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In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit!
Glory to Jesus Christ, dear brothers and sisters!
Today we celebrate the Palm Sunday. This feast commemorates the day when Jesus
Christ entered Jerusalem riding a donkey (John., XII: 1-18), when He knew, that
today people glorify Him and tomorrow they crucify Him.
Before He entered Jerusalem, He asked the Apostles to bring a young unhandled
donkey. They bring it to Him. Apostles did not understand why He had asked them to
do in that way, but they listen to Him.
When Jesus saddled up the donkey and came to the Jerusalem, He began to cry and
said: "They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls.
They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of
God's coming to you..."(Lk, XIX: 44), - in other words, you did not know the time when
God, Himself, entered the city riding a donkey. God, who brings the Truth to people.
He cried. Why? He knew that they would not recognize Him, they would crucify Him,
because people do not like the truth. He predicted about Jerusalem that: "not a
stone will be left standing". And in 32 years not a stone was left in Jerusalem. The
symbolic period -32 years -it is almost the life time of Jesus Christ.
And there was such a history, that Jews captured Roman soldiers, and an emperor
offered them to release the soldiers. Israelites promised to release them, but they
killed all the people. Then the emperor sent his son who was the war-lord of the
Roman army. He came to Jerusalem just on the holiday of their Jewish Passover. He
blockaded a city and did not let anybody in and out. And on a holiday in Jerusalem
gathered to hundred thousands of people. There was such a hunger, that through every
gates of city it was taken away about 150 thousand dead. There were four gates in
the city, through which they took the dead away at night. And then a fire began in
Jerusalem. All burned, and the Jews escaped from a city straight on the bayonets of
the Roman warriors.
After that the Roman warriors came back to Rome. And when people glorified their
victory, then commander - the son of emperor said: "It was not my victory; I saw
that God punished them". Even pagan understood, that God punished them. And becomes
clear why Jesus cried, if we will glance in the historical aspect of His prophecy.
He cried and said: "you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you". But He
pulled himself together, He entered the saint Jerusalem. We will call it the saint
Jerusalem, because Jesus was there, and in reality it was desecrated Jerusalem.
Kyiv today is also desecrated -there are domes, holiness, and in reality people
here crucify the culture, crucify the language of the nation.
And when Jesus entered Jerusalem, people glorified Him. Why did they glorify?
Because they got a message about Him: that He is the one who resurrected Lazarus.
They also glorified Jesus because the Divine Angels were at that time very close to
the Earth and blessed the Divine Son, and inspired Him, knowing beforehand about
His suffering.
We can compare it to the Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004, when many people
believed that the Lord Himself would come to power through his people. They believed
that all would change. Everybody thought that the justice would come to this
country, a corruption would disappear, there would be some spiritual development.
And there were so many Angels in this moment, that nobody felt the frost. And
everybody felt themselves, as they were one big family.
People in Jerusalem in the presence of the Divine angels were happy. They glorified
God, they felt His presence. Therefore they all said: "Hosanna to Son of David, - it
means glory to son to of David - Jesus. - Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
Lord!". So they glorified Him, waved the branches. It is largest glory that they
gave to the man on the Earth. They put the clothes under the feet of the small
donkey which Jesus was riding. They were glad. All were glad, but also were among
them some spiteful priests who came to Jesus and said: "Teacher, rebuke your
disciples!" (Luke., XIX: 39) it means: "Why do they glorify? Say them to stop! Why
do they glorify you, as if you are the Devine Son"? They were envious and obsessed.
And Jesus told them: "I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.
(Luke, XIX: 40). Because it was time of glory before the large suffering, before
the large sacrifice of Son to God. And spiteful priests left Him, and people
continued glorifying Him.
It is clear that if He was a politician, He could use this thing and, maybe, sat
down on king's throne. But He came not for this. He came to be crucified, to take
off sins from humanity, that Earth could exist for two, three thousand years. He
came that we could regain consciousness, to think again, to have a chance to be
rescued. In other words, He came for us to repent. As God does not want the death of
sinners, He wants confession for each of us, that we get an eternal life. In other
words, the God's Son carried out such large role in Universe for the rescue of
humanity. Therefore He had to suffer. He knew that. Though He could become their
king, but He did not want, that was not His time to change the people, because
people would not change exactly. It was necessary for Him to sacrifice Himself. The
greatest sacrifice in the Universe is the Son of God - Creator of the Universe.
People told Him: "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name
of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!" (Matthew XXI:9) - but He knew that in 3
days they would cry, - crucify Him, crucify Him". He knew it. And He was entering
Jerusalem, and behaved not as politician, but as sincerely loving Son of God. And
before He also behaved as loving Son of God, who began to cry at those people who
traded in a temple, who made business out of faith of people, who even today sell
crosses, bodies of saints, icons. They sold pigeons for oblation, goats. In other
words, they sold everything for the temple, but they wanted to get money. Therefore
Jesus cried: "My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a
den of robbers."(Matthew: XXI:13), in other words they mean, to make the temple of
God into the house of merchandise. And all around were frightened, because they saw
the God's anger that comes on them through Jesus. Lord never took care for Himself,
but He took care for Truth for the sake of that He came to the Earth.
An entrance of Lord to Jerusalem. He was glorified by people at subconscious level;
they did that, because they felt that He was glorified by Angels. But they did not
glorify Him consciously; they did not understand who He is, and what difficulties He
met. Therefore in 3 days, they cried to Jesus: "Crucify Him, crucify..." (John., XIX:
15). People easily surrender. Do not even critisize them, because you can easily
surrender the provocation against the teacher. If you only think: "How could they
condemn? We will not do so". You will do the same. As Apostle Petro did, when he
told: "I will lay down my life for you," (John, XIII: 37). Jesus answered him:
Peter, - in other words He here gave to know as Satan works, "Truly, truly, I say
to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times" (John, XIII:
38). So it happened. Do you understand? Never hurry to criticize, because here God
will give to you to try the same situation.
It is so difficult to teach people how to be good. But it is so easy to show how the
evil things: lie, displeasure -as some politicians do. People are always searching
the answer. People search: "Well, and where is solution to the problems?" No. Now
will go there. People again search: " Where is solution to the problems"? "As it is
said in the Bible -do not confide in the sons of politicians, there is no rescue in
them. Do not confide in human sons, princes, politicians, as there is no rescue in
them. The rescue is in truth, in God. The rescue will come, if Lord rules through
the people in this world. However, in time of Jesus, the world was ruled by devil,
"prince of this world", who wanted to crucify Jesus. He ruled through the enriching,
through converting the God's temples into the houses of trade, - the same, that we
now have in Ukraine. These things are forbidden by the Old and the New Testaments.
However, certain people do that, contrary to the Bible and at the same time they say
they are Christians, they are Orthodox believers.
When in 1990s I got the question from the Lord: "How many Christians are in your
city out of four million? - Probably there are a lot, - No, maybe two or one".
Christians -are those, who really understand how to be rescued, how to do good
things. How to be rescued, how to get eternal life. How to do good things. How to
understand people correctly. How to have saving teachings in your head and in
heart. This is a rescue.
However, people lived in darkness, that is why people in three days already began to
cry : "Crucify Him, crucify"!
Today I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, we should not be those irresponsible
people, because it was said to you a lot and you have to understand many things. If
we now glorify God with the palm branches, then we should not cry tomorrow:
"Crucify, crucify Him, crucify the truth"! We should try to fast now, to enter the
grace of the Lord`s Resurrection.
Glory to Jesus Christ!
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Apostle (Philippians, 4:4-9):
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4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is
at hand;
6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known
to God.
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is
commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of
praise, think about these things
9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in
me--practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Gospel (John, 12:1-18):
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1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to
Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
2 So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and
Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table.
3 Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from
pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.
The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about
to betray him), said,
5"Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii
and given to the poor?"
6 He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but
because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help
himself to what was put into it.
7 Jesus said, "Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for
the day of my burial.
8 For the poor you always have with you, but you do not
always have me." 9 When the large crowd of the Jews
learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him but
also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.
10 So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as
well,
11 because on account of him many of the Jews were going away
and believing in Jesus.
12 The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast
heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.
13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet
him, crying out, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,
even the King of Israel!"
14 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it
is written,
15"Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming,
sitting on a donkey's colt!"
16 His disciples did not understand these things at first,
but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had
been written about him and had been done to him.
17 The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus
out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness.
18 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they
heard he had done this sign.
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