The Entry into Jerusalem, into Profound Peace – Fr. Theologos

What is one of the deep spiritual meanings of our Lord’s entry into Jerusalem, and how can we also experience the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem in our own days?

Listen to this presentation to find out!

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Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and forever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us! Amen.

Soon we will celebrate the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. Jeru-salem means… – it is difficult to translate – it roughly means “profound peace” or, more precisely, “the foundation of peace.” “Yarah” means to lay a foundation, to found – in Hebrew. Of course, the event of the Entry of Lord into Jerusalem was a historical event, but its mysterious, spiritual dimension is the dimension that matters and is the one we would like to focus on now, with the help of the Mother of God and with the prayers of the fathers and yours.

Brethren, we must all accept that the entering into Jerusalem, into profound peace, into the foundation, into the basis of peace, is only possible through humility. Otherwise, it is not possible, brethren! You see that Christ did not enter Jerusalem as a popular leader walking on foot, smiling and shaking hands, or riding on a horse. He did not seek glory. If someone walks and smiles like a popular leader, it is a sign of fame, of glory, a sign that the person is popular. Again, riding a horse is also a sign of glory, they’re haughty. Christ chose to ride on a donkey foal, in a very humbling position, as the Holy Fathers say. He has the most humble position possible.

However, the Lord’s great tragedy was not this—that He humbled Himself, because He is humble and gentle at heart—but the fact that the people who cheered Him did so because Christ had done them good, and not because they loved Christ as a Man. Because they did not love Christ as a man, in a week they were going to crucify Him. Yes, brethren, the same people. This is vain glory: today you enter the city like a king with cheers and hosannas, and in 4-5 days they crucify you. They crucify you… Let us always love people and always remember these things when they cheer for us.

I am now thinking of Christ riding on the small animal that did not even allow Him to sit very well. It is possible that the Lord’s feet were almost touching the ground. I am now thinking about the Lord and how He might have said in His mind with infinite love: so-and-so, who is now cheering for me, does so because I healed him of such and such a disease, not because he cares about Me as a Person, but only about the fulfillment of his desires which I ensure for him; that is, he wants to use Me, and on the day of My crucifixion, he will be in such and such a place saying or doing something against Me. And even Peter, the mountain of faith, will deny that he knows Me… That’s pretty much how I think the Lord was thinking. And all this with a lot of love!

The other two coryphaei among the first three apostles, namely the brothers John and James, “Sons of Thunder,” as the Lord called them, just before going up to Jerusalem, that is, at the end of the Lord’s missionary activity, first said to call down fire from heaven—that is, to strike them—the Samaritans, who, for the Jews, were impure people, right? Which Samaritans? The Samaritans who had not welcomed them into their village, and for this reason to be struck down with fire from heaven. And we are talking about the apostles, the closest disciples who were supposed to resemble their Teacher, with the full love of the Heavenly Bridegroom.

Of course, their enthusiasm is understandable, but it was completely imperfect, it was corporeal. Their love was corporeal. This can also be seen from the fact that when the Savior tells them that they will go and ascend to Jerusalem, and the Savior tells them that He will be mocked and crucified and killed, the brothers Jacob and John did not understand anything—they were thinking about who would sit on the right and the left—that is, as generals, something like that, because they imagined that “Now we are going to Jerusalem, we will start an uprising, and our Jesus will be king, and how good it would be for us to have positions of leadership beside Him.” They even resorted to a diplomatic ploy, putting their mother forward to pressure Jesus. Most likely, they imagined that because of her age, their mother was more respectable and, of course, she was a third person, and therefore her request would carry more weight.

Yes, brethren, you see that without the Holy Spirit, no one understands Christ at all. Even the apostles understood Him a little after Pentecost. Christ is the most incomprehensible Man, you know. And I will repeat this. Only the Spirit can tell us Who the Lord is. In fact, the people were expecting a political Messiah, a military Messiah, a utilitarian Messiah who would do their bidding: that is, free them from the Romans, from poverty, from disease, and from all these things. They did not want to be freed from their sins and their way of thinking, which is why they came into conflict with Christ.

Why did they come into conflict with Jesus? Because they wanted to be happy, peaceful, and saved, but while remaining embraced with their passions, and Christ said that this is not possible. Because the cause lies within us and not in the other. The Lord showed us that it is not force, that it is not the intelligence of this world, that not politics bring us profound peace, but humility, the renunciation of war, the elevation to a higher plane of existence.

The Lord came to teach us, not to perform miracles. That is why He was called “The Teacher” and not “The Miracle Worker,” even though He performed miracles like no one else. We all know that life comes through healing from illness, and death through the perpetuation of illness. Yes, but when we realize that illness is sin and that we do not want or do not know how to heal ourselves, then things become tragic. This is the tragedy of fallen man, of the distorted man.

You see, this is why Jesus wept before entering Jerusalem as King. The moment was so intense that the person who divided the Bible into verses left this one by itself, in one verse: “Jesus wept.” It was an Englishman who divided the Bible into verses. “Jesus wept.” It is the smallest and greatest verse in all of Scripture: Jesus wept when He saw that we are like sheep without a shepherd. That is why He wept. He did not weep for Lazarus, brethren, because He knew He would raise Lazarus. He wept for us because we are darkened, anxious, hesitant, traumatized, without a value system, not knowing where to go, and bumping into each other like children, we grope blindly under time, as children of time.

This tear of Christ will last as long as the world lasts. Christ will be misunderstood and crucified until the end of time. And this is not only because of His absolute transcendence, for the Lord is merciful and descends to us, but this happens especially because of our lack of interest, because of our passions, because of the distortion caused by our value system directed toward ourselves and not toward the love of God and our fellow human beings.

Folks, I repeat, Christ did not weep for Lazarus because He knew He would restore him and raise him from the dead. Waking Lazarus from the dead was for Christ like waking someone from sleep, but the Lord does not stop there: Christ begins to show His stature as a loving King and Master, gentle and humble in everything. Do you understand? You see, brethren, Christ not only raises Lazarus, but gives us a demonstration, a demo of the Resurrection from the dead—because you see that Lazarus had already begun to decompose—it was the fourth day—and Christ was intentionally staying in another location, far from that place. And after that Christ approached.

Christ then performed a series of miracles that blew the minds of the onlookers: He chose a public figure, close to Jerusalem, known to the Pharisees—I don’t know if you know that Lazarus was the son of Simon the leper, one of the prominent Pharisees in Jerusalem. And He restored, He recomposed, the body of this very well-known public person, after which, He put his soul back into his body, and then teleported him out with just the word, saying, “Lazarus, come out!”

You see, Lazarus came out with his hands and feet bound and a cloth on his face, completely healthy. He literally teleported him. And when Lazarus came out, the Lord said, “Untie him and let him go!” The Lord did not half-resurrect Lazarus, you know, in a half-hearted way, meaning [it was not the case] that he could barely move or that his pulse was barely detectable. Not at all! The Lord acted as the Absolute Master and Giver of life through Himself, and He did this for us because He had to show us that His death, His so-called defeat on the Cross, was not the result of His powerlessness, but of His wisdom, a wisdom that destroys our entire value system. Do you understand?

This destructive action, in the good sense of the word, can also be seen in the fact that a normal person would have thought, “Well, now I’m at odds with the Pharisees, I should not work any more miracles, I should not stir things up, I should stay away so as not to escalate conflicts, I should not go to Jerusalem because it’s dangerous.” You see, Peter thought this way, out of love for his beloved Lord. But the Lord said to him with the courage of a true heavenly Hero: “Get behind me, Satan! For you have in mind not the things of God, but the things of men.” It is true, no man could think of such a total sacrifice, such a maximum sacrifice as [great] as the whole universe, so that maybe, just maybe, someone would be stirred.

Whoever loves more is greater, brethren! Christ God is the greatest because He loved and loves the most! You see, the only One in all of history Who sacrificed Himself for everyone is Christ, including for the ungodly and impure—as the Samaritans and Romans were considered—or for the tax collectors, that is, today’s mafiosi, and the fornicators and adulterers, and He sacrificed Himself, knowing that people would not sacrifice themselves for Him, or at least not completely.

Think, brethren, how a simple 33-year-old monk, a simple 33-year-old young man who associates with the underworld, with prostitutes, with heretics, and with those on the margins of society, would appear today in the eyes of the press and beyond. A monk. Or to see me. Well, I’m much older. How does that strike you? Think about it, that’s how Christ was! I’m not saying we have to do this, of course, because we don’t have the measures of Christ and, in fact, not even those of the Holy Fathers. We must cleanse ourselves from the passions in order to do such a thing and not judge! And then, if God blesses us through the people we obey, then we will do such a thing. However, if we are not able to do so, that does not mean that we should judge others lightly because we do not know in whom Christ lives, beyond appearances. People experience great tragedies.

We must focus on our sacrifice and love for our neighbor, for those around us. Brethren, know that the best of us sacrifice very little of ourselves compared to the immensity of Christ’s sacrifice, which is eternal and boundless: God the Word and Creator sacrifices Himself continuously from the fall of Adam to the resurrection from the dead, for this entire universe that was sacrificed and pushed into decay, into death, not because the universe wanted to be there, or because the universe would have sinned. The universe and animals are innocent, we know very well. But it was pushed into decay for the sake of man, out of love for man, God overturned it into decay, lest man despair of his salvation. That is, so that he wouldn’t feel inferior as the only fallen, mortal, disintegrating, and disintegrated being, a sad and sick ruin of former perfection.

The Lord also raised Lazarus for another reason. We will understand the reason if I tell you something. The Holy Fathers say that Lazarus is the image of the mind, while Martha and Mary are the image, the icon of practical life – Martha, and Mary is the image of contemplative life. Mary – the contemplative life, Martha – the practical life. You see that Martha went and brought Christ into the house. Yes, brethren, practical life, good deeds, bring Christ into our hearts, but it is the contemplative life that truly listens to Christ – it sits at the feet of the Lord – represented by Mary.

Without Christ, the mind, that is, Lazarus, is doomed to suffer and die, to decay. Only Christ can raise our mind that is dead because of sin. Do you understand? And so we come to the spiritual reason why Christ raised Lazarus before entering Jerusalem. Brethren, only through the resurrection of our mind, through its restoration and elevation from sin, can Christ enter into the profound peace of our heart. Do you understand?

This happens through the intertwining of practical life— meaning, good deeds—and contemplative life, that is, prayer, mainly, and then repentance, spiritual weeping, watchfulness—that is, being attentive to ourselves—this is the meaning of watchfulness. And all the other contemplative deeds… We must learn to contemplate, brethren. In this way, Christ comes to enter Jerusalem as a gentle King —into the profound peace: through the resurrection of the mind, through its liberation from sin, through its restoration from the passions in which it was fragmented.

See that this was the miracle par excellence that made many people offer Christ everything they had that was necessary and that they could offer on the path that Christ was going—namely, their clothes. Likewise, man should welcome Christ with hosannas the moment He raises his mind. The Jews at that time cried out, “Hosanna, to the Son of David! Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord!” And, unfortunately, when they called Him “Son of David,” people thought more of David’s military side than of his love for God and his humility. As I was saying, Christ was and is the least understood Man in human history. Yes…

You see, the little ones recognized His kingship and became great through their knowledge and awareness; it was the children who welcomed Him, while the envy of the grown-ups revealed the true smallness that hid behind the political and religious power they held. As we can see, in the light of the mind raised by Christ, we can truly see who we are. The brutes that we are. The hypocrites that we are. We must become children again when it comes to sin, and for this we must not be children in mind, but be perfect in mind, as Holy Apostle Paul says.

Today, because people sin from childhood, they become childish in their minds, immature, lacking in concentration and understanding, because sin is alienation. Brethren, we no longer have true teachers because our entire society lies in the shadow of death, under the rule of the evil one, in the very superficial thinking of sin. As I was saying, Christ is the Teacher, the absolute Teacher. Who could have imagined a perfect Teacher Who is absolutely gentle and humble? Yes…

As a teacher, He had to teach us that what He suffers, He suffers for our sake, and only for our sake, being completely lucid and in control of the situation, and not because He was overwhelmed by the brutality of the earthly rulers. This was one of the main reasons why, after entering Jerusalem, into the profound peace, the Savior cursed the fig tree that bore no fruit but only leaves, cursing it to bear no fruit forever. And, brethren, the fig tree withered immediately, to the amazement of the apostles who were there. Brethren, He cursed it not out of hatred, but to show His punitive power— that He is the Master of life and death, and therefore what will happen to Him will happen because He wants it, out of love for us and not defeated by brutality, as I said. Know that love always wins. Always.

The greatest books in human history—the Bible, the books of the Holy Fathers, and, if you will, The Brothers Karamazov— have precisely this theme: love always conquers and leads to resurrection. As I have often said, whoever loves more is greater, even if they will go through the cross and possibly suffer more. If we are to see the spiritual significance of the deed, the fig tree withered because it did not bear the fruits of love of the new law, of the New Testament, but only the leaves of vain glory, the leaves of the old teaching of the Old Testament, of the law, of legalism that tramples on love. Now Christ came, love no longer needs the pedagogy of legalism, the pedagogy of the old law. When love incarnate, that is, Christ, shows up, we no longer need the shadow—the teacher of the old law. But let’s continue.

What happened after He entered Jerusalem, into profound peace? Well, let’s see: after entering Jerusalem and being greeted with palm branches, the sign of victory, He drove the merchants out of the Temple with a whip, like a conqueror, brethren. He drove out those who introduced wealth into the Temple, into the house of God. He drove out with a whip those who were trading in the house of God – the pure, immaterial, and transcendent One. That is, He drove matter out of spirit. He drove away material thoughts with a whip to make room for the spirit of love. He started a whole war against distortion, against the misunderstanding regarding God.

You can imagine what it was like there, a real commotion. Revolution, brethren! Imagine Christ with a whip driving out the animals! This is what happens at the beginning, paradoxically, in the heart of man when he reaches profound peace and Christ starts entering it. What happens? During that time, at the first glimmers of Christ’s light, he sees all his animals there, all the beasts, and he must work with Christ to drive them out. To remain in profound peace and to exercise watchful and fighting patience in this peace and to drive out all sinful, carnal thoughts, all the animals.

After driving out the merchants and the animals, that is, the carnal thoughts, from the temple of the heart, Christ preaches in this temple to the Pharisees, that is, to the subtle thoughts of the right, that is, thoughts of pride and vain glory. This, of course, if we do not agree with [the thoughts] beforehand, if we do not accept them. We must uncover them, brethren, through confession, uncover their hypocrisy, even if this means war, even if this means renouncing the sinful world, even if this means that we will be hunted down, captured and lifted up on the Cross.

The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force, by assault, by war, and when I say war, I mean spiritual war, because everything starts with spirituality and, from there, on a lower level, with ideology. Imagine what would happen today if the hardline wing in Orthodoxy and politics were told by a poor 33-year-old former carpenter, who gave up his trade and has only the clothes on his back—an apparent complete nobody, like Christ was—if the theologians and politicians were told that the underworld, the hardened, the sinners, and the fornicators are going to go before them into the Kingdom of Heaven. That is what Christ said. Do you understand? What would happen if we were the ones being addressed, that is, if Christ were saying this to us? Let us look at the hardness of our hearts and crucify it, soften it, weep for it! Would we crucify Christ or ourselves?

Without the Cross, there is no Resurrection. Brethren, without the Cross, there is no overcoming of death. Our thoughts of pride, the Pharisee in us, can be seen in our prejudices, in our positions of absolute certainty, especially when we think we know the law and, above all, when we think we know the absolute law, the law of God. Brethren, we must have the flexibility of humility and admit that we have made mistakes. Yes, I too have made mistakes so many times. Please forgive me! And we must admit this even if others may crucify us. They crucified Christ without Him having done anything wrong. Will we escape? We will be crucified anyway, brethren, we will be found guilty anyway: whether the guilt is real, exaggerated, or imaginary. The point is that, as far as possible, at the moment of crucifixion we should be cleansed from sin and have a good relationship with God the Father, that is, we should be in God’s will and have a clear conscience.

Of course, we cannot be like Christ, but as far as possible, our conscience should not reproach us. For this reason, brethren, we need a Simon of Cyrene to lift our Cross, that is, an experienced spiritual leader. Do you understand? Of course, the danger from which we can only escape with the gift of Most High God is to be sold to the Pharisees, that is, to thoughts of pride and hypocrisy, by a Judas. That is, by a thought of logic and hidden love of wealth, of power, and of vain glory, that is, the thought of being on “good terms” with thoughts of pride: “Let’s not disturb…” Yes… “How do people perceive us…” You see, Judas was logical – he was so logical, brethren, that the evangelist had to reveal to us that, in fact, beneath this logic, and beneath this logical and apparently virtuous love for the poor – because love for the poor is a great virtue – something else was hidden: namely, the love of theft, selfishness. It was a matter of using logic and virtue as a weapon. That was with Judas. It is a matter of perverting virtue through selfishness.

Things are very subtle, brethren, because you see that Scripture says that Judas did not steal the whole money box, but stole part of what was put into it. That is, Judas was giving alms, but he was stealing part of what was put in. You see that our selfish logic tells us to prefer matter despite the suprarational spirituality of Christ, and thus, we sell Christ.

Yes, brethren, the path to Resurrection, the path to total peace, goes through our entry into profound peace, through humility and the struggle through the stilling of thoughts, do you understand? And through physical deeds, that must be spiritual, must be good, and then, finally, with the thoughts of pride and vain glory, ultimately. If we crucify our mind and heart by renouncing selfish logic and the pseudo-virtues perverted by egoism, then indeed we will attain to the Resurrection.

May the good Lord help us! Don’t forget to take palm branches at church on Sunday because they are a sign of victory. Thank you for staying in a profound peace with me until now! Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us! Amen.

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