A: Gather for the blessing and distribution of palms. The Presider gives a brief explanation of the meaning of Palm Sunday, touching on–
1: Why Jesus deliberately chose this day to make a triumphal entry into Jerusalem:
Pilate, the Governor, lived in splendor in Caesarea on the Sea, a Greco-Roman city built by Herod the Great. During the major Jewish festivals, however, he stayed at the Praetorium in Jerusalem, and he made his presence felt as he entered the city from the west, with his chariots, his cavalry, his legionnaires and drums. Pilate would probably not have entered the Holy city on the Sabbath; he likely arrived either the day before the Sabbath or, perhaps more likely, the day after, the day Jesus chose to enter. Matthew tells us that he whole city was in turmoil (21:10), so that Jesus may have chosen not only the day but even the moment when Pilate entered. He chose it in order to challenge Pilate.
2: How Jesus is a political Messiah but not a military Messiah.
There could be no such thing as a purely spiritual Messiah at that time. People wanted a Messiah who would challenge the Roman occupation; this is exactly what Jesus finally does, but he does it in his own way and at a time of his own choosing. He enters from the east, riding not on a horse, the beast of war, but humbly on a donkey, the common beast of burden ridden by peasants. For the first time he allows himself to be greeted as Messiah. In Luke’s Gospel Jesus says that if the people were silent, the stones would shout out (19:40). He does not come with armed followers, though he could easily have raised a rebellion.
3: How Jesus deliberately chose the (same?) day to challenge the Chief Priests.
In Mark, Jesus goes straight to the Temple (11:11), which is near the Lions’ Gate, through which he would have entered Jerusalem, and returns only the following day to clear out the money changers. But in Luke, he clears the temple courtyard immediately after entering the city. (19:45). The Temple is the precinct of the chief Priests, puppets and collaborators with Rome, whose families had been set up by Herod the Great when he first became King of Judea. They were despised by everyone, and Jesus deliberately challenges their power also.
4: Why this Sunday is also called Passion Sunday and this week Passion Week.
We tend in this Passion Week to speak of the passion of Jesus as though this week focused exclusively on the suffering of Jesus–and sometimes only on his physical suffering (e.g., Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ), but in the gospels we see also on Jesus’ passion for the Word and God and for the Reign of God, his passion for justice and truth, and his passion for all of Creation, which led him to accept the terrible consequences of his actions, which he clearly foresaw and foretold..
B: The Liturgy of the Word with the reading of the Passion follows immediately.
Only a very brief homily is needed to help people reflect on what it is they just experienced.