Palm Sunday 2025

Saint Margaret’s

Anglican Church

Budapest, Hungary

Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 31:9-16; Philippians 2:5-11; Luke

22:14-23:56

“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the

heavenly host, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in

the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those

whom he favours!"

It does not seem that long ago, to me at least, that we

were gathered here at Saint Margaret’s to celebrate

Christmas, the beautiful festival day of our Lord’s birth

just outside Jerusalem and in the royal village, or town, of Bethlehem. Perhaps you too were here with

us on the occasion, as we heard once again the story of our Lord’s nativity told with great tenderness

and warmth by the Evangelist Luke, the same Evangelist of course from whose Gospel our first Gospel

account this morning was taken, the story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, which we heard earlier as we

gathered downstairs in the courtyard this Palm Sunday morning.

Well, as the Gospel of Luke itself attests, a lot happened in the life of our Lord between his birth at

Bethlehem and his entry into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday. He taught his disciples, and us, of

God’s coming Kingdom; he healed the infirm in body and spirit, and he made his way from Galilee in the

north to Judea and Jerusalem, the sacred centre of ancient Israel, a journey which we in a sense

remember each year as we process in our own way from street level courtyard to the heights of this our

beautiful church home. Some of us may have even ascended in the lift or elevator, something not

readily available in the time of our Lord.

Jesus’ journey of course culminates in his entry into the holy city of Jerusalem on the back of a colt, a

royal animal of the time, as his followers or disciples hail his kingly arrival; just as did the angels at his

birth. And at our Lord’s birth, of course, “a multitude of the heavenly host,” themselves no doubt

looking down from on high, proclaim, “Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace…”

Curiously, that angelic message of God’s splendour and humankind’s yearning for peace is echoed this

morning in the voices, not of angels, but of the disciples themselves on the streets of Jerusalem. For,

our Lord’s impending death on the Cross, recounted for us in the so-called Passion account or

narrative, will become for the world the promise of life, rebirth, and resurrection.

“Peace in heaven,” the disciples shout, “and glory in the highest heaven!" The message of angels, the

message of the highest heavens, now becomes the message of Christ’s followers, our own message,

shouted from earth to the heavenly realm, as we with Christ make our way from “the Mount of Olives”

to the Mount of Calvary and the Cross. As paradoxical as it may seem, it is for our Lord a royal path, the

procession of a king, a route of glory and peace. One which we are called upon to trod as this holy

season of Lent draws to a close; called upon to trod throughout our life-long spiritual journey. For

Christ, the Cross becomes his royal throne. His journey to Jerusalem and Calvary now becomes our

journey as well.

Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven! Alas, God’s heavenly glory and splendour remain

forever as ineffable as peace among humankind remains forever passing and ephemeral. As followers

of Christ, we too live, we negotiate, that difficult and sometimes treacherous passage from Bethlehemto Nazareth to Jerusalem, from the certain and ineluctable of God’s glory to the elusive peace for which

we all yearn. Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven! That, my friends, is the journey we are

on. That is what Palm Sunday is all about.

Amen.

The Revd Dr Frank Hegedűs