Palm Sunday (John 12 : 12-22)

Great Lent period
7th Sunday of Lent

Homily of His Excellency Selim Sfeir
Maronite Archbishop of Cyprus

Palm Sunday

John 12 : 12-22

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey, fulfilling the prophecy that says: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.” Zechariah 9:9. The crowd welcomed him, waving palm and olive branches and shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel!” Hosanna, means ‘save us’, and it was the popular cry of joy at Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. It is a cry we still repeat in our hymnals on Palm Sunday before Holy week.
This expression was not new, but it was a messianic prophetic expression found in the book of Psalms: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God, and he gives us light. Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar!” Psalm 118:26-27

This expression describes the identity of the one from whom it is pronounced: he is king, priest and prophet.
King, because he enters his city, mounted on a donkey as did the kings of the Old Covenant when they came to their subjects bearers of peace, not on a horse symbolizing imminent war.

Prophet, because he comes in the name of the Lord, bringing God's message to his people.

And priest, because the sacrifice is prepared for him, tied to the horns of the altar, and it is he who will offer it to God to expiate the sins of his people.

They shouted this prophetic expression without realizing that the one coming towards them was fulfilling its literal meaning. They raised their voices, repeating the words of the psalm with joy, awaiting Jesus' entrance, unaware of his messianic identity. They cried out to him, not realizing that he was the sacrifice who would be nailed to the Cross to be their “Savior”, the reason for their eternal salvation.

As for him, he knew everything! It was a day of joy for the people, and the beginning of his redemptive sufferings. Like a father led by his children to die in their place, he walked among them in the silence of sacrificial love, bearing their sins and sorrows as they exulted in praising him. All he wanted was to see the joy of salvation on their faces, fulfilling Isaiah's prophecy that “He was abused and oppressed, And he didn't open his mouth, Like a lamb led to the slaughter, Like a sheep dumb before those who shear it; He didn't open his mouth”. Isaiah 53:7

Yes, dear brothers and sisters, it is our Christ who comes to us as a humble king, as the lamb of innocent sacrificial lamb, mounted on a humble donkey, not a warhorse brandishing the sword of divine justice to avenge our sins.

He is God's greatest prophet and only son, the priest of the New Covenant who offers himself to God the Father as a sacrifice for us this coming Holy Week.
So let us go out to meet him, bearing palm and olive branches, crying out with all our heart “Hosanna”, that is, “deliver us”, and let us truly live this expression. Let us believe that he is the one who comes in the name of the Lord to save us, to bear our sins. Let us cry out to him “Save us”, confessing our sins, and let this cry be a true act of repentance transforming our lives and leading us to the altar of the church, to the offering that brings us closer to him, so that at every liturgy we live the Passover sacrifice that is offered to us eternally, so that we can receive from him the reason for our salvation.

Let us carry palm and olive branches to him and go out to meet him, not just today, but every day of our lives, let us go out to meet him with the spirit of victory that he achieved on the cross and that freed us from the slavery of sin. Let us go out today to meet him with true joy, for he is our only Savior and no one else deserves that we cry out to him “Save us”.

† Selim Sfeir
Maronite Archbishop of Cyprus