Palm Sunday 2023 Fr. Nicholas Carr

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.