“Joy Emberaced with Sorrow”
Palm [Willow] Sunday
Philippians 4:4-9; John 12:1-18
Those words from our folk proverb could describe the events that we celebrate on Sunday a week before Easter.
The joy was in the fact that the day before Christ performed the greatest of miracles - he resurrected Lazarus, who had died and had been buried in the grave for four days, and whose body was already decomposing.
“Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.” (John 11:39)
The miracle of Lazarus’ resurrection had an extraordinarily powerful impact on people -- both well-wishers and enemies of Christ. That is why thousands of people went to see the resurrected Lazarus, and thousands of people came out to meet and greet Jesus as He was making His way to Jerusalem. It was a truly royal meeting: thousands of massed people, with joyful shouts, waving branches of the trees that grew alongside the road, met with great exaltation Jesus Christ, who, sitting on a donkey, was entering Jerusalem.
But in that joyful meeting of Jesus, the foundations of the sad and tragic events of the following week were laid. The Jews perceived Jesus not as the Saviour of souls, who restores people's connection with God, but as a leader sent by God, a king who will restore the kingdom of Israel, free them from the domination of the Romans. That misunderstanding was also evidenced by the greetings with which they welcomed Jesus:
"Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! The King of Israel!" (John 12:13).
And thus, although everyone was joyfully greeting and exclaiming, grief and sorrow were in the heart of Jesus.
"But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him..." (John 12:37)
Jesus did many works of God, but, clearly, the majority of those people did not believe in Him as the Lord, the Son of God, but rather as the Messiah, the Deliverer from the earthly oppression of foreigners. Most of the Jews did not think about the eternal, God, but about the earthly, temporal. Thus, when Jesus was approaching Jerusalem, "as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it ".(Luke 19:41) Most of the Jews did not see or understand their salvation.
Jesus saw before Him the coming days--Thursday and Friday, the days of mockery, lawless judgment, suffering and death on the cross. His soul grieved, for He realized that when people have an incorrect understanding, falsely perceiving Him as an earthly king, then there would be disappointment, and, inevitably, hatred would take over the crowds, and that would inevitably lead to: "Crucify Him!"
The soul of Jesus could also grieve, for He knew that among His closest disciples there was Judas the traitor, that fear still reigned among His closest disciples and some of them might deny Him out of fear, that His death on the cross might have a negative impact on His closest relatives. The words of Jesus that were recorded, which He expressed in anticipation of His suffering, are:
“'Now My soul is troubled... Father, save Me from this hour. Yet for this purpose I came to this hour.'” (John 12:27)
Thus, although the entry into Jerusalem was the most joyful and glorious greeting of Jesus in His entire earthly life, but because of the mistaken attitude of the majority of the Jews, Jesus grieved in His heart and wept before entering Jerusalem, the city of His suffering and glorification.
Let us recall what we repeat at every Holy Liturgy - we sing joyfully:
"Salvation is in heaven [Hosanna]. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."
At every Liturgy we greet Jesus Christ, who goes to His suffering. Although we offer the bloodless sacrifice of bread and wine, as the Lord commanded, we should not forget that every Great Entrance with the prepared gifts is a symbolic reenactment of the Lord's entry into Jerusalem. That is why, even in our Liturgy, "joy and sorrow embrace" - for this was and is the way of our salvation.
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.
