§ 129. The Festal services of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday). This festival is celebrated on different dates depending on the date of Pascha, because it always falls on the Sunday before Pascha. It was inaugurated to commemorate how Jesus Christ solemnly entered into Jerusalem, surrounded by a multitude of people, who had thrown their clothes in the way before Him, and others of whom had cut down branches of palm which they threw in the way, as the cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (Matt. 21:7-9).

The hymns primarily tell the history of the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem and of the event which immediately preceded it, the resurrection of Lazarus. They speak also of the humility of the Saviour, Who meekly rides upon the irrational foal of an ass. They tell that the Saviour came into the world to save us from ancestral sin and how He fulfiled the Old Testament prophecies. Finally they call upon the faithful to follow the example of the children of Jerusalem and to cry out to the Lord, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

In the Old Testament readings we find the following thoughts:- the first (Gen. 49:1-2, 8-12) speaks of the Patriarch Jacob, blessing his son Judah, and foretelling that from his descendants there would come kings until the advent of the Reconciler, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. In the second (Soph. 3:14-19), it prophesies about the celebration in Sion and Israel’s chanting of hymns on account of the fact that the Lord, the King of Israel, is found in their midst. The third reading (Zach. 9:9-15) speaks more specifically of the festive entrance of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem on the young donkey, and about the singing of the the inhabitants of Jerusalem on account of this joyous occasion.