Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey

 

 Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her.  Loose them and bring them to Me.  And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and immediately he will send them."  All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:

"Tell the daughter of Zion,

'Behold, your King is coming to you,

Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, 

A colt, the foal of a donkey.'"

So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.   They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them.  And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:

"Hosanna to the Son of David!

'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'

Hosanna in the highest!"

And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, "Who is this?"   So the multitudes said, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee."

 

- Matthew 21:1-11 

 

On Saturday we read that as Jesus and the disciples went out of Jericho on the road toward Jerusalem, a great multitude followed Him.  And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!"  Then the multitude warned them that they should be quiet; but they cried out all the more, saying, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!"  So Jesus stood still and called them, and said, "What do you want Me to do for you?"  They said to Him, "Lord, that our eyes may be opened."  So Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes.  And immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him. 

 

  Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her.  Loose them and bring them to Me.  And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and immediately he will send them."  All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: "Tell the daughter of Zion, 'Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.'"  Today's reading covers the events of what we commemorate as Palm Sunday; it is known as Christ's Triumphal Entry into the Holy City of Jerusalem.  My study Bible explains that by Christ's time, Jewish nationalism had led to the expectation of a political Messiah who would deliver them from Roman control, and reestablish David's kingdom.  In humility, Jesus shows that He has not come to establish an earthly kingdom through His deliberate instructions to the disciples here.  Rather than riding into Jerusalem on a horse or chariot, as earthly kings would do to show their power and glory, Jesus rides on a donkey, which is a sign of humility and peace, as shown in St. Matthew's quotation of Zechariah 9:9.  My study Bible notes also that St. Matthew reports a colt as well as a donkey.  In the writings of Church Fathers, these two animals are seen as representing the faithful Jews and Gentiles who are brought together in the Kingdom.  At Orthodox Vespers of Palm Sunday, it is sung, "Your riding on a foal prefigured how the untamed and uninstructed Gentiles would pass from unbelief to faith."

 

 So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.   They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them.  And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  These people who spread their clothes before Jesus on the road do so as paying reverence to a King.  My study Bible says that this is spiritually interpreted as our need to lay down our flesh, even our very lives, for Christ. 

 

 Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:  "Hosanna to the Son of David!  'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'  Hosanna in the highest!" And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, "Who is this?"   So the multitudes said, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee."  The people's cry comes from Psalm 118:25-26, a refrain associated with messianic expectation.  It as recited daily for six days during the Feast of Tabernacles (which is also known as the Feast of the Coming Kingdom), and seven times on the seventh day as ranches were waved.  Hosanna means, "Save, we pray!" an appropriate prayer to one known as Deliverer, or Savior. 

 

As Jesus rides into Jerusalem, we are given a few things to think about.  First of all, let us consider how many times Jesus has avoided this particular day.  For until now the Christ's identity as Messiah has been kept secret in some sense (this is referred to as the Messianic Secret).  He has not openly declared it in a public way, as a king would.  But this entrance into the Holy City proclaims that day, and He boldly lives that claim, as we will see in particular in the reading that follows, when His first act is to cleanse the temple.  He is openly living, and therefore, declaring that identity.  His entrance into Jerusalem, as He has also warned the disciples three times, means that His open and final confrontation with the religious authorities will now take place, and it will culminate in the Cross (and thereafter Resurrection on the third day).  But before now, there have been times when His life was threatened through confrontation of one sort or another, but He avoided this outcome, and eluded those who were after Him, such as when He went into Gentile territory (in this reading) after one such confrontation.  This entrance into Jerusalem is deliberately meant for this time, after an estimated three years of public ministry and preparation for it in the teaching of His disciples, now apostles, and all the signs and teaching of His ministry.  In St. John's Gospel Jesus repeatedly speaks of this time as "His hour," such as when He told His mother, "My hour has not yet come," and said to His brothers, "My time has not yet come but your time is always ready."  St. John also writes before Christ's washing of the disciples' feet at the Last Supper, "Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end."  (See John 2:4; 7:6; 13:1.)   While this event of the Triumphal Entry is also understood to us as imaging God's eternal kingdom, and Christ's rule as Lord, prefiguring the fullness of Christ's wedding as Bridegroom to His Bride the Church in the heavenly Jerusalem, so we must also understand on earthly terms how important timing and boundaries are to the living of our spiritual lives in this world.  There is a discreet time and place for all that Jesus does, as He follows the Father in all that He does.  In other words, although the event we read of in today's reading is publicly declaring who He is, and speaks to us of true eternal realities, so we must also realize that Jesus does things in His earthly ministry for a particular purpose, at particular and deliberate times.  It helps us to think about our own need for discernment and prudence in our own spiritual lives, as we seek to follow Christ in the living of our faith as well.  Most of all, it helps us to consider what a prayerful approach to life looks like.  It is not one in which we rush in as fools who rush in "where angels fear to tread," so to speak.  Rather, we look to our spiritual lives, and our growth in such, as those things which unfold in God's sight, as the work of faith, engaging us in our choices at particular times and in particular ways.  Spiritual struggle is not that of bold declarations and hasty choices, but rather prayerful discernment.  Before sending out the disciples in their first apostolic mission, Jesus taught them, "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.  Therefore be wise as serpents and gentle as doves" (Matthew 10:16).  We also are to remember that we live in this world that is still a battleground.  Just as in Jesus' life He led the way for us in a world beset by the influence of spiritual evil and its outcomes (see Matthew 4:1-11), so we enter into this battleground with Him as our Lord, our King who enters into Jerusalem on this day we read about in today's reading.  His words still stand for us, and we remain as spiritual sheep in midst of wolves.  Let us remember as we are impatient for outcomes or signs that God's timing is not our timing, God's ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8), and we need prayer and discernment to guide us, and all the collective experience of the Church which we are a part of.  Jesus boldly proceeds to the Cross, but does so fully knowing what He is doing, and with all prudence and wisdom, and the power of God.  For this also is a lesson in humility and service to God.  Let us take His yoke and learn from Him (Matthew 11:29-30).

 

 

 

 

Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done

 

 Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him.  When He came to the place, He said to them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation."  And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done."  Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him.  And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly.  Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.  When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow.  Then He said to them, "Why do you sleep?  Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation."

 

And while He was still speaking, behold, a multitude; and he who was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before  them and drew near to Jesus to kiss Him.  But Jesus said to him, "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?"  When those around Him saw what was going to happen, they said to Him, "Lord, shall we strike with the sword?"  And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear.  But Jesus answered and said, "Permit even this."  And He touched his ear and healed him.

 

- Luke 22:39–51 

 

Yesterday we read the Lord said, "Simon, Simon!  Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.  But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren."  But he said to Him, "Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death."  Then He said, "I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know Me."  And He said to them, "When I sent you without money bag, knapsack, and sandals, did you lack anything?"  So they said, "Nothing."  Then He said to them, "But now, he who has a money bag, let him take it, and likewise a knapsack; and he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.  For I say to you that this which is written much still be accomplished in Me:  'And He was numbered with the transgressors.'  For the things concerning Me have an end."  So they said, "Lord, look, here are two swords."  And He said to them, "It is enough."

 

 Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him.  When He came to the place, He said to them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation."  And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done."  Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him.  And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly.  Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.  When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow.  Then He said to them, "Why do you sleep?  Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation."  My study Bible comments that Christ's agony was the product of His human nature.  In asking that the cup be taken away, it notes, Jesus reveals His human will.  But by submitting His human will to the Father, Christ reveals His divine will to be one with the Father's, and moreover shows that every person must submit one's own will to God's will (Luke 11:2).  My study Bible quotes St. Gregory the Great, in affirming that Christ willingly takes in Himself the voice of weak humanity, thereby conquering weakness:  "The words of weakness are sometimes adopted by the strong in order that the hearts of the weak may be strengthened."

 

 And while He was still speaking, behold, a multitude; and he who was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before  them and drew near to Jesus to kiss Him.  But Jesus said to him, "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?"  When those around Him saw what was going to happen, they said to Him, "Lord, shall we strike with the sword?"  And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear.  But Jesus answered and said, "Permit even this."  And He touched his ear and healed him.  My study Bible tells us that this healing is recorded only by St. Luke the physician.  It indicates how we are to treat our enemies, it says.  There is a spiritual meaning in patristic commentary, in which it is Christ who gives people the ability to hear the truth and thereby come to salvation (Luke 8:8; 14:35).  

 

 Jesus goes as He has prophesied, despite His very human resistance to the prospect of death and what lies before Him.  To die on the Cross isn't just an agonizing procedure reserved for the worst criminals and punishment met out by the Roman Empire.  It is a whole host of disparaging, and humiliating, and grinding aspects of cruelty and spectacle.  To be crucified was to be cast before the society as worthless and degraded.  To die slowly, and naked on the Cross before all, is a humiliating and utterly depraved destiny for a religious Jew.  Jesus has been careful, at the Last Supper, to fulfill all righteousness, and He has continued to do so by overriding His human impulses in order to follow the Father's will for Him in faith.  These moments He faces give us a picture of what evil is and does, and they make it clear that we can never discount the words of St. Paul, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12).  Who but one who hated God and opposed Christ and God's plan for the future of humanity could possibly desire such a horribly cruel outcome for Him?  Yet, Christ expresses clearly for us that His opponents are not merely flesh and blood, as St. Paul says, but He seeks the defeat of the devil on our behalf.  This is made clear when He heals the ear of the servant of the high priest.  Jesus is not going after the religious leadership, nor the people who take part in this railroading of Him as an innocent man (Matthew 27:24).  St. Matthew also reports Jesus saying to the one who drew his sword on Christ's behalf, "Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?" (Matthew 26:52-54).  Jesus will face the worst the world can give Him, but it is an act of spiritual warfare in condemnation of the devil and his power, as will be confirmed in the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ.  In so doing, He claims all the world, and all of creation for Himself, and all authority given to Him by the Father including that of judgment (Matthew 28:18), which He in turn will share with His followers (see Thursday's reading).  He goes to the Cross for us, and to give us the most powerful sign of all, that which takes on the evil and defeats it; for this is the victory of the Cross and its power on our behalf.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD! Hosanna in the highest!

 

 Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her.  Loose them and bring them to Me.  And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and immediately he will send them."  All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:

"Tell the daughter of Zion,

'Behold, your King is coming to you,

Lowly, and sitting on a donkey,

A colt, the foal of a donkey.'"

So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.  They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them.  And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:

"Hosanna to the Son of David!

'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'

Hosanna in the highest!"

And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, "Who is this?"  So the multitudes said, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee." 

 

- Matthew 21:1-11 

 

Yesterday we read that, as Jesus (and the disciples) went out of Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.  And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!"  Then the multitude warned them that they should be quiet; but they cried out all the more, saying, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!"  So Jesus stood still and called them, and said, "What do you want Me to do for you?"  They said to Him, "Lord, that our eyes may be opened."  So Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes.  And immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him.

 

  Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her.  Loose them and bring them to Me."   And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and immediately he will send them."  All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:  "Tell the daughter of Zion, 'Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.'"  Today's reading concerns the events of Christ's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, which is celebrated by the Church on Palm Sunday.  My study Bible explains that by Christ's time, Jewish nationalism had led to the expectation of a political Messiah to deliver them from Roman control and to reestablish David's kingdom.  But in humility, Jesus shows that He has not come to establish an earthly kingdom.  Here He tells His disciples to bring Him not a horse nor a chariot, but a donkey to ride into Jerusalem, which is a sign of humility and peace (Zechariah 9:9, quoted here in the text).  My study Bible notes here that Matthew reports a colt as well as a donkey.  It notes that in patristic commentary these two animals are seen as representing the faithful Jews and the Gentiles who are brought together in the Kingdom.  At Vespers of Palm Sunday, an Orthodox hymn declares, "Your riding on a foal prefigured how the untamed and uninstructed Gentiles would pass from unbelief to faith."

 

So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.  They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them.  And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  My study Bible explains that the people who spread their clothes before Jesus do so as paying reverence to a King.  There is also a spiritual interpretation to this, that it shows also our need to lay down our flesh, and our very lives -- as we are called to in ways small and great -- for Christ.

 

 Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:  "Hosanna to the Son of David!  'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!' Hosanna in the highest!" And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, "Who is this?"  So the multitudes said, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee."  The people's cry comes from Psalm 118:25-26, associated with messianic expectation.  This was recited daily for six days during the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot, or the Feast of the Coming Kingdom), and seven times on the seventh day as branches were waved.  Hosanna means, "Save, we pray!"   My study Bible further explains that Christ's entrance into the Holy City declares the establishment of the Kingdom of God.  It is, additionally, a promise of Christ's final entrance into the heavenly Jerusalem with all believers and of His accepting the New Jerusalem as His pure Bride (Revelation 21:2).  

There is a sense in which we are mistaken if we understand the events recorded in the Bible as simply things that happened once upon a time in history, for which we need to search to find relevance to our own lives today.  But the events of Christ's life are not given to us as a mere history book or story of the past, or of "once upon a time."  Neither are they in the realm purely of imagination.  Scripture overlaps in many ways many types of literature, but it is its own unique form of literature, which also borders on what we might call the poetic.  Its meanings echo through many other events, through the times of our own lives, and perhaps most importantly, they have a timeless quality.  Christ coming into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday has historically been understood in the Church in the terms my study Bible describes, as parallel to, and overlapping in a sense, Christ's final entrance into the heavenly Jerusalem with all believers and of His accepting the New Jerusalem as His pure Bride.  So, in a sense, this is always happening, and He is always with us.  Just as His Crucifixion, Passion, and Resurrection are not merely one-time events in history, but realities that are present to us in our lives of faith, so is this entrance into the Holy City, which is also an entrance into our hearts as well, where these spiritual realities may be perceived and dwell, and through which we take and live our faith.  Are we, like the people, going to accept or reject Him?  Do we welcome Him as Savior, as they do, shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David!"  And if we do so, how do we understand what "Savior" means to us?  Is He saving us one time in our lives, or is this an ongoing kind of plan of salvation, living with us and dwelling within our hearts as we seek daily to live our faith?  The mysteries of Christ and His life, His public ministry for us, are those things that are lived sacramentally in our lives.  They take the substance of our experience right now and live within us as we are called to account to understand how we are to "work" within our faith, and how these events have meaning for us now.  Will we be like those who seemingly accept Christ one day as a hailed hero, and a week later will cheer for His conviction and death, riled up by the religious leaders who wish to rid themselves of Him?  And how does He live in our hearts, as a heavenly King, who asks of us a spiritual loyalty that is comprised of all our heart, and soul, and mind?  Christ's ministry was not simply private or personal, nor are the events of His life given for us purely historical events.  They are imbued with a kind of timeless property that means they live in us and for us, they are present to us, and through faith we can always experience them for ourselves.  The Triumphal Entry in this sense is always happening, just as Christ is always gathering His Bride to Himself, to live in the New and heavenly Jerusalem.

 

 

Take heed that no one deceives you

 

 Then as He went out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, "Teacher, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!"  And Jesus answered and said to him, "Do you see these great buildings?  Not one stone shall be left upon another, that shall not be thrown down." 

Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked Him privately, "Tell us, when will these things be?  And what will be the sign when all these things will be fulfilled?"  And Jesus, answering them, began to say:  "Take heed that no one deceives you.  For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and will deceive many.  But when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be troubled; for such things must happen, but the end is not yet.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles.  These are the beginnings of sorrows.  But watch out for yourselves, for they will deliver you up to councils, and you will be beaten in the synagogues.  You will be brought before rulers and kings for My sake, for a testimony to them.  And the gospel must first be preached to all the nations.  But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak.  But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.  Now brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.  And you will be hated by all for My name's sake.  But he who endures to the end shall be saved."

 

- Mark 13:1-13 

 

 Then Jesus answered and said, while He taught in the temple, "How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David?  For David himself said by the Holy Spirit:  'The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool."'  Therefore David himself calls  Him 'Lord'; how is He then His Son?"  And the common people heard Him gladly.  Then He said to them in His teaching, "Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.  These will receive greater condemnation."  Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury.  And many who were rich put in much.  Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans.  So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood."

 

Then as He went out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, "Teacher, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!"  And Jesus answered and said to him, "Do you see these great buildings?  Not one stone shall be left upon another, that shall not be thrown down."   Christ's prophecy of the destruction of the temple was fulfilled in AD 70, when the temple was destroyed in the Siege of Jerusalem.  Not one stone was left upon another, as there were rumors that there was gold between the stones.  Only one retaining wall remained, long known as the Wailing Wall, or today as the Western Wall.

 

 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked Him privately, "Tell us, when will these things be?  And what will be the sign when all these things will be fulfilled?"  And Jesus, answering them, began to say:  "Take heed that no one deceives you.  For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and will deceive many.  But when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be troubled; for such things must happen, but the end is not yet.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles.  These are the beginnings of sorrows.  But watch out for yourselves, for they will deliver you up to councils, and you will be beaten in the synagogues.  You will be brought before rulers and kings for My sake, for a testimony to them.  And the gospel must first be preached to all the nations.  But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak.  But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.  Now brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.  And you will be hated by all for My name's sake.  But he who endures to the end shall be saved."  Here Jesus begins His discourse on the end times (to be continued in Monday's lectionary reading).   My study Bible comments that Christ's account of the end times in Mark (Mark 13:1-23) occurs in what is known as chiastic (mean "cross") form.  That is, it is in a kind of reverse parallel order, where topics mentioned in the first half of this passage are then repeated and amplified in reverse order in the second half.  Today's reading begins with a warning to take heed about false christs, and we will see this repeated at the end of the passage.  The second warning here in today's passage is about wars (and Jesus will teach about tribulation in the second half of the passage we'll read on Monday).  The third warning here is regarding being delivered up to councils, whereas the third-to-last regards being delivered up (betrayed), but by family members, also in today's reading.  At the very center of this chiastic form is verse 10 of today's reading:  the prophecy that the gospel must first be preached to all the nations.  My study Bible calls this the heart of the apostolic ministry and mission of the Church (see Matthew 28:19-20). 

My study Bible comments that the Scriptures describe the end times in a variety of ways, so that there is no precise chronology laid out neatly.  But what is important is that we notice that our Lord's emphasis is rather on what we do during these times.  We can say "these times" as the Church has understood the end times to be continuing from the beginning of the apostolic period, until the time that Christ returns.  Therefore, the elements that we see noted by Jesus in this prophecy here are things that are with us, and have been with us from the beginning of what we know as the Christian era, and will continue to be with us until the time Christ returns in what we know as the Second Coming.   In my study Bible's words, then, Jesus' emphasis is not on us knowing when and how things will happen so much as it is a warning to us, plus an emphasis on how we conduct ourselves.  He asks us for watchfulness and the practice of virtue through these difficulties, and He prepares us for these times.  If we see persecutions in the world for our faith, He has warned us about them.  If we see and hear wars and rumors of wars, He has told us this.  Then and now, this is true -- certainly for the people He was addressing who would witness the horrific Siege of Jerusalem, but also for us today and clearly in recent history.  Yet, both of these things are true.  But Christ's first words (as well as His final warning which we'll read on Monday) are that we should take heed that no one deceives us.  This is a clear emphasis on our own need to be alert and aware to deceptions.  We are not meant to be like children in the sense that we are unaware of the dangers He's teaching us about, and the things to come.  We should, in fact, expect deception or those who will attempt to deceive us.  He teaches us about wars between nations, a characteristic of this time in which we have lived and continue to live.  He teaches us about earthquakes and famines and troubles as but the beginning of sorrows.  His prophecies do not make these things happen, and yet neither has He told us that we can necessarily fix or prevent them from happening, for until the time of His return there will be this struggle in the world not only affecting natural forces but also continuing in a spiritual sense.  He does not tell us which side to take, or which sort of political or other acts to take, but He does teach that these are but the beginning of sorrows.  The real tribulation for His followers comes from persecutions, and betrayals that may come even from those closest to us, with the most extreme forms of punishment meted out through even the closest and more cherished of relationships.   He even goes so far as to say that we will be hated by all for His name's sake.  The most important thing through all of these things, however, is our endurance, that we endure to the end.  That is our endurance in obedience and loyalty to His commands, to living our lives in the ways that He has taught us through the Gospels.  Most of us have not experienced the most extreme forms of the tribulation and wars He names, but nonetheless in living memory there are those for whom vicious genocide and horrific war remain clear memories in recent times, with threats of the same hanging over their heads.  Let us do what we can to uplift our brothers and sisters in the faith, to sustain those whom we cannot physically help through prayer, to strengthen our own faith so that we can help others both to take heed and to endure.  Let us be faithful to Him and strengthen faith through the ways He teaches us to live.  Let us take heed that we are not deceived into complacency or fantasies that we will not need to struggle in our own ways for Him and for the faith He gives us.

 

 

 

 

Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation

 

 Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him.  When He came to the place, He said to them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation."  And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done."  Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him.  And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly.  Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.  

 

When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow.  Then He said to them, "Why do you sleep?  Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation."

And while He was still speaking, behold, a multitude; and he who was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them and drew near to Jesus to kiss Him.  But Jesus said to him, "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?"  When those around Him saw what was going to happen, they said to Him, "Lord, shall we strike with the sword?"  And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear.  But Jesus answered and said, "Permit even this."  And He touched his ear and healed him. 

 

- Luke 22:39–51 

 

In yesterday's reading, the Lord said, "Simon, Simon!  Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.  But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren."  But he said to Him, "Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death."  Then He said, "I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know Me."  And He said to them, "When I sent you without money bag, knapsack, and sandals, did you lack anything?"  So they said, "Nothing."  Then He said to them, "But now, he who has a money bag, let him take it, and likewise a knapsack; and he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.  For I say to you that this which is written must still be accomplished in Me:  'And He was numbered with the transgressors.'  For the things concerning Me have an end."  So they said, "Lord, look, here are two swords."  And He said to them, "It is enough."

 

  Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him.  When He came to the place, He said to them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation."  And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done."  Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him.  And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly.  Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.  My study Bible explains that Christ' agony was the product of His human nature.  In asking that the cup be taken away, He reveals His human will.  Christ submits His human will to the Father, and thereby reveals His divine will to be one with God the Father's.  This further shows that each of us must submit our own will to God's will (Luke 11:2).  My study Bible notes that Christ willingly takes in Himself the voice of weak humanity, and thereby conquers weakness.  It quotes St. Gregory the Great:  "The words of weakness are sometimes adopted by the strong in order that the hearts of the weak may be strengthened."  Christ's sweat, like great drops of blood falling to the ground, shows us that His agony is real.  He is not simply 'half human and half divine.'  He is both fully human, and fully divine.  The fully divine Son has taken on all that we are and all that we experience as well.

 

 When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow.  Then He said to them, "Why do you sleep?  Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation."  In the context of everything that we have read so far this week, we must understand the importance of these words.  It is a time of great influence by spiritual sources of evil.  Satan has been mentioned many times in the text.  So we need to understand the importance of prayer:   to rise and pray, to be alert about their circumstances and awake, so that they not enter into temptation, is for the disciples especially essential at this time of great darkness and fear.   As the text has taught us, Satan works through the weaknesses and temptations of human beings.  Specially at this time, we see this work in the religious leaders who envy Christ, and Judas whose weakness is greed.  Notice Jesus speaks of the urgency to avoid entering into temptation; that is, we will all be tempted by in some ways, but to enter in and engage in that temptation is another step into a snare.  We pray for the strength not to do so.

 

 And while He was still speaking, behold, a multitude; and he who was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them and drew near to Jesus to kiss Him.  But Jesus said to him, "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?"  What this question, Jesus continues, even at this time, to attempt to save Judas from what he is doing.

When those around Him saw what was going to happen, they said to Him, "Lord, shall we strike with the sword?"  And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear.  But Jesus answered and said, "Permit even this."  And He touched his ear and healed him.  My study Bible tells us that this healing is recorded only by St. Luke the physician.  It indicates the way in which we are to treat our enemies.  There is also a patristic perspective here which gives this event a spiritual meaning, in that it is Christ who gives people the ability to hear truth and thereby come to salvation (see Luke 8:8, 14:35).  This event also demonstrates Christ's complete reliance on and obedience to the God the Father.

At this stage, we might wonder why Christ does not resist His arrest in the garden of Gethsemane.  In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus is reported to have said, "Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?"  (Matthew 26:52-54).  But we truly have to understand Christ's full dependence upon God the Father, and that He is fulfilling a mission in a particular way that it must be fulfilled.  In Christ's Passion, we are confronted with what is called a theodicy.  That is, we're confronted with the question of why God permits evil to happen.  In this case, we can clearly see an atrocious evil, one that imperils, tortures, and seeks to put to death the greatest Savior of the world, One who is completely good.  Why should it happen thus?  But God does not work in the ways that human beings work and think.  God works through circumstances to bring about a greater plan, a more powerful goal.  And as we have seen via the witness of Luke's Gospel, in these evil events and working through human beings there is also a spiritual force of evil behind them.  On that greater battlefield is our answer, for Christ's death is a snare to that evil, to "hell" itself, for He will conquer the power of death through His death on the Cross.  These are hard things to grasp; they are not easy, and they are not simple.  We can only understand and experience them through faith, and sometimes through our own experience of going through a dark or evil time and clinging to our own faith even through times characterized by injustice, and witnessing the outcome.  Whether we perceive or understand these realities beyond worldly life, they are nevertheless part and parcel of the Gospel narrative, and we are being taught about the greater importance of faith in our lives than we can usually consciously appreciate.  The reliance upon God is consistent throughout the Old Testament and the New.  St. Paul clearly emphasizes the same when he quotes from Deuteronomy in his epistle to the Romans:  "Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,' says the Lord (Romans 12:19).  That is, God's justice is not absent, but we are invited to participate in its fullness through faith.  There are elements of God's justice at work which are beyond our understanding.  But Christ's Passion, and the roles of the disciples which we have observed throughout this work, offers us something greater than we can perhaps know -- and that is, that we are also invited into this spiritual battlefield as Christ's disciples.  We, too, are asked to find God's will for us in all circumstances, to rely on God's justice, to practice prayer and call upon the strength to avoid entering into temptation, to be aware of our own weaknesses and passions.  This is not simply a struggle in heaven and unseen places of what is called the "invisible" or "unseen" realm; this struggle is in the battleground of our hearts and we are invited by Christ to participate fully engaged in our own lives, with Him.  St. Paul echoes the same.  It's not about picking out worldly enemies, but about an awareness of deeper spiritual truths at work that lie behind the patterns we observe and the struggles in our own lives by choosing what we will serve.  Everybody has choices to make, everybody is tested at times of darkness and fear, illness and death, tragedy and violence.  But even in the simplest life the choices are there:  in the fleeting moments and the pressure of dramas we can't control.  Often, in a modern context, we can understand such struggle in the healing from trauma, in the resistance to some powerful media manipulation or collective push into a struggle for political power, in our own struggle to overcome anger or envy and to find that thread in prayer where we turn to Christ -- and all the help available to us -- to find the right way to go through a hard time.  There is always the temptation to panic, to give in to easy answers and slogans, to stop the struggle against what we know is wrong, to follow the crowd we don't really trust, and a host of other temptations.  When we feel alone, or betrayed, or abandoned, we are especially vulnerable.  In our own time, we have powerful forces of manipulation of purely earthly natures which work through media and money, slogans and movements.  The dangerous motivations of envy, greed, power, and position are equally present as in the story we read in the Gospels.  We still live in a world of those who lord it over others and terrify with their might.  The history of the 20th century has taught us nothing if we do not come to understand that, and we now move into a new century with far advanced technology for such ends.  Let us rely upon God, and follow as Christ has taught, through all things.  Let us not sleep through these times, but always remember to "Rise and pray, lest [we] enter into temptation," and know what we are to be about -- and what we're up against.  Ultimately the victory must be the Lord's.  "For," as St. Paul has written, "we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12), and these remain with us as well.

 

 

Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!

 

 When He had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.  And it came to pass, when He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples, saying, "Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat.  Loose it and bring it here.  And if anyone asks you, 'Why are you loosing it?' thus you shall say to him, 'Because the Lord has need of it.'"  So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He had said to them.  But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, "Why are you loosing the colt?"  And they said, "The Lord has need of him."  Then they brought him to Jesus.  And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him.  And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road.  

 

Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying:

"'Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD!'

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"

And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples."  But He answered and said to them, "I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out."

 

- Luke 19:28–40 

 

In yesterday's reading, Jesus spoke another parable, because He was near Jerusalem and because His followers thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately.  Therefore He said:  "A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.  So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, 'Do business till I come.'  But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, 'We will not have this man to reign over us.'  And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.  Then came the first, saying, 'Master, your mina has earned ten minas.'  And he said to him, 'Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.'   And the second came, saying, 'Master, your mina has earned five minas.'  Likewise he said to him, 'You also be over five cities.'  Then another came, saying, 'Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief.  For I feared you, because you are an austere man.  You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.'   And he said to him, 'Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant.  You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow.  Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?'  And he said to those who stood by, 'Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has ten minas.'  (But they said to him, 'Master, he has ten minas.')  For I say to you, that to everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.  But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.'"

 

  When He had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.  And it came to pass, when He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples, saying, "Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat.  Loose it and bring it here.  And if anyone asks you, 'Why are you loosing it?' thus you shall say to him, 'Because the Lord has need of it.'"  So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He had said to them.  But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, "Why are you loosing the colt?"  And they said, "The Lord has need of him."  Then they brought him to Jesus.  And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him.  And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road.  Here we're given an understanding of Christ's deliberate preparation for what is known as Christ's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem.  This event is celebrated in the Church as Palm Sunday.  My study Bible comments that by Christ's time, Jewish nationalism had led to the expectation of a political Messiah to deliver them from Roman control, and to reestablish David's kingdom.  But in humility -- and through the purposeful preparation we read about here -- Jesus shows that He has not come to establish an earthly kingdom, entirely in contradiction to the expectations of the crowd.  He does not ride on a horse nor in a chariot, but on a donkey's colt.  A donkey is a sign of humility and peace (Zechariah 9:9).  My study Bible says that this entrance into the Holy City declares the establishment of the Kingdom of God.  It is also a promise of Christ's final entrance into the heavenly Jerusalem with all believers and of His accepting the New Jerusalem as His pure Bride (Revelation 21:2).  The people who spread their clothes before Jesus did so as paying reverence to a King.  We recall that in yesterday's reading (above), Jesus gave the parable of the minas in direct response to those who expected an immediate manifestation of His Kingdom.  Regarding the spreading of their clothes before Christ, another comment tells us that this is spiritually interpreted as our need to lay down our flesh, even our very lives, for Christ.

Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying:  "'Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD!'  Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"  And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples."  But He answered and said to them, "I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out."  This cry of the people comes from Psalm 118:25-26, which was associated with messianic expectation.  During the Feast of Tabernacles (Hebrew Sukkot), also known as the Feast of the Coming Kingdom, it was recited daily for six days, and seven times on the seventh day as branches were waved.  We observe the anger of the Pharisees, who seek to silence the disciples.  But Jesus' response indicates the fervor of their enthusiasm, the truth of the spiritual understanding of this entrance into Jerusalem.

Jesus enters Jerusalem to the acclaim of the crowds of what are mostly His disciples, according to this text.  In yesterday's reading (above), as we remarked, Jesus gave the parable of the Minas to those who expected the immediate manifestation of His Kingdom upon entry into Jerusalem.  Between this day of His Triumphal Entry, which we know as Palm Sunday, and the events of the week that follows, there will be a long road to tread, a long, long learning curve for His disciples, and one that continues to stretch into history for us.  For this is not a story of a great triumphal declaration and vanquishing of all enemies or those who oppose.  This way of Christ's for liberation and salvation is one that also includes the hearts and minds of human beings, the judgment to come, and a cosmic significance that just can't be overestimated nor even fully comprehended by us.  And such sorts of reckoning, correction, and establishment of that true Kingdom take much longer than one event of one day in worldly time as we know it.  This is the sign or symbol of the reckoning of a cosmic kingdom, not a worldly one, and it includes the defeat of spiritual powers and their judgment.  We can't really reckon time the way that God does.  As St. Peter writes, no doubt understood from Psalm 90:4, "But beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (2 Peter 3:8).  The events of the week to follow assure us that the Lord is with us, and transfiguring us and the world, even through the worst of the experiences of humanity, and that we are on a path somewhere into the future of the cosmic reality of Christ.  We are all included in what happens, and we all are here to make choices vis-a-vis the life of Christ and the death and Resurrection to come.  Today in the Eastern Orthodox calendar, it is Ascension Day.  Let us remember this day of Christ's Triumphal Entry, and consider the greater expansion of understanding and expectation to come, as we commemorate the Ascension of His battered and broken body, having experienced even human death, becoming a part of the heavenly life of God.

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!

 

 When He had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.  And it came to pass, when He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples, saying, "Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat.  Loose it and bring it here.  And if anyone asks you, 'Why are you loosing it?' thus you shall say to him, 'Because the Lord has need of it.' "  So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He had said to them.  But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, "Why are you loosing the colt?"  And they said, "The Lord has need of him."  Then they brought him to Jesus.  And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him.  And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road.  Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying:

"'Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD!'

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"

And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples."  But He answered and said to them, "I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out."

 

- Luke 19:28–40 

 

Yesterday, we read that Jesus spoke another parable to His disciples, because He was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately.  Therefore He said:  "A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.  So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, 'Do business till I come.'  But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, 'We will not have this man to reign over us.'  And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.  Then came the first, saying, 'Master, your mina has earned ten minas.'  And he said to him, 'Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.'  And the second came, saying, 'Master, your mina has earned five minas.'  Likewise he said to him, 'You also be over five cities.'  Then another came, saying, 'Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief.  For I feared you, because you are an austere man.  You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.'  And he said to him, 'Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant.  You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow.  Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?'  And he said to those who stood by, 'Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has ten minas.'  ("But they said to him, 'Master, he has ten minas.')  For I say to you, that to everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.  But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.'"

 

 When He had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.  And it came to pass, when He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples, saying, "Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat.  Loose it and bring it here.  And if anyone asks you, 'Why are you loosing it?' thus you shall say to him, 'Because the Lord has need of it.' "  So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He had said to them.  But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, "Why are you loosing the colt?"  And they said, "The Lord has need of him."  Then they brought him to Jesus.  Let us note Jesus' carefully detailed instructions and preparation for His entrance into Jerusalem.   This entrance is called the Triumphal Entrance, as He will be greeted as Messiah, the prophesied Deliverer in the line of King David.  To sit on the colt of a donkey is a sign of humility and peace (Zechariah 9:9).  In terms of the popular expectations of the people, the Messiah was expected to be a triumphant political and military leader, a king in the contemporary sense of word at that time, and one who will throw off the rule of the Romans and reestablish David's kingdom.  Instead, Jesus' careful instructions are to portray Himself as He actually is, rather than the expected military and political ruler who would have a great army with chariots, horses, and warriors accompany Him.  Instead, He carefully establishes the truth, that His entrance into the Holy City declares the establishment of the Kingdom of God.  My study bible adds that it is also a promise of Christ's final entrance into the heavenly Jerusalem with all believers, and of His accepting the New Jerusalem as His pure Bride (Revelation 21:2).  

And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him.  And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road.  To throw their own clothes on the colt, and also spread their clothes on the road ahead of Jesus, is to pay reverence as to  King.  Spiritually, the interpretation is that we need to lay down our flesh, and even our lives, for Christ. St. Ambrose comments that the clothing of the disciples represents their virtues, through which Christ, as the mystic rider, enters the hearts of the Gentiles.

Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying:  "'Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD!'  Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"  And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples."  But He answered and said to them, "I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out."  The whole multitude of the disciples quote from Psalm 118:26, a phrase associated with messianic expectation.  These particular verses (25 and 26) from the Psalm were recited daily for six days during the Feast of Tabernacles (otherwise known as the Feast of the Coming Kingdom), and seven times on the seventh day as branches were waved (see Matthew 21:8).  

Some patristic writers see evoked in this scene an eschatological vision regarding Christ's mission into the world.  St. Ephrem the Syrian cites Matthew's reporting of the children singing praises of Christ at the time of the cleansing of the temple, just following the Triumphal Entry (see Matthew 21:12-17).  He comments that children played a role in Christ's birth, in the leaping of John the Baptist in the womb of Elizabeth, and also the Massacre of the Innocents by Herod (Luke 1:41, Matthew 2:16-18).  Here the children also play a role at Christ's death by singing His praises and incurring the wrath of the authorities, as today is the first day of Holy Week, which will culminate in His Crucifixion, death, and Resurrection.  While Jerusalem is in turmoil, as it was at His birth, and will be in the Siege of Jerusalem (which Jesus will prophesy in the next reading in Luke), the reality of heaven is peace and praise, even as the children suffer with Christ, both at His birth, and will do so at His death.  As St. Ephrem puts it,  the children are intertwined in the crown of His sufferings.  He concludes that at the time of Crucifixion, the demands we read here will be fulfilled, as the stones themselves will cry out (Matthew 27:51-52) while those with words will be silent.  St. Ambrose writes something similar, that while the Jews are speechless after Christ's passion, the living stones, according to St. Peter, will cry out (see 1 Peter 2:5).  However we understand it, St. Cyril of Alexandria says, Jesus clearly proclaims to the Pharisees that if His followers are prevented from expressing their praise, even the stones would react against their nature by proclaiming the arrival of the Messiah at Jerusalem.   I am intrigued by the paradox of the powers of heaven rejoicing at the fulfillment of Christ mission, the peace that reigns in heaven as the resolution to a spiritual war and the assumption of Christ in His place as Son of God and Son of Man, and at the same time the powers of the world are shaken.  This is an image that is hard to shake from one's mind, as indeed the world entered into its "end times" with the event of Christ's life, in which we still live, with "wars and rumors of wars" and "famines, pestilences, and earthquakes" and "tribulation, false prophets, and the love of many growing cold" even as the gospel is preached to all the world (see Matthew 24:3-14).  What these commentaries and insights teach us today is that when we see disturbances in our world or in our personal intimate lives, even conflict, we mustn't despair for our identity in the heavens and in God's work among us.  For in the disturbance, and even conflict, there may be God's work happening on spiritual levels which we don't discern.   It was Jesus Himself who taught us that He came to bring not peace, but a sword (Luke 12:49-53).  Even so, He also promises us His peace (John 14:27, 16:33).  He is the Prince of Peace, and the Spirit's prayer in us gives us the peace that passes understanding (Philippians 4:6-7).  It is in the troubling times in which we find ourselves that we are reminded that so often the announcement of the angels gives us a preview of spiritual battle, already won in the fullness of time and the true throne of heaven, which has its effects among us on the earth.  Here we are, still at the crossroads in this world.  How are we going to welcome the Prince of Peace, the One who rides not in a chariot but upon the colt of a donkey?  How is He our King?  What are our own expectations of Him?  And what, indeed, are the blessings He brings of spiritual citizenship that passes the understanding of the world?  Let us remember, in today's reading, the people shout as they welcome Christ into Jerusalem, "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"

Tell the daughter of Zion, "Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey"

Triumphal Entry, illumination from the Armenian Gospels of Gladzor, 14th century.  Young Research Library, University of California at Los Angeles

 Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her.  Loose then and bring them to me.  And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and immediately he will send them."  All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:

"Tell the daughter of Zion,
'Behold, your King is coming to you,
Lowly, and sitting on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.' "

So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.  They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them.  And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:

"Hosanna to the Son of David!
'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'
Hosanna in the highest!"

And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, "Who is this?"  So the multitudes said, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee."

- Matthew 21:1-11

Yesterday we read that as Jesus and the disciples went out of Jericho on the road to Jerusalem, a great multitude followed Him.  And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!"  Then the multitude warned them that they should be quiet; but they cried out all the more, saying, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!"  So Jesus stood still and called them, and said, "What do you want Me to do for you?"  They said to Him, "Lord, that our eyes may be opened."  So Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes.  And immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him.

 Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her.  Loose then and bring them to me.  And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and immediately he will send them."  All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:  "Tell the daughter of Zion, / 'Behold, your King is coming to you, / Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, / A colt, the foal of a donkey.'"
So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.  They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them.   The event described in today's reading is called Christ's Triumphal Entry.  He enters into Jerusalem hailed by the crowds as Messiah.  This day is celebrated in the Church as Palm Sunday.  At Jesus' time, my study bible says, Jewish nationalism had led to the expectation of a political Messiah, who would deliver the Jewish people from Roman control, and reestablish David's kingdom in Israel.  In humility, it says, Jesus shows He has not come to establish an earthly or worldly kingdom.  He does not ride on a horse nor a chariot, and He does not have an invading army with Him.  He rides on a donkey, which is a sign of humility and peace (see Zechariah 9:9, from which the people quote).  Jesus' entrance into the Holy City is a declaration of the establishment of the Kingdom of God.  My study bible adds that it is also an image and promise of Christ's final entrance into the heavenly Jerusalem with all believers and of His accepting the New Jerusalem as His pure Bride (Revelation 21:2).  Matthew, among the Evangelists, reports a colt as well as a donkey.  In the tradition of the Church, the two animals are seen as representing the faithful Jews and also the Gentiles who are brought together in the Kingdom.

And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:  "Hosanna to the Son of David! / 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!' / Hosanna in the highest!" And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, "Who is this?"  So the multitudes said, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee."   The people spread their clothes before Jesus do so as paying reverence to a King.  The spiritual interpretation of this act is that we need to lay down our flesh, even our very lives, for Christ.   The people cried out from Psalm 118:25-26, verses associated with messianic expectation.  This was recited daily for six days during the Feast of Tabernacles, my study bible tells us, and seven times on the seventh day as branches were waved.  We are to understand that the Feast of Tabernacles was the Feast of the Coming Kingdom; here we understand the people recognize that the Kingdom is here, albeit without understanding the true nature of Christ nor of His messiahship and the heavenly Kingdom He brings into the world.  Note that they call Him the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.   Hosanna means, "Save, we pray!"

For some reason the image of Christ on a donkey remains in my mind as a vivid image.  He is the image of a traveler on the road to Jerusalem, perhaps one on an errand, or one who comes to buy or sell goods, or even on the way to pilgrimage (although most likely on pilgrimage one would be accompanied by many others).  But perhaps that last image, that of pilgrim into Jerusalem, is the way we're supposed to see Jesus.  After all, it is the time of the Passover festival, and many pilgrims are no doubt on their way into Jerusalem, and traveling on this same road that has gone through Jericho.  It's noteworthy at the same time to remind ourselves that Jesus comes into Jerusalem from the East, in the way that the Messiah was prophesied to enter.  The East is the direction of sunlight, the traditional place one would turn to see the light approach, and hence we have another metaphor for Jesus that rings throughout the Gospels, and especially John's:  that Jesus is, in fact, the eternal light of God, that otherworldly light (such as shone at the Transfiguration) that has come into the world in the form of this pilgrim sitting on a donkey, on His way into Jerusalem.   Only at this time it is the proper time for Him to be welcomed into Jerusalem as Messiah -- even though, as devout Jew, He has come as pilgrim many times before.  He fulfills the Law and the Prophets, both by living according to the Law but also now as Messiah coming into Jerusalem.  But He will not be the Messiah that the people expect -- and, as my study bible says, this is precisely what is truly being shown by His riding on a donkey with a colt beside Him (or perhaps He rides on the colt).  Let us remember that this was the time of Empire, and Israel was a part of the great Roman Empire, which was in Christ's time at its zenith of power, a time known as the Pax Romana.  Most potently the Roman Empire was symbolized and understood in its military power, the instrument of that "peace" and stability.  And here we have Jesus, presumptive Messiah, who rides into Jerusalem not with an army and not with chariots nor any weapons on display, but on a donkey with a colt by her side.  How were the expectations of the Jewish people to be fulfilled by this Man?  Would He overthrow the Roman army?  Well, we know the outcome of the week to come in Jerusalem.  We know that the people will clamor for a fighter and insurrectionist against the Roman Army, Barabbas.  We know Jerusalem will be destroyed by that army within a generation of this time of Christ's entry into Jerusalem.  But Christ's Kingdom has endured longer than any empire on earth ever did.  In the Church, and in our faith, the Kingdom is still present to us.  And the Kingdom dwells also within us (Luke 17:20-21).  It isn't that our churches don't suffer from their own battles and instabilities, but this Kingdom has within it something no other Kingdom ever did:  it has Christ.  It has the power of God of whom Jesus has declared, "With God all things are possible" (19:26).  Just as Jesus Himself was not predictable to humankind, nor was His messiahship something understood by human beings before His own revelation, so this living Kingdom in the world proceeds within its own dictates and powers.  Jesus has also said of the Holy Spirit, and comparing the Spirit to the wind:  "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8).  This is a Kingdom in which resides all mystery and the reality of God.  We celebrate our liturgies and worship services together with the angels, and the saints with them, whom taken together St. Paul called "the great cloud of witnesses" by which we are surrounded (Hebrews 12:1-2).  There have been empires before and since the Roman Empire, but none has outlasted this Kingdom of God brought into the world through Christ, although there have been very powerful "empires" indeed, from one side and another, and through one ideology and another, who have tried to crush and persecute the faithful in Christ.  The Kingdom of God remains with us, and has outlasted its persecutors although in many places the Church continues to dwell under harsh persecution.  Some say that she never endured such persecution, in so many places, as she does now.  Yet the Church continues to grow and expand even in every corner of the globe.  But our faith is not one that was not meant to be tested.  Christ does not enter into Jerusalem on a donkey with her colt as One who commands that from then on the world will be perfect.  He will go to the Cross, and commands us also to live the life of the cross, each in our own way and with our own cross to take up.  He is here with us and present to us, we pray to Him, we may commune with Him and participate in His very life, and this is why He came here; this is our Messiah.  He rides on the donkey with her colt to teach us His way, a way that last throughout Empires and persecutions, because He lives and dwells in our heart "and His kingdom shall have no end."

But he who endures to the end shall be saved

 Then as He went out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, "Teacher, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!"  And Jesus answered and said to him, "Do you see these great buildings?  Not one stone shall be left upon another, that shall not be thrown down."

Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked Him privately, "Tell us, when will these things be?  And what will be the sign when all these things will be fulfilled?"  And Jesus, answering them, began to say:  "Take heed that no one deceives you.  For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and will deceive many.  But when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be troubled; for such things must happen, but the end is not yet.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles.  These are the beginnings of sorrows. 

"But watch out for yourselves, for they will deliver you up to councils, and you will be beaten in the synagogues.  You will be brought before rulers and kings for My sake, for a testimony to them.  And the gospel must first be preached to all the nations.  But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak.  But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.  Now brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.  And you will be hated by all for My name's sake.  But he who endures to the end shall be saved." 

- Mark 13:1-13

Yesterday we read that Jesus answered and said, while He taught in the temple, "How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David?  For David himself said by the Holy Spirit:  'The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool." '  Therefore David himself calls Him 'Lord'; how is He then his Son?"  And the common people heard Him gladly.  Then He said to them in His teaching, "Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.  These will receive greater condemnation."  Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury.  And many who were rich put in much.  Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans.  So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood."

  Then as He went out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, "Teacher, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!"  And Jesus answered and said to him, "Do you see these great buildings?  Not one stone shall be left upon another, that shall not be thrown down."  My study bible tells us that Christ's prophecy of the destruction of the temple was fulfilled in AD 70, when the temple was destroyed by the Romans.   In the frenzy of battle, rumors that there was gold between the stones of the temple quite literally resulted in the manifestation of Christ's prophecy.  The temple in Christ's time was known as one of the seven wonders of the world, for its architectural beauty and magnificence.  We can hear in the remarks of the disciple the awe at its glory.  After the Siege of Jerusalem, only one retaining wall remained of the vast and extraordinary building complex of the temple completed by Herod the Great, father of Antipas, who was also known as Herod the Builder.  (It is that Herod who slew the innocents of Bethlehem; see Matthew 2:16-18.)  That wall today is called the Western Wall, or formerly the Wailing Wall.

Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked Him privately, "Tell us, when will these things be?  And what will be the sign when all these things will be fulfilled?"  And Jesus, answering them, began to say:  "Take heed that no one deceives you.  For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and will deceive many.  But when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be troubled; for such things must happen, but the end is not yet.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles.  These are the beginnings of sorrows.   My study bible notes here that Mark's account of the end times is given in a reverse parallel form (called chiastic).  This means that the topics which are mentioned in the first half of the passage are repeated and magnified in reverse order in the second half (which will be in Monday's lectionary reading).  So, the full passage in Mark begins and ends with a warning to take heed about false christs (verses 5, 23).  The second warning regards wars (verse 7), and the second-to-last warning is about tribulation (verse 19). 

"But watch out for yourselves, for they will deliver you up to councils, and you will be beaten in the synagogues.  You will be brought before rulers and kings for My sake, for a testimony to them.  And the gospel must first be preached to all the nations.  But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak.  But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.  Now brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.  And you will be hated by all for My name's sake.  But he who endures to the end shall be saved."    The third warning in the overall passage is given in these verses about being delivered up to councils (verse 9), and also the third-to-last -- this time a warning about being betrayed by family members (verse 12).   The center of Jesus' discourse and prophecy on end times is here, that the gospel must first be preached to all the nations.  This is what my study bible calls the heart of the apostolic ministry and mission of the Church. 

Jesus ends today's passage with these stark words:  "And you will be hated by all for My name's sake.  But he who endures to the end shall be saved."  This is not exactly a cheering and heart-lifting message, delivered just prior to the events of the Passion that are coming.  He is preparing the disciples for what is to come, giving them a true picture of what is what, what to expect.  Are they prepared for the rest of their discipleship, their mission as apostles?    But it is an overall message for the Church, and believers in each generation -- even in nominally Christian countries -- have still experienced its truth.  To be a true believer is still to experience something that does not sit well with all the ways of the world, and the material-mindedness that comes to us so easily and makes life seem as if our choices are quite simple, that there is nothing more to life but its surface appearance.  Sometimes, as Jesus says, those challenges stretch straight into the personal, even into the heart of the family.  The struggles that we face as Christians or believers in Christ is a struggle of the heart, to reconcile our need for Christ and our lives in the world, as we meet the challenges of an imperfect, fallen, and selfish world.  That makes for a life of challenges and questions and struggles.   But Jesus teaches us that in all things, the Holy Spirit is present with us, and will give us what we need.  Note that Mark discloses in detail to whom Jesus speaks here, and where He speaks.  He's on the Mount of Olives with the rest of the pilgrims to Jerusalem at the Passover, the place where His Passion will start (in the garden called Gethsemane).  He speaks privately here to Peter, James, John and Andrew -- the brothers, Peter and Andrew, James and John, who form His first-called disciples.  As Jesus sets out what will be the path forward for the Church, and into the age to come, one may wonder in our time of advertising sophistication, couched as we are in public relations and marketing for virtually everything, how it was that such deep faith took root and spread so quickly through these men.  It will take only one generation for Christianity to go throughout what was their known world, to plant the seeds that would bear fruit.  We can but wonder, and then bear our own crosses and struggles, in such contrast to the popular idea of life as meant to be comfortable and perhaps easy.  But let us note these words.  Jesus' words to us speak most of all about endurance -- and endurance to the end, through all things, through the struggles we'll be a part of in our lives.  It's real, not fake.  He gives us the truth, and He gives it to us straight, for the gospel must go everywhere -- and surpass and transcend the struggles.