Matthew 21:16 – This verse is the inspiration for the hymn, “All Glory Laud and Honor” {LSB #442}
This verse is a quotation from Psalm 8. Infants and children give thanks and
praise to the Savior. As Palm Sunday looms a host of Old Testament scriptures
will be fulfilled by Jesus’ Passion.
Christ is the fulfillment of all Old Testament prophecy. He is the
center of the book of books, the Bible.
he first Palm Sunday was a mob
scene. Jesus, riding a borrowed donkey, no weapons, no army, entered
Roman-occupied Jerusalem with thousands of other Jews to celebrate Passover. By
the end of the week, the people waving palm branches and crying “Hosanna” (“save
us!”) would call for his death on a Roman cross. His closest friends would keep
their distance or outright deny knowing him.
Every year, Christians around the
world recount the events of Holy Week and Easter through our hymns. And, every
Palm Sunday we stand, waving branches, to sing
“ALL GLORY, LAUD AND HONOR,” words penned in a prison tower by a man of
faith who kept his equilibrium, though the wheel of fortune had turned, taking
him from venerated to vilified.
THEODULPH’S SONG OF PRAISE
Theodulph, Bishop of Orléans, (c.
750-821) had been a celebrated poet in Charlemagne’s court during a period of
medieval renaissance. Widely hailed as a friend of the poor, he helped
institute a number of enlightened reforms and, with a nod from the emperor,
built public schools.
After Charlemagne’s death, Louis
the Pious inherited the throne. Petty and paranoid, he had many people rounded
up and held captive, including Theodulph.
Walls and locks cannot confine creativity or faith. Theodulph, the condemned poet, continued to write, including these words of praise in Latin, “Gloria, laus et honor tibi sit, Rex Christe, Redemptor.”
According to the legend, on Palm Sunday in the year 820, when the paranoid emperor passed by the prison tower in a procession of palm-wavers, Theodulph stood at his window and loudly sang.
All glory,
laud and honor
to you,
Redeemer, King,
to whom
the lips of children
made sweet
hosannas ring.
The people
of the Hebrews
with palms
before you went;
our praise
and prayer and anthems
before you
we present.[2]
[1]
Palm Sunday Images, © Ed Riojas, Higher Things
[3]
Collect for Saturday of the week of Lent 5, For All the Saints, A Prayer Book
For and By the Church, Vol. III © 1995 The American Lutheran Publicity Bureau,
Delhi, NY
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