Oh, how easily Christ could have done this! Oh, with what fear and confusion His enemies looked at His glorious entry into Jerusalem! How they trembled, thinking: will he really become a king, will he really become our ruler? And the Lord did not need this, for His Kingdom is not of this world. He sat on a colt accompanied by a donkey, and wept bitterly... Why, why did He weep bitterly?!

This is explained by His own words addressed to Jerusalem, which were heard by those around Him: "... Oh, that thou, too, though in this thy day thou knowest what shall serve thy peace! But these things are now hidden from thy eyes" (Luke 19:42). Oh, that thou, O Jerusalem, on this most decisive day for thee, knew what is for thy peace: oh, that thou wouldst know that I am the Messiah Who came to save thee, that I am not thy earthly king, but the King of heaven! If only you knew.. But this is hidden from your eyes.

The Lord knew that the people who rejected Him, who crucified Him on the cross, would have to endure for rejecting Him, for crucifying Him. He knew that Vespasian and Titus would come, encircle Jerusalem, and subject it to the unspeakable horrors of the siege, the description of which we read in the Jewish historian Josephus, a contemporary of these events. Indescribably terrible was the terrible siege of Jerusalem: mothers killed and boiled their children in order to eat them.

Jerusalem was destroyed so that not one stone was left in it. The temple of Jerusalem was destroyed, never to be rebuilt again. Christ wept over this. Oh, that thou, O Jerusalem, would know on this day what is for thy salvation... "But these things are now hidden from thy eyes." The people rejoiced, the people shouted, waving date branches: "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the Highest!" (Matt. 21:9).

The people spread their garments under the feet of the donkey on which He rode, and the children shouted, praising God. And in their black souls, the scribes, the Pharisees, the chief priests were tormented, indignant, and, unable to endure it, said to the Lord: "Rebuke, rebuke them: you hear what they are crying out." "And Jesus saith unto them, Yes! Have you never read: Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast ordained praise" (Matt. 21:16). And the evil people fell silent.

They wanted, they asked that the Lord forbid Him to be glorified. And what did the Lord answer? – "… if they are silent, the stones will cry out" (Luke 19:40). For such a great event as you are witnessing cannot be kept silent—even stones cannot be silent. And so the people rejoiced, and the scribes, the chief priests, and the Pharisees were torn apart with anger and indignation. Why did they hate the Lord Jesus, why did they crucify Him?

Because they considered Him a transgressor of the law of Moses. The law of Moses was for them an indisputable, absolute holy truth, and anyone who violated the law was considered the gravest criminal. They were indignant that the Lord Jesus Christ healed the sick on the Sabbath day; more than once, more than once, they expressed their indignation. I will remind you of one such incident: the Lord entered the temple and saw a man with a withered hand, commanded him to come out into the middle and, turning to the scribes and Pharisees, asked: "... What should I do on Saturday? Good or evil? to save the soul or to destroy it?" (Luke 6:9). They were angrily silent.

Then the Saviour commanded the man to stretch out a withered hand, and it suddenly became healthy. And the scribes and Pharisees were mad with anger when they saw this miracle. What a perversion of the human heart: instead of tremblingly glorifying God, who works such miracles, they were imbued with frenzied malice. They did not understand, could not understand that the Lord came "not to break the law of Moses, but to fulfill," i.e.

supplement; that he is Lord of the Sabbath also. They did not understand that His teaching not only did not destroy the law of Moses, but immeasurably exalted it. They did not understand very much of what Jesus was saying. They were not moved even by the absolutely extraordinary, exceptional miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus for four days. Why so, why did the people rejoice, and they were angry?

The answer to this is found in the Holy Prophet Isaiah: therefore they could not believe that "the heart of this people is hardened, and with their ears they can hardly hear, their eyes are closed, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and be converted, that I may heal them" (Isaiah 6:10). They hardened their hearts, blinded their eyes, closed their eyes, and did not want to see the pure, the great, the holy.

Oh, how can you, accursed, seeing the procession of the Lord Jesus on a donkey, the son of a foal, did not remember the words of the prophet Zechariah: "Rejoice with joy, O daughter of Zion, rejoice, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee, righteous and saving, meek, sitting on an ass, and on a colt, the son of a foal" (Zech. 9:9). Oh, how did they not remember this?! How could they not be struck by the picture of the Lord's procession on a donkey, the son of a foal, when they saw it with their own eyes?!

Therefore they did not remember that they had hardened their hearts and blinded their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes and know with their hearts. The words of the Holy Apostle Paul about the deadly letter came true: "... our ability is from God. He has given us the ability to be ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life" (2 Corinthians 3:5-6). The enemies of Christ were attached to the letter of the Scriptures, not understanding the spirit of the Scriptures, which is why they were killed by the dead letter.

We are all called to serve the spirit – not to serve a deadly letter. And the enemies of Christ perished in their service, for they were ministers of a deadly letter. Let us not be ministers of the letter, let us be ministers of the spirit of Christ! Let it never happen to any of us that the words spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ at the entrance to Jerusalem are applicable to us: "... Oh, that thou also wouldst know on this thy day what will serve thy peace! But these things are now hidden from thy eyes" (Luke 19:42).

And in the life of every person there are moments when it is necessary to remember these words of Christ. It happens that when a person follows the wrong path, then God's mercy stops him, stops him with some shock, some misfortune or illness, and then, as it were, says to him: "... Oh, that thou wouldst know at least in this thy day what will serve for thy peace!" (Luke 19:42).