The Lord's Entry into Jerusalem: Teaching 2 (The Lord Weeps For Us)

The Lord's Entry into Jerusalem:
Teaching 2

(The Lord Weeps For Us)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Feast of the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem is celebrated a week before Pascha. When the Lord raised Lazarus, this miracle had a decisive effect both on those who believed in the Lord and on His enemies. The enemies of Christ, seeing that the number of Christ's followers was rapidly increasing, decided to kill Him and gave orders to indicate where He was. The Lord, although He knew about this plan of the enemies, was not afraid to go to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, since the time had come for Him to suffer for the salvation of the human race. Approaching Jerusalem, He ordered the disciples to bring a donkey and a colt; the disciples put their clothes on the donkey, sat Jesus Christ on it, and the Lord went to Jerusalem.

When He began to descend from the Mount of Olives, the disciples and the multitude of people gathered for the feast of Passover, with palm branches in their hands, met and accompanied Him, exclaiming: "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest!" During these cries, the people threw clothes and branches onto the road. The Pharisees did not like these cries, and they said to Jesus Christ: “Rebuke your disciples;” but the Lord answered: “If they remain silent, the stones will cry out.” Others did not like the exclamations of children, but the Lord reminded them that these exclamations were predicted by David.

When the Lord saw Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, He wept over it and said: “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

Having entered the Temple, the Lord began to drive out those who sold and bought in it, and said: “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” The Pharisees and scribes tried to seize Jesus Christ, but they could not do this, because the people listened to Him persistently.

II. Let us pay attention, brethren, to the tears of the Lord at His entry into Jerusalem.

Three occasions are indicated to us in the Gospel when our Lord wept: He wept at the tomb of His friend Lazarus; then in the Garden of Gethsemane, during prayer to the Father, that the cup of suffering might pass; and lastly at the sight of perishing Jerusalem. The tears of Gethsemane are so sublime and mysterious that it would be bold to speak of them to everyone, and the tears of Bethany are not without mystery: for why, apparently, weep at the tomb of one who at that very moment was to be called from the tomb? The tears of Jerusalem are simple and clear: the Lord weeps for Jerusalem, because Jerusalem does not understand the time of its visitation, does not weep for its own sins.

a) The tears of Jerusalem are our tears, for they are shed by the Lord, undoubtedly not only for Jerusalem, but also for us, the sinners! The Lord weeps even now for each sinner. For how can one not weep when he visibly walks towards the abyss from which there is no return, and, having eternal life in his hands, foolishly exchanges it for vanity and decay? How can one not weep for the sinner when so many means have been employed for reconciling him with God, for restoring to him his lost rights to paradise, for acquiring for him the heavenly kingdom, yet all remain in vain and without fruit? And as He drew near, seeing the city, He wept over it.

b) The tears of the Lord did not help Jerusalem! It did not understand the mystery of the grace-filled entrance into it and the tears shed over it, and for this, it has been given over to the contempt of the tongue to this day! The tears of the Lord will not help us either, if we, like the Jerusalemites, remain insensible in our sins.

c) In order for our sins to be washed away by these priceless tears, it is necessary that our own tears for our sins be mixed with them, so that the sorrow that filled the heart of the Lord would pass into our soul and drive out of it all the impure and harmful joys of sin.

III. Therefore do not be surprised if, instead of joy, we invite you to tears. Let the Prophet exclaim: "Rejoice, daughter of Zion!" This is an invitation to pure souls: they can and must, according to the Apostle, rejoice not only now, but also always (Phil. 4:4). But we must weep rather than rejoice; for we are still in sins and impenitence: for sinners there is no joy, says the Lord Himself. This holy sorrow for God will not, however, hinder true joy, which in a sinner such as we are, can only grow from tears. Indeed, look how joyful the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord will be for us if we spend the coming week in tears of repentance! It will be so bright as it has never been before - which may the Lord grant us all by His all-powerful grace! Amen. 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.