Liturgy of the Palms (Year B, RCL)

When I was a child, I loved Palm Sunday because we got to act out the biblical version of a ticker-tape parade. Later I learned of the ephemeral quality of stardom and parades and decided that Palm Sunday and Passion Week belong together. As a pastor, I have accepted the dismal fact that most of our people skip Thursday, Friday and Saturday, slipping from parade pandemonium to Easter ecstasy with none of the suffering and pain.

The two disciples must have imagined a grander and nobler role for themselves than donkey detail. For this they left their fishing nets?

The term better fits Matthew than Mark, and neither Gospel justifies the church’s celebration of Palm Sunday as though it were an Easter before Easter.

In Mark's Palm Sunday story, Jesus seems to have no understanding of rank.