“PALMARUM 2024”
Saint Matthew 21: 1-9
Palmarum: 24 March Anno Domini 2024
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
A procession into Jerusalem? A parade? The people were joyous and happy. Yes, it was an entrance, but only to precede an exit; an oh-so temporary but cosmic exit. The pathos and emotion are literally dripping off the words of Saint Matthew’s Gospel. Many of us have a hard time singing hymn # 162 (Ride On, Ride On, in Majesty) especially when we reach stanza 3 ‘…the angel armies of the sky look down with sad and wond’ring eyes to see the approaching sacrifice.’
Like many of the Greek philosophers, The Lord Christ was a peripatetic teacher, i.e., He walked everywhere teaching—preaching The Kingdom of God: ‘repent and believe!’ God is always the subject, the actor, the mover, and the initiator. Man, sinful man, you, are the object—the ones who receive and the ones acted upon. Jesus came! The crowds responded. God is always moving, approaching, coming to, and arriving amongst His people—His fallen and lost sheep.
There was that first sad anti-parade when The Lord had the Cherubim (armed with Swords of the Spirit) usher your first father and mother out of paradise…into the desert of dearth, dust, and death. The same Son of God had Abram, no doubt riding on a donkey, exit Ur and enter Haran, and then Canaan. There was the famous parade of Jacob and his sons into Egypt. The Lord facilitated that to keep and preserve their lives, and His seeds until the time of the arrival of The Seed. The One Who rides into King David’s Holy city.
Many great exits and entrances indeed. The Exodus from Pharaoh and the eventual (40 years in waiting) triumphal entry into Canaan. The funeral dirge exit under the chains of the Babylonians, as Jerusalem’s rubble and destruction burned and smoked at their backs. And then, again, the joyous return, the Redemption worked by The One who rode with them (no doubt on a donkey) led by Ezra, and Nehemiah. Jerusalem and The Temple would be rebuilt.
That is the city that The Christ rode into, which Saint Matthew recounts. Matthew an eye-witness to it all. Jesus THE Temple in His very flesh, rides into the city of His father and His son—David.
Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest! Joy. But profound and poignant seriousness. This appears a true victory parade…and it is…to the eyes of faith, and only temporarily to the eyes in the head. You know that this was actually the convicted and sentenced killer being lead down the prison corridors to the room where the capital sentence is carried out! Jesus bears even on Palm Sunday the sin, the sins, of all the killers in the history of the world…all of your murders and other trespasses.
Jesus brings His precious Body and Holy Blood into the city of Solomon as well. The Prince of Peace brings true Peace to a city, a country, a world, a people—including you—who have no peace apart from God; apart from repentance and absolution. The Peace in Christ’s flesh must go to suffer and die; to atone; to make good all that Adam, Abraham, David, Nehemiah, and every one of you has earned and has deserved.
An excursus: As happens on social media every Passiontide/Holy Week, the “know-it-all” theologians with too much time on their hands are arguing over whether the crowd of Christ’s supporters were the same ones that turned so quickly against Him as to shout for His crucifixion in a mere five days. Scripture does not say so we should let it drop. However, the consensus of Church Fathers, and my Greek professor Gregory Lockwood, and myself teach: “NO!” It was a different crowd. Not a bunch of “Feds” per se, but an organized (bought and paid for) group of Jewish thugs that Caiaphas and his bully-boys assembled.
Hosanna! It means “save now.” They sang it but did not know its full import. It also means “God save the king.” Many if not most saw Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah in-so-far as He was the new King David Who would liberate them, but only in a physical sense—a political upheaval.
You know the rest of the story. Hosanna you will sing again in our Communion Liturgy, during the Sanctus. The Sanctus is the song of the angels in Esaias 6. You sing with the cherubim Hosanna as well—Save Us Son of David. Not David the earthly king—not his military successor—but Son of David, Son of Man, Second Adam, Jesus—God in the flesh. Ride on. Ride in to Jerusalem in and with your flesh. Ride on to Calvary for us, and save us by giving Your Body to suffering and death; by giving Your Blood to flow and gush for our cleansing away of the filth of our daily rebellion.
Hosanna-thrust/squish of the crown of thorns on Your sacred head.
Hosanna-WHACK of the spikes driven into your tender feet and life-giving hands.
Hosanna-pop of the spear head into your side, lung, and immaculate Heart.
Blessed are you O Jesus Who are the Paschal Lamb offered for us and our transgressions. Thank you for saving us with This Gospel of Your Word, Your Body, and Your Blood.
The Hosanna in our Liturgy’s Sanctus—those angels once again. The angels who are with you at this rail: ‘…the angel armies of the sky look down with sad and wond’ring eyes to see the approaching sacrifice.’
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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