4th Passiontide, Palm Sunday
Matthew 21: 1-11
And they
approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage by the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus
sent two disciples ahead and said to them, “Go to the village which you see
before you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there and her foal with
her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him
that the Lord needs them, and he will let you take them right away.”
This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
‘Say to the daughter of Zion,
Behold, your king comes to you in majesty.
Gentle is He, and He rides on a donkey and on a foal of the beast of
burden.’
The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought
the donkey and the foal, placed their garments on them, and Jesus sat on them.
Many out of the large crowd spread their clothes on
the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
The crowds that went ahead of them and followed Him shouted:
Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is he who comes in the Name and Power of the Lord!
Hosannah in the highest! [Sing to Him in the highest heights!]
When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who
is he?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in
Galilee.”
4th Passiontide
Palm Sunday
Matthew 21: 1-11
It is amazing how clearly one can sometimes see from far
away. The crowds on Palm Sunday see Christ as a prophet. But the prophet
Zechariah, seeing him from a distance of five hundred years says:
'See, your king comes
to you,
gentle and riding
on a donkey,
on a colt, the
foal of a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9, Matthew 21:5)
He sees Christ in three dimensions.
First of all Christ is regal, a king, coming in majesty.
This is a description of the radiant spirit of Christ who is Lord and King over
all.
He is nonetheless gentle. This is a description of His soul,
a soul that has been purified of all egotism.
And He rides on a double beast of burden. This is a picture
of His body, both the physical body into which He descended, and the new
resurrection body that will be born of it at Easter.
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| Memmo |
And so the far-seeing prophet presents us with a kind of
true symbolism, a realistic picture of Christ. He is majestic but gentle. He is
willing to ride the beast of burden that is our physical nature in order to
become, in the words of John the Baptist, the one who bears the sins of the
world. Christ Jesus is the image of the human being made divine.
He is the picture of our future humanity. One day we too
will be majestically in command of ourselves. We will be gentle with others. We
will be willing to ride and guide the body, which bears the burden of our
karma, and the karma of the world.
