On Lazarus and the Palm Branches · §5 · Hesychius of Jerusalem

Call to Bind Ourselves to Christ

…my son, you went up” (Genesis 49:9). And the nations were bound fast in Him, never to be loosed. So let us too be bound to Christ, never to be loosed. If we strive at all to be saved and to profit from His feasts, He in turn will raise us together with Lazarus from our dead works (Hebrews 9:14), the works done without Him.

So let us dine with Him in Bethany (John 12:2), which means “house of obedience”; so let us fittingly gather our thoughts, together with the senses of the body, out of the captivity of forgetfulness, crying out and saying: “Hosanna in the highest; blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 21:9), who comes to enter His own Jerusalem, not to suffer as He did then, but to save her and to be glorified by her, as David calls out to her, saying: “Extol the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion” (Psalm 147:12).

He said it twice, “extol” and “praise,” with soul and body, “for He has strengthened the bars of your gates” (Psalm 147:13), which are faith, hope, love…

Greek

υἱέ μου, ἀνέβης.» Καὶ ἐδεσμεύθησαν τὰ ἔθνη ἐν αὐτῷ ἀλύτως. 12 Οὐκοῦν δεσμευθῶμεν καὶ ἡμεῖς εἰς τὸν Χριστὸν ἀλύτως. Ἐὰν ὅλως ἀγωνιζώμεθα τοῦ σωθῆναι καὶ ὠφεληθῆναι ἀπὸ τῶν ἑορτῶν αὐτοῦ, καὶ αὐτὸς συνεγερεῖ ἡμᾶς τῷ Λαζάρῳ ἀπὸ τῶν νεκρῶν ἡμῶν ἔργων, τῶν χωρὶς αὐτοῦ γενομένων. Οὕτω συνδειπνῶμεν αὐτῷ ἐν τῇ Βηθανίᾳ, ἥτις ἑρμηνεύεται οἶκος τῆς ὑπακοῆς, οὕτως ἁρμοδίως συνάγωμεν τοὺς λογισμοὺς ἡμῶν ἀπὸ τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας τῆς λήθης μετὰ τῶν αἰσθητηρίων τοῦ σώματος, κράζοντες καὶ λέγοντες· «Ὠσαννὰ ἐν τοῖς ὑψίστοις· εὐλογημένος ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἐν ὀνόματι κυρίου», εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ Ἰερουσαλήμ, οὐ διὰ τὸ παθεῖν ὥσπερ τότε, ἀλλ' ἵνα σώσῃ αὐτὴν καὶ δοξασθῇ ὑπ' αὐτῆς, καθὼς προσφωνεῖ αὐτῇ ∆αυὶδ λέγων· «Ἐπαίνει, Ἰερουσαλήμ, τὸν κύριον· αἴνει τὸν θεόν σου, Σιών.» ∆εύτερον εἶπεν: «ἐπαίνει» καὶ «αἴνει» ψυχῇ καὶ σώματι, «ὅτι ἐνίσχυσε τοὺς μοχλοὺς τῶν πυλῶν σου», οἵτινές εἰσι πίστις, ἐλπίς, ἀγάπη,

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About this text

Hesychius of Jerusalem's sermon on Lazarus and the palm branches, in a fresh English translation of the whole homily. The raising of Lazarus is the sign that Christ will raise all humanity; Zechariah's call to the daughter of Zion to rejoice is read phrase by phrase; and the hearers are urged to carry palms of faith, hope, and love and to become a holy temple for Christ.

Hesychius of Jerusalem (fl. c. 412–450) preached this homily on Lazarus and the palm branches. The Greek heading names him as priest of Jerusalem; the homily was once credited to Titus of Bostra. It is a different sermon from his Homily II on Saint Lazarus.

Hesychius reads the raising of Lazarus as the sign that Christ will raise all humanity, and so explains why men and angels hailed Christ as King when He entered Jerusalem. He then reads Zechariah’s call, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion,” phrase by phrase, together with the colt, the garments, and the branches of the Gospel story.

At the end he urges his hearers to bind themselves to Christ, to carry palm branches of faith, hope, and love, and to follow Him into the temple, so that He may drive out the sellers within them and make them a holy temple instead of a den of robbers.

Fresh English translation from the Greek text of PG 93.

Printed text used

Translated from PG 93 (Greek)

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