Hosanna (Palm) Sunday (3) by Wedad Tawfik, PhD - Coptic Orthodox Church

 

⸭

Hosanna Sunday (Palm Sunday)

A Dogmatic Overview

(3)

    Having presented the testimony for the Divinity and Humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ and His eternal reign from the Hosanna Sunday Eve and the Matins Procession of the Day, let us move to the Hosanna Sunday Liturgy …

    Reading from the Pauline Epistle (Hebrews 9: 11-28):

* St. Paul the Apostle speaks about the first old covenant which needed blood of animal sacrifices to be able to enter into the holy places made with hands and need to be purified. Then he compares it with the New Covenant established by the death of Christ and His entry into heaven itself, offering Himself once to bear the sins of many to appear a second time for salvation to those who eagerly wait for Him … He is God Incarnate who died in the flesh, yet He is the Savior who remits all sins …

    Reading from the Catholic Epistle (Catholicon) (1 Pet 4: 1-11):

*  St. Peter reminds us that Christ suffered for us in the flesh … and that He preached also to those who are dead (also 1Peter 3: 18) … For as St. Paul explains it clearly, He descended into the lower parts of the earth, and He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens (Ephesus 4: 9, 10) … He suffered in the flesh, the body which He took for Himself for our salvation, but with the power of His Divinity He descended with His Spirit from the Cross and preached to those who are dead, then ascended to His divine place above all the heavens …

    Reading of the Praxis, from (Acts 28: 11-31):

*  The voyage of St. Paul as prisoner to Rome … Yet he did not stop preaching and witnessing for the Kingdom of God, and for the Lord Jesus Christ that He is the One of whom Moses and the prophets spoke. There He dwelt two years in a house he rent for himself and continued preaching the Kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence and no one forbidding him …

    Here we come to the readings from the Gospel, which record the events of that day and demonstrating the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ.

    Though the same events are repeated, yet in each reading a new testimony for His Divinity is introduced.

     The first reading of the Gospel, from (Matthew 21: 1-17):

*  The multitude receiving the Lord as a King sitting on an ass and a colt … their crying: “Hosanna to the son of David … Blessed is He comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” … These words are the song which the church chant all the day with the “Shaaneen” tune … Also the entry of the Lord Christ into the Temple and His zeal for His house, in fulfillment of the prophecy: “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” … Then healing the blind and the lame who came to Him in the Temple … And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did and the crying out of the children, they were indignant. So He reminded them of what was written: “Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise.” … Therefore He acted with His authority as God, and when the Jews murmured He reminded them of the Books and how all that was written point to Him and is fulfilled in Him …

    The second reading of the Gospel, from (Mark 11: 1-11):

*  The fulfillment of what He said exactly about the place of the ass and the colt and the response of their owner to the request of the disciples to take them … And receiving Him as a King with leafy branches from the trees which they spread on the road, with their garments also … Again the response of the Gospel testifying of His Divinity: “He who sits on the Cherubim, appeared today in Jerusalem riding on a colt with great glory, surrounded by a host of angels.” …

    The third reading of the Gospel, from (Luke 19: 29-48):

    * The same event, but added to it what was going to happen to the city, that it was going to be surrounded and closed on every side and leveled to the ground … Again His zeal for His and His Father’s house … His teaching daily in the Temple and how all the people were very attentive to hear Him … Everything demonstrates His Divinity … His deep teaching which made the rebellious people attentive and desiring to hear Him, because His teaching was with authority, as He is the Wisdom. But that was against the will of the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people who sought to destroy Him ...

    The fourth reading of the Gospel, from (John 12: 12-19):

*  The same event, but is added that the disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him … The people came to Him when they heard about the miracle of raising Lazarus from those who were with Him when He worked the miracle and bore witness … This made the Pharisees say among themselves: “Look, the world has gone after Him!” It is a testimony even from those who hated Him! … Again the response of the Gospel affirms that He is the One in whom the prophecies are fulfilled …

    In conclusion, what is the meaning of the word “Hosanna” which we chant all day long?

    It is a Hebrew word of two parts: “hoshia” and “na”, meaning is “Please Save us” … So the multitude, including the children pleaded to Him for deliverance … Their appeal is mixed with joy and expectation. The word “Hosanna” is used in (Psalms 118: 25): “Save now, I pray, O Lord … Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” These same words are used in (Mark 11: 9; Luke 19: 38; John 12: 13) …

    The words imply confession that He is able to save them, and that He is a great King, so they spread palm branches and their garments on the ground before Him...

    This song was chanted with great joy by the multitude, for they carried the branches of the palm trees and cried out with these words, a scene which St. Matthew described as causing all the city to be moved (Matthew 21: 10)! … And St. John described how the Pharisees faced this, murmuring among themselves that the world has gone after Him (John 12: 19)! …

    At this point the rites of the joyous Hosanna Sunday come to end and the Faithful partake of the Lord’s Body and Blood …

⸭