The Kingdom Coming: Lazarus Saturday into Palm Sunday
Lectures & Resources:
Thomas Hopko
Lazarus Saturday
Ancient Faith Radio. April 2008
https://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/hopko/lazarus_saturday
The “Lazarus Saturday” Icon
Icons and Their Interpretation, 2018
https://www.google.com/amp/s/russianicons.wordpress.com/2018/02/12/the-lazarus-saturday-icon/amp/
&
Orthodox Christian Celebration of the Saturday of Lazarus
https://www.goarch.org/lazarus
The Entry of Jesus Into Jerusalem
Ancient Faith Radio. April 2008
https://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/hopko/the_entry_of_jesus_into_jerusalem
Entrance into Jerusalem: The Palm Sunday Icon
A Reader’s Guide to Orthodox Icons, 2011
Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday
Orthodox Church in America, April 2020
LAZARUS SATURDAY
Scripture:
Hebrews 12:28-13:8
John 11:1-45
Liturgy:
The week following the Sunday of Saint Mary of Egypt is called Palm or Branch Week. At the Tuesday services of this week the Church recalls that Jesus’ friend Lazarus has died and that the Lord is going to raise him from the dead (Jn 11). As the days continue toward Saturday, the Church, in its hymns and verses, continues to follow Christ towards Bethany to the tomb of Lazarus. On Friday evening, the eve of the celebration of the Resurrection of Lazarus, the “great and saving forty days” of Great Lent are formally brought to an end:
Having accomplished the forty days for the benefit of our souls, we pray to Thee, O Lover of Man, that we may see the holy week of Thy passion, that in it we may glorify Thy greatness and Thine unspeakable plan of salvation for our sake . . . (Vespers Hymn).
Ανάσταση του Λαζάρου
[The icon of the Saturday of Lazarus shows Christ calling His friend to come out of the tomb. Lazarus is coming forth from the tomb, still bound in the strips of burial cloth. His sisters, Mary and Martha are bowing before Christ, expressing both their sorrow in the death of their brother, but also their faith in Christ as the Messiah and Son of God. Next to them is someone who has followed the request of our Lord and removed the stone from the door of the tomb.
Standing with Christ are his disciples who are witnesses of this miracle, a true manifestation of the power of God that would bring them assurance during the Passion of our Lord.
In the center of the icon is a person who represents the crowd who also witnessed the miracle. Some believed, but others went and told the Pharisees and chief priests who continued their machinations to bring about the arrest of Christ and His death. The walled city of Jerusalem, where Christ will arrive in triumph the following day, is depicted in the background.]
Lazarus Saturday is a paschal celebration. It is the only time in the entire Church Year that the resurrectional service of Sunday is celebrated on another day. At the liturgy of Lazarus Saturday, the Church glorifies Christ as “the Resurrection and the Life” who, by raising Lazarus, has confirmed the universal resurrection of mankind even before His own suffering and death.
By raising Lazarus from the dead before Thy passion, Thou didst confirm the universal resurrection, O Christ God! Like the children with the branches of victory, we cry out to Thee, O Vanquisher of Death: Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord! (Troparion).
Christ —the Joy, the Truth and the Light of All, the Life of the world and its Resurrection—has appeared in his goodness to those on earth. He has become the Image of our Resurrection, granting divine forgiveness to all (Kontakion).
At the Divine Liturgy of Lazarus Saturday the baptismal verse from Galatians—As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Gal 3.27)—replaces the Thrice-holy Hymn thus indicating the resurrectional character of the celebration, and the fact that Lazarus Saturday was once among the few great baptismal days in the Orthodox Church Year.
Because of the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead, Christ was hailed by the masses as the long-expected Messiah-King of Israel. Thus, in fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament, He entered Jerusalem, the City of the King, riding on the colt of an ass (Zech 9.9; Jn 12.12). The crowds greeted Him with branches in their hands and called out to Him with shouts of praise: Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! The Son of David! The King of Israel! Because of this glorification by the people, the priests and scribes were finally driven “to destroy Him, to put Him to death” (Lk 19.47; Jn 11.53, 12.10).
PALM SUNDAY
Scripture:
Matthew 21:1-11, 15-17 (Matins Gospel)
Philippians 4:4-9
John 12:1-18
Liturgy:
The feast of Christ’s triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, Palm Sunday, is one of the twelve major feasts of the Church. The services of this Sunday follow directly from those of Lazarus Saturday. The church building continues to be vested in resurrectional splendor, filled with hymns which continually repeat the Hosanna offered to Christ as the Messiah-King who comes in the name of God the Father for the salvation of the world.
[To the left is the Mount of Olives and to the right is the city of Jerusalem, often depicted with the domed Temple (in later icons it may also anachronistically be topped by a Cross, like a church). In the centre, heading towards Jerusalem, is Jesus Christ sat upon either a donkey or a colt. The common understanding is that it was the donkey upon which Christ rode into Jerusalem, even though He commanded both a colt and a donkey to be brought to Him. Nevertheless, both animals would have been shocking to the Jews in Jerusalem: the donkey because it is an animal of peace and the Jews expected a conquering, war-like, Messiah; the colt because it was an animal associated with the Gentiles, whilst the Jews expected the Messiah to be only for them.
Despite the apparently inauspicious entry, the icons visibly depict the invisible glory and identity of Jesus: through His halo, and through the scroll He holds, symbolizing Holy Wisdom
Behind Christ, His disciples follow, usually headed by Peter and John – both Apostles being described as “pillars of the Church” by the Fathers. The Twelve Apostles are often shown deep in conversation; good iconographers will depict them with expressions mixing wonder with apprehension. This is not surprising, as they had already shown consternation at Jesus’ insistence in returning to Judea due to the Jews’ threats (John 11:7-10). Now, not only is Jesus in Judea, but returning to Jerusalem itself, the seat of the Jewish religious authorities so determined to kill Him. They are also perplexed at Christ’s choice of transport. “These things His disciples understood not at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things unto Him”(John 12:16). For this reason, in some Icons (as in the one above), Christ is shown turning back to the Apostles, as if exhorting them to continue.
Out of Jerusalem’s gates come the Hebrews who had gathered to celebrate the Passover. They are crying out: Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Hosanna in the highest!”(Matthew 21:9). Children are breaking off branches from the palms and laying them before Christ’s donkey—making the message clear that it is those with child-like simplicity and devotion who truly praise the Lord, whilst the adults – both the Apostles and the Jews – tend to get distracted and start wondering among themselves. In many icons the children taking off their clothes are revealed to be wearing white robes underneath, further emphasizing their purity and innocence.
From the 14th century onwards a small detail appears of a child pulling a thorn from the foot of another (as in the icon above). The thorn is picked up from climbing the palms, but the message behind this is that it is the spiritual ascent which is rough and uncomfortable, even for innocents.
The didactic function of the images reflects the ancient homilies of the Church Fathers, which link the event with the celebration, and the rituals of the celebration with our own lives. From St Andrew of Crete’s homily for Palm Sunday:
“Let us go together to meet Christ on the Mount of Olives. Today he returns from Bethany and proceeds of his own free will toward his holy and blessed passion, to consummate the mystery of our salvation.
… Let us run to accompany him as he hastens toward his passion, and imitate those who met him then, not by covering his path with garments, olive branches or palms, but by doing all we can to prostrate ourselves before him by being humble and by trying to live as he would wish. Then we shall be able to receive the Word at his coming, and God, whom no limits can contain, will be within us.”]
The main troparion of Palm Sunday is the same one sung on Lazarus Saturday. It is sung at all of the services, and is used at the Divine Liturgy as the third antiphon which follows the other special psalm verses which are sung as the liturgical antiphons in the place of those normally used. The second troparion of the feast, as well as the kontakion and the other verses and hymns, all continue to glorify Christ’s triumphal manifestation “six days before the Passover” when he will give himself at the Supper and on the Cross for the life of the world.
Today the grace of the Holy Spirit has gathered us together. Let us all take up Thy cross and say: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest! (First Verse of Vespers).
When we were buried with Thee in baptism, O Christ God, we were made worthy of eternal life by Thy resurrection. Now we praise Thee and sing: Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord! (Second Troparion).
Sitting on Thy throne in heaven, and carried on a foal on earth, O Christ God, accept the praise of angels and the songs of children who sing: BIessed is he who comes to recall Adam! (Kontakion).
At the vigil of the feast of Palm Sunday the prophecies of the Old Testament about the Messiah-King are read together with the Gospel accounts of the entry of Christ into Jerusalem. At Matins branches are blessed which the people carry throughout the celebration as the sign of their own glorification of Jesus as Saviour and King. These branches are usually palms, or, in the Slavic churches, pussy willows which came to be customary because of their availability and their early blossoming in the springtime.
As the people carry their branches and sing their songs to the Lord on Palm Sunday, they are judged together with the Jerusalem crowd. For it was the very same voices which cried Hosanna to Christ, which, a few days later, cried Crucify Him! Thus in the liturgy of the Church the lives of men continue to be judged as they hail Christ with the “branches of victory” and enter together with Him into the days of His “voluntary passion.”