One advantage of having both the procession of the palms and the progression of the Passion on the same day, the Sunday before Easter, is the juxtaposition of cries: the first crowd cries Hosanna! but the second cries Crucify!
Cruel irony.
These two events are spread apart the length of Holy Week, with the events of every week day in between.
(We might spend the first part of the week reviewing several versions of the Passion story. The Book of Common Prayer of 1662 gives accounts of the Passion from all four gospels: on the Sunday before Easter, from Matthew 27, Mark 14 and 15 on the Monday and Tuesday, and Luke 22 and 23 on Wednesday and Thursday, and John 19 on Good Friday.)
The Revised Common Lectionary that we use now gives us, on the earlier weekdays of Holy Week, episodes leading up to that final day, including the woman who anoints Jesus for his burial and Jesus' saying about the grain of wheat, Jesus' teaching about his coming trial and his conversation with Judas at the Last Supper. And then there is Good Friday.
These events, and the trial, crucifixion, and entombment of Christ, are all recounted in the extended gospel reading for this day, Palm/Passion Sunday. All in one day. So you get quite a shock. At the beginning of the morning there you are trooping around waving branches and singing, and by the end all disperse in silent grief.
Here it is, all in one package. The last week of Jesus' life... or is it?
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