A couple weeks ago, in the section of the Lenten series on common prayers that focused on the heights and depths of the Eucharistic prayers, I reflected on an ancient hymn, known as the Sanctus. Echoing the words of Isaiah 6.3, it puts us with the angels attending the throne of God, shouting: “Holy! Holy! Holy, LORD of Hosts! Heaven and earth are full of your glory!” But, the Sanctus is just the first half of a two-part hymn, joined with a hymn called the Benedictus. Today I’d like to return to this prayer and reflect on its connections to today’s wonderful celebration of Palm Sunday.
The Benedictus is taken from Matthew 21.9, which is itself a quotation from Psalm 118.26. In the psalm, the words “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! Hosanna in the highest!” are words of victory and celebration, and a sign to those manning Jerusalem’s gates to open them up to allow its victorious king to enter. In Matthew, the crowds apply it messianically to Jesus as he approaches Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Who is the one who comes in YHWH’s name? That is: Who, acts with divine authority and power? Who, in the words of Revelation, is “worthy… to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing?” It is Jesus of Nazareth, YHWH’s Anointed (Messiah, or Christ).
But once again, we must remind ourselves, that this is not a path of earthly glory. The crowds may have welcomed Jesus as a king, but he rode into town on the foal of a donkey, not a war horse, not to start a political uprising, but to usher in a revolution of the heart — a revolution of humility, forgiveness, and grace. This would, of course, lead the crowds to turn on him, so that in just a few days, those who were shouting “Hosanna!” would be screaming “Crucify him!”
For this reason, many Churches in the West have taken to keeping the Sunday before Easter as a sort of double commemoration, at once Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday. This comes across in the Anglican Collect of the Day, which reads:
Almighty and everliving God,
in tender love for all our human race
you sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ
to take our flesh and suffer death upon a cruel cross.
May we follow the example of his great humility,
and share in the glory of his resurrection;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
This crucified Jesus is the Jesus of the Benedictus , which the Church joins paradoxically with the glory of the heavenly throne in the Sanctus. Put together in this liturgical florilegium, the verses put a decidedly Christian and Christological spin on Isaiah’s vision. Not only do we anticipate mystically and sacramentally entering into God’s presence, but that presence is also, in the incarnational mystery, specifically that of the ‘man of sorrows’,’ humility, patience, and self-giving love, Jesus — the one of whom Paul wrote:
Who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped on to,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross! (Philippians 2.6-8)
I wrote the other day that the Sanctus touches on the deep mysteries of our faith. But if that’s true, combining it with the Benedictus expresses the deepest mysteries of our faith. No wonder the Cherubic Hymn sung in St. James’ and St. Basil’s liturgies exhorted, “Let all mortal flesh keep silence!”
Holy! Holy Holy, Lord of Hosts!
Heaven and earth are filled with your glory.
Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!
May we follow the example of his great humility, and share in the glory of his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen! Amen! Amen!
Matthew Root 