This year while Protestants and Roman Catholics have already celebrated Palm Sunday, for Orthodox Christians Palm Sunday still lies ahead.
Palm Sunday is a familiar event for many Christians but it is a profound multi-layered event that has much to teach us about our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
In Matthew’s Gospel we read a quote from the prophet Zechariah:
Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.
(Matthew 21:5; Zechariah 9:9, OSB)
Early Christians viewed Jesus’ death and resurrection from the standpoint of Christus Victor (Christ the Conqueror). But all too often we forget or overlook that Jesus Christ is unlike worldly conquerors.
Marcus Aurelius shown in a four horse chariot. Source
Unlike Roman emperors who entered triumphantly riding a chariot drawn by war horses, Jesus enters Jerusalem riding a donkey — a sign of humility.
Cyril of Jerusalem in his Catechetical Lectures used Zechariah 9:9 to drive home the point the uniqueness of Christ’s kingship.
Kings are many; of which do you speak, O Prophet? Give us a sign which other Kings have not. If you say, A king clad in purple, the dignity of the apparel has been anticipated. If you say, Guarded by spear-men, and sitting in a golden chariot, this also has been anticipated by others. Give us a sign peculiar to the King whose coming you announce. And the Prophet makes answer and says, Behold! Your King comes unto you, just, and having salvation: He is meek, and riding upon an ass and a young foal, not on a chariot. You have a unique sign of the King who came. Jesus alone of kings sat upon an unyoked foal, entering into Jerusalem with acclamations as a king. (Lecture 12.10)
The Orthodox Matins Service for Palm Sunday has an interesting allegorical interpretation of Jesus riding the foal.
Mosaic – Jesus enters Jerusalem.
O Thou who ridest on the cherubim and art praised by the seraphim, Thous hast sat, O gracious Lord, like David on a foal, and the children honored Thee with praise fitting for God; but the Jews blasphemed unlawfully against Thee. Thy riding on a foal prefigured how the Gentiles, as yet untamed and uninstructed, were to pass from unbelief to faith. Glory be to Thee, O Christ, who alone art merciful and lovest mankind. (Lenten Triodion p. 492)
Thus, there is in Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem a missionary message — that Christ came to save not only the Jews but also the Gentiles. With Christ’s entry into Jerusalem the Old Covenant of Moses reaches its conclusion and a New Covenant commences. The Old Israel is superseded by the New Israel:
Let us also come today, all the new Israel, the Church of the Gentiles, and let us cry with the Prophet Zechariah; Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem; for behold, thy King comes unto thee . . . . (Lenten Triodion p. 489)
In his Catechetical Lectures Cyril also sees Jesus entry into Jerusalem as fulfilling another prophecy in Zechariah 14:4, a favorite verse among Evangelicals who view it in light a literal 7 year Tribulation, the Antichrist, and the Second Coming. (See Calvary Chapel’s founding father Chuck Smith’s dispensationalist commentary.) Cyril of Jerusalem in his Catechetical Lecture notes:
But He might perchance even sit upon a foal: give us rather a sign, where the King that enters shall stand. And give the sign not far from the city, that it may not be unknown to us: and give us the sign plain before our eyes, that even when in the city we may behold the place. And the Prophet again makes answer, saying: And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives which is before Jerusalem on the east. Does any one standing within the city fail to behold the place?(Lecture 12.11)
An Invitation
Palm Sunday is an invitation to worship Jesus Christ. Just as the Jews and the city of Jerusalem were given the opportunity to receive Christ as King so too the opportunity is given to all today. We find in Canticle One Palm Sunday viewed from the Christus Victor motif:
Out of the mouth of Thy servants, the innocent babes and sucklings, Thou hast received praise. Thou hast overthrown the adversary and by Thy Passion on the Cross Thou hast avenged Adam’s fall of old; with the Tree Thou hast raised him up, and he sings to Thee, O Lord, a hymn of victory.
(Lenten Triodion p. 496)
Robert Arakaki
Resources
The Lenten Triodion. Edited by Mother Mary and (Metropolitan) Kallistos Ware.
Shine, Cross of the Lord, shine with the light of thy grace upon the hearts of those that honor thee.
This Sunday marks the third Sunday of Lent. On this Sunday Orthodox Christians celebrate the adoration of the precious and life giving Cross. At the end of the Divine Liturgy the priest processes around the church carrying a tray with a cross surrounded by basil leaves or flowers while hymns about the Cross are sung.
Cross surrounded by basil.
Hail! life-giving Cross, unconquerable trophy of the true faith, door to Paradise, succour of the faithful, rampart set about the Church. Through thee the curse is utterly destroyed, the power of death is swallowed up, and we are raised from earth to heaven: invincible weapon, adversary of demons, glory of martyrs, true ornament of holy monks, haven of salvation bestowing on the world great mercy.
Come, Adam and Eve, our first father and mother, who fell from the choir on high through the envy of the murderer of man, when of old with bitter pleasure ye tasted from the tree in Paradise. See, the Tree of the Cross, revered by all, draws near! Run with haste and embrace it joyfully, and cry to it with faith: O precious Cross, thou art our succour; partaking of thy fruit, we have gained incorrpution; we are restored once more to Eden, and we have received great mercy.
The Old Testament Fulfilled
Many of the hymns of the Orthodox Church services consist of biblical exegesis. In the Matins service for this Sunday we hear how Old Testament foreshadowed the Cross of Christ and how the Cross fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies and types.
The Way Back to the Garden of Eden
We learn in the following kontakion (hymn) how the Cross dealt with the fiery sword that blocked access to Paradise (Genesis 3:24).
The fiery sword no longer guards the gate of Eden, for in a strange and glorious way the wood of the Cross has quenched its flames. The sting of death and the victory of hell are now destroyed, for Thou art come my Saviour, crying unto those in hell: ‘Return again to Paradise.’
Jacob the Patriarch
Jacob as he was dying leaned on the top of his staff and venerated Christ (Genesis 47:31, Hebrews 11:21).
Jacob prefigured Thy Cross in days of old, O Christ, when he venerated the top of Joseph’s holy staff, in which he saw foreshadowed the dread sceptre of Thy Kingdom; and now we venerate Thy Cross in faith for ever.
Moses the Lawgiver
Moses stretching out his arms was a type of the Cross (Exodus 17:8-12).
When now we venerate Thy Cross, which Moses once prefigured with his outstretched arms, we put to flight the invisible Amalek, O Christ our Master, and so we gain salvation.
Elisha the Prophet
What looks like a strange incident of the missing ax head and Elisha throwing a stick of wood into the Jordan River is interpreted as a foreshadowing of the Cross of Christ and our redemption (4 [2] Kings 6:5-7).
Come, Elisha the prophet, and tell us plainly: What was the wood that thou hast cast into the water? ‘It was the Cross of Christ, which draws us up from the depths of corruption: and we venerate it with faith for ever.’
The Trees Shall Rejoice
The Orthodox Church reads the Psalms through Christ-centered glasses, that is, looking for its fulfillment in Christ. Thus instead of reading the verse about the trees of the forest rejoicing literally (Psalm 95 [96]:12), the Church reads it allegorically.
Let all the trees of the forest dance and sing, as they behold their fellow-tree the Cross, today receiving veneration: for Christ, as holy David prophesied, has exalted it on high.
Chanting Versus Preaching?
In a recent FaceBook thread a reader who grew up in the Greek Orthodox Church asked why there was so much chanting in the church and so little preaching from the Bible. Many of the responses were that much of the hymns and prayers were Scriptural in content.
However, I think the reader did raise a valid point. I think she felt the need for didactic Bible preaching in the Orthodox Church. All too often it seems that after the Gospels are read, the priest will turn around, face the altar and move into the remaining part of the Liturgy. Or that the homily that follows is so brief as to barely scratch the surface of the Bible passage. What is sorely needed are sermons/homilies that explain to the congregation the meaning the biblical passage read that morning and an exhortation to live out that Bible passage in the context of the Church.
As a Protestant Evangelical I was encouraged to read and study the Bible. When I became Orthodox I found this biblical training very helpful. Knowing the Bible passages helped me to better understand what was being sung or chanted in the service. The value I find in the hymns and chants of the Church is that hearing theology in song penetrates my mind and heart on a deeper level than pure didactic sermons. So my answer to those who wonder about chants versus sermons is: “We need both. Strong biblical preaching to the mind will complement and revitalize the chants and hymns sung from the heart.” One of Orthodoxy’s greatest bible expositors, John Chrysostom, was also responsible for the Liturgy used on most Sundays in Orthodox churches.
Robert Arakaki
Reference
The Lenten Triodion. By Mother Mary and Metropolitan (Archimandrite) Kallistos Ware. South Canaan, Pennsylvania: St. Tikhon’s Seminary Press. [pp. 334-352]
But I think that the idea of crossing the Bosphorus is perhaps overly dramatic and may not be an entirely helpful metaphor.
We need to remember that the Orthodox faith was at one time not confined to the East, where it has been faithfully kept, but that it was also once upon a time the faith in the West.
I coined the phrase “crossing the Bosphorus” (becoming Orthodox) in imitation of the more widely known “crossing the Tiber” (becoming Roman Catholic). I like the phrase partly because the image of Hagia Sophia (the Church of the Holy Wisdom) in Constantinople has long captured the imagination of many, drawing them to Orthodoxy.
But the underlying point of the comment contains an important truth – Orthodoxy cannot and must not be confined to a particular city, region, or ethnicity. Orthodoxy is catholic. The word “catholic” comes from the Greek καθολου for “all together” or “general.” In the early creeds the term “catholic church” was used to describe the Church’s universality as opposed to the individual local congregation. Later the term “catholic church” came to denote the true Church as opposed to the various heretical or schismatic off shoots. (See JND Kelly’s Early Christian Doctrine p. 190)
The Church’s catholicity is grounded in the Great Commission when Christ sent the Apostles into all the world to disciple nations and to baptize them in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19-20). The late Metropolitan Philip on the occasion of the receiving the 2,000 Evangelicals into Orthodoxy declared in his homily:
And he commissioned the disciples. He said to them: Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations . . . . Not only Greeks. Not only Antiochians. Not only Russians. Or Serbians or Romanians. Go and make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the Name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. (0:54-1:24)
So in light of the Church’s catholicity “crossing the Bosphorus” captures only a small part of Orthodoxy’s universality. “Crossing the Bosphorus” (the Patriarchate of Constantinople) can be substituted with “crossing the Orontes” (the Antiochian Patriarchate), with “crossing the Dnieper” (Kiev, the ancient capital of Slavic Orthodoxy) or with “crossing the Moskva” (the Patriarchate of Moscow).
Protestant inquirers into Orthodoxy can easily get distracted by the variety of ethnic representations. This is especially so in the US where various ethnic branches of Orthodoxy are zealous to preserve their own particular heritage — the small “t” traditions. It is critical for Protestant inquirers to realize Orthodoxy IS the Christian faith in the best “universal” or catholic sense. Centuries before Rome broke away in 1054 there was a great unity amidst all the diversity. The faith Tradition passed down by the Apostles was believed from Britain, France, Russia, Syria, Africa, Greece and Italy. Do not let the ethnic trees cause you to miss the beauty and unity of the Forest!
Crossings
The term “crossing” can have more than one meaning. In one sense it can refer to people converting to Orthodoxy. In another sense it can refer to Orthodox missionaries going to lands where Orthodoxy is non-existent or barely known. In the 1700s Orthodox missionaries – Saints Herman, Innocent, Jacob, and Juvenaly — traversed the vast Siberian tundra then crossed the Bering Strait to bring Orthodoxy to the native peoples of Alaska.
Saint John Maximovitch
Another example of crossing is Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco (1896-1966). In the 1930s and during World War II he served as bishop of Shanghai. Then when the Communist took over China he was forced to flee. He spent a short time in a refugee camp on the island of Tubabao in the Philippines. Eventually, he became the bishop of San Francisco. What is remarkable about Saint John Maximovitch’s ministry is how it spanned the vast Pacific Ocean, encompassing both Asia and America. Another remarkable ministry by Saint John was his collecting the lives of the saints and his desire to make known the ”western” saints. Thanks to him many of the pre-Schism Western saints became known to the Orthodox faithful.
Bishop John in Tubabao, Philippines
One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church
A useful rule of thumb is whoever was recognized as a saint prior to the Schism of 1054 regardless whether they lived in the western half of the Roman Empire or its eastern half is an Orthodox saint. This is because they were part of the one Church. Rome’s departure in 1054 was a great loss but the Church continued to be the one Church, not two churches or two halves. We ought not let the more recent antagonisms with Roman Catholicism obscure the fact that at one time the Pope was an Orthodox patriarch and the Latin West was Orthodox. As Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco said: “The West was Orthodox for a thousand years, and her venerable Liturgy is far older than any of her heresies.” source
In Orthodoxy a saint is recognized as a saint through a designated feast day in the Church’s liturgical calendar, a troparion (hymn) in honor of the saint, and an icon of the saint. When one is baptized or received into Orthodoxy the common practice is to take on the name a particular saint. The patron saint becomes a model of Christian discipleship and one’s prayer partner.
Latin Fathers
Among the Latin Fathers are Ambrose of Milan, Augustine of Hippo, Leo the Great, Gregory the Great, and Jerome.
Ambrose of Milan (c. 340-397) was the bishop who brought Augustine to Christ. Augustine in his Confessions (6.4.6) recalls how Ambrose’s powerful sermons and his exegesis of the Old Testament brought a pagan skeptic to faith in Christ. Ambrose persuaded Emperor Gratian to remove the statue of the pagan goddess Victory from the Senate halls. He excommunicated Emperor Theodosius for his role in the massacre in Thessalonica, putting the emperor under discipline until he did public penance. He also introduced antiphonal chanting into the Latin church.
It may come as a surprise to some that despite the many criticisms made of Augustine, especially in discussions about Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy, he is recognized as a saint in the Orthodox Church. Fr. George Papademetriou wrote “Saint Augustine in the Greek Orthodox Tradition” in which he explained how Augustine is a saint of the Church despite the numerous recent criticisms of his theology. For example, while Augustine may have taught the double procession of the Holy Spirit in no way did he ever advocate changing the Nicene Creed. Saint Photius pointed out that Augustine’s understanding of the Holy Spirit’s two fold procession was a minor position and that we are obliged to follow the consensus patrum (consensus of the Fathers).
Orthodox readers who question whether Augustine is recognized as a saint need to keep in mind that his feast day falls on June 15 of the liturgical calendar. The dismissal hymn for that day goes:
O blessed Augustine, you have been proved to be a bright vessel of the divine Spirit and revealer of the city of God; you have also righteously served the Saviour as a wise hierarch who has received God. O righteous father, pray to Christ God that he may grant to us great mercy. source
Interested readers can read John Stamps’ “When Tradition Fractures” for an insightful discussion of Orthodoxy’s fraught relations with Augustine of Hippo.
There is a need for Orthodox scholars fluent in Latin. Orthodoxy needs multilingual theologians fluent in both Greek and Latin. The patristic consensus cannot be confined to any one language or region. For example, the Vincentian Canon is a Latin phrase: quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est (i.e. only “what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all”) is the catholic Faith of Christianity. Saint Vincent lived in the town of Lerins (near modern day Marseilles, France). Orthodox theology being grounded in the patristic consensus will be enriched as scholars, hierarchs, and laity read the Latin Fathers. The same can also be said of the Orthodox understanding of the patristic consensus being enriched by Syriac Fathers like Saints Ephraim the Syrian and Isaac the Syrian Bishop of Nineveh.
Celtic and British Saints
Icon – St. Patrick
In addition to Saint Patrick – Enlightener of Ireland, the Orthodox Church honors Brendan the Navigator, Venerable Bede, Saint Columba – Abbot of Iona. For those of us who live in the English speaking world one of Orthodoxy’s hidden treasures lies in the numerous Celtic and British saints. As I read through the list of names I was surprised to see so many familiar names that I never associated with Orthodoxy.
It is the practice in Orthodoxy that when one becomes Orthodox one takes on the name of a saint. Many recent converts have taken on the names of “eastern” Orthodox saints being unaware of the “western” Orthodox saints. Those presently inquiring into Orthodoxy or about to become Orthodox can reaffirm their western cultural roots by taking the name of a “western” Orthodox saint.
One of the more well known African saints is Moses the Black. He lived a life according to the passions of the flesh until his conversion to Christ. After his conversion he lived as a monastic and served as abbot of a monastery until his martyrdom by Berber pirates.
Also among the African saints is the pair: Irene and Sophia. Little is known about them but the Church remembers them. More well known is Mary of Egypt. One Sunday during Lent is designated the Sunday of Mary of Egypt. On that day the Orthodox Church remembers how God’ grace transformed a woman caught in the pleasures of the flesh into one of the greatest saints of all time. Other well known African saints include Athanasius the Great, Saint Katherine, and Anthony the Great.
Child Honoring the Chinese Martyrs
China and Japan
China has the honor of the Martyrs of the Boxer Rebellion (1900). The icon of the Chinese Martyrs show a large group comprised of adults and children. Standing in the front is Father Mitrophan (Ji Chong or Tsi Chung) with his wife Tatiana and their three sons: Isaiah, Sergiy, and Ioann. The oldest son was 23 years old at his death and the youngest 8 years old.
Another Asian saint is Saint Nicholas of Japan, Equal to the Apostles. Born Ivan Kasatkin in 1836 in the province of Smolensk, he later studied in St. Petersburg. He received his missionary calling in the form of a request from the Russian consulate in Japan for a priest who would minister to the spiritual needs of the Russian community there, the Japanese, and other foreigners stationed in Japan. He translated the Bible and Liturgy into Japanese. After more than 50 years of missionary labor he planted 266 Christian communities before he reposed in 1912.
Crossing the Bering Straits
Orthodoxy first came to the American continent from the west, that is, from Russia. The early Orthodox missionaries “crossed the Bering Strait” in order to bring the Good News of Christ to the native peoples of Alaska. The Alaskan saints comprised four missionaries (Saints Herman, Innocent, Juvenaly, and Jacob) and one native born martyr (Peter the Aleut).
Martyrdom of Saint Juvenaly and his native guide.
Saint Juvenaly was born in Nerchinsk, Siberia in 1761. He worked as a mining engineer and was married. After his wife died in 1791 he entered a monastery in St. Petersburg. In 1794 Fr. Juvenaly and others had reached Kodiak. The following year Father Juvenaly baptized some 700 Chugatchi then crossed the Kenai Bay. In 1796 he and his native assistant were martyred by the Yup’ik. He was the first Orthodox Christian to receive the crown of martyrdom and is remembered as “Protomartyr.”
Another Alaskan saint is Peter the Aleut. He was born in Kodiak in the late 1700s. While in his teens he accompanied Russian fur trappers to northern California. In 1815, while hunting in his kayak south of San Francisco he was captured by Spanish soldiers. He refused to be rebaptized insisting that he was already a Christian. In their zeal to convert Peter the Roman Catholic priests cruelly dismembered his hands and feet. Today he is known as the “Martyr of San Francisco.”
It may surprise some to learn that Orthodoxy has American saints. In addition to Saint John of San Francisco, there is Saint Raphael of Brooklyn and Saint Alexis Toth of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Saint Tikhon before he became Patriarch of Moscow served in North America striving to build up the scattered Orthodox immigrant community into a strong self-sustaining church. Saint Tikhon is known as ”Enlightener of America and Confessor of Moscow.” In his last sermon in America he said:
The Light of Orthodoxy is not lit for a small circle of people…. It is our obligation to share our spiritual treasures, our truth, our light, and our joy with those who do not have these gifts. This duty lies not only on pastors and missionaries, but also on lay people, for the Church of Christ, in the wise comparison of St. Paul, is a body, and in the life of the body, every member takes part. source
Is Orthodoxy Eastern?
In conclusion, Orthodoxy is more than eastern, it is a universal faith. To say Orthodoxy is eastern is often a shorthand reference to Orthodoxy’s deep roots in Byzantine culture and its indebtedness to the Greek Fathers. In that sense one can use the phrase “Eastern Orthodox.” But to imply that Orthodoxy is restricted to a particular region or a particular culture is misleading and can lead to a distorted understanding of Orthodoxy.
So, “No, you don’t have to ‘cross the Bosphorus’ to become Orthodox.” That’s one way. Many have entered into Orthodoxy through Greek Orthodox parishes that are under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Another way is to “cross the Moskva” by converting to Orthodoxy through a ROCOR parish. Or “cross the Orontes” through the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese. This is what the two thousand Evangelicals did in 1987.
Unlike Roman Catholicism which has one spiritual center: Rome, Orthodoxy has many spiritual centers. What unites us is the Apostolic Faith – “what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all.” Orthodoxy in the US has an opportunity to manifest the catholicity of Orthodoxy. The challenge for many Orthodox parishes founded by immigrants is to go beyond their ethnic roots and embrace the larger Orthodox Tradition. One small step can be the inclusion of icons of American, African, or Asian saints in the sanctuary. Another small step can be children or adult class presentations on the lives of the saints. The honoring of the saints on their feast days requires the blessing of the bishop. The honoring of the North American saints is an important step towards a unified American Orthodox Church.
The Orthodox Church in America honors the North American saints on the second Sunday after Pentecost. The kontakion (hymn) for that day goes:
Today the choir of Saints who were pleasing to God in the lands of North America
Now stands before us in the Church and invisibly prays to God for us.
With them the angels glorify Him,
And all the saints of the Church of Christ keep festival with them;
And together they all pray for us to the Pre-Eternal God.
The Twelve Gates of New Jerusalem
A prophetic description of Orthodoxy’s catholicity can be found in Revelation 21:13. In that passage New Jerusalem is depicted as having twelve gates: three on the east, three on the north, three on the south, and three on the west. Access to New Jerusalem from all four points of the compass points to the universality of the Gospel and Christ’s reign. They also point to the catholicity of the Church as it welcomes peoples from all over the world into the kingdom of God.
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