they built their houses on sand (Matthew 7: 24-27).
Therefore, the Church wherever she is found as long as she preaches what has been handed down is blessed and protected by the All-Holy Trinity no matter what persecutions may befall her. This is the promise Christ has made for He meant it when He said that the gates of Hell will never prevail against the Church (Matthew 16: 18).
There seems to be a panic these days that the Church is shrinking, and less people are believing. Rather than panic about the people leaving the faith let us turn our attention as to how we, as the Body of Christ, can live out Christs commandment to:
“Go therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all of the things that I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age .Amen ( Matthew 28: 19-20).”
Only then, will our evangelisation be effective; people value sincerity and not hypocrisy, this is why many of the great Saints were hated by their religious peers because their very sincerity, simplicity of life and love for the other and Christ is what attracted many to the Gospel. Their peers on the other hand, valued wealth, prestige and recognition of their office and thus became like whitewashed tombs with nothing but spiritual corruption within (Matthew 23: 27).
Therefore, let us do, each what we can to spread the love of Christ to others so that they may become curious as to learn what the Gospel is about.
Finally, as we enter in this most blessed of weeks let us prepare to lay aside all our earthly cares and focus on the great mystery of our salvation which we enter in so profoundly this week.
Let our hearts joyfully await the empty tomb which is the sign of our Heavenly reward should we remain faithful and trust in He who is the way the truth and the life (John 14: 6).
“We who mystically represent the Cherubim, and sing the to the Life-Giving Trinity the thrice holy hymn, let us lay aside all earthly cares that we may receive the Lord of all, invisibly escorted by the angelic orders. Alleluia (Cherubic Hymn – the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom).”
