Palm Sunday: Christ’s Entrance Into Jerusalem

Icon of the Christ's Entrance into Jerusalem

On the Sunday before Great and Holy Pascha (known as Easter in the West), the Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates one of its most joyous feasts. Palm Sunday is the celebration of the Entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem following His raising Lazarus from the dead. Having anticipated His arrival, the people go out to welcome the Lord with displays of honor and shouts of praise. On this day, we receive and worship Christ in this same manner, acknowledging Him as the promised Messiah, our King and Lord.

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Palm Sunday in the Scriptures

We find the story of Palm Sunday in all four of the Gospels (Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-10; Luke 19:28-38; and John 12:12-18). Five days before the Passover, Jesus came from Bethany to Jerusalem. Having sent two of His disciples to bring Him a colt of a donkey, Jesus sat upon it and entered the city. People gathered in Jerusalem for the Passover were looking for Jesus. Both because of His great works and teaching, and because they’d heard of the miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus. When they heard Christ was entering the city, they went out to meet Him with palm branches. They laid their garments on the ground before Him and shouted, “Hosanna! Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord, the King of Israel!”

The significance of Christ’s Entrance into Jerusalem

On Palm Sunday we behold the Word of God, the Giver of Life and the Vanquisher of Death, made flesh. This day reminds us that He is always present with us (Matthew 28:20) in His Church. That He comes ceaselessly to us in power and glory at every Eucharist, in every prayer and sacrament, and in every act of love, kindness and mercy. He comes not only to deliver us from sin and death, but also to make us capable of attaining perfect communion with Him. He is our King, who liberates us from the darkness of sin and the bondage of death.

In the fleeting moments that mark Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the world receives its King, on His way to the Cross to accomplish the mission for which the Father sent Him. Filled with infinite love for mankind, Jesus accepts the infinite abasement of the Cross. He bears our griefs and carries our sorrows; He is wounded for our transgressions and makes Himself an offering for sin (Isaiah 53). His glorification, which was accomplished by the Resurrection and the Ascension, was achieved through the Cross.

Orthodox icon of Palm Sunday
Icon of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. Notice how the people lay their garments down like a carpet for Christ as He enters the Holy City.



Secondly, Palm Sunday calls us to see the Kingdom of God as the goal of our Christian life. We draw our very identity from Christ and His Kingdom. The Kingdom does not lie somewhere or sometime in the distant future; rather, the Kingdom is a present reality and a future realization at the same time (Matthew 6:10). Moreover, the Kingdom is within us (Luke 17:21). St. Theophan the Recluse wrote:

The Kingdom of God is within us when God reigns in us, when the soul in its depths confesses God as its Master, and is obedient to Him in all its powers. Then God acts within it as Master ‘both to will and to do of His good pleasure’ (Philippians 2:13). This reign begins as soon as we resolve to serve God in our Lord Jesus Christ, by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Then the Christian hands over to God his consciousness and freedom, which comprises the essential substance of our human life, and God accepts the sacrifice; and in this way the alliance of man with God and God with man is achieved, and the covenant with God, which was severed by the Fall and continues to be severed by our willful sins, is re-established.

Distribution of palm branches

After Divine Liturgy, the Church blesses and distributes palms to the faithful. Orthodox Christians who live in areas without palms, including the Russian Orthodox, use pussy willow branches rather than palms. Therefore in the Russian Church this feast is called Вербное Воскресенье (Pussy Willow Sunday). Some churches give small crosses made of palms at the end of the service that the faithful take home and keep in their home icon corner.

Keep Reading: Why Orthodox Churches Face East

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