29 March 2026 Palm/Passion Sunday
Palm readings Matthew 21:1-11 Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
Passion readings Isaiah 50.4-9a Psalm 31.9-18
Philippians 2.5-11 Matthew 26.14-27.66
Palm Sunday begins with an amazing spiritual roller-coaster. We start by waving palm branches and singing hosanna, but we end by looking death in the face and trying to hold our emotions in check because we also know that death is not the end of the story. So much happens between that happy beginning and sad end which then is turned on its head for a wonderfully happy, even if unexplainable, joyful new beginning. We have to walk through the valley of darkness, our own and the world’s, to get to the celebration of resurrection.
Palm Sunday moves between celebration and suffering. The joyful crowds shouting ‘Hosana’ in celebration will soon become an angry mob shouting ‘crucify him’. Life is joy and celebration, it is also sorrow and grief, and our faith must embrace both. We will go, this week, through the first four stages of grief – denial, anger, bargaining, and depression – with acceptance and celebration ‘hanging in the air’ but not guaranteed, on Easter. We need the palm waving, the ‘hosanna’ shouts, and the joyful crowd to revive our spirits. Palm Sunday proclaims the original blessing of life, the divine love that will outlive the powers and principalities of hate and destruction.
This week we will experience plenty of grief – the ambiguous Last Supper, the surprising betrayal, the violence of the cross, and the liminal uncertainty of Holy Saturday – before we can experience the Joyful Resurrection of Jesus and ourselves. But in order to get through this week and the difficult moments it brings, we will need a sense of enduring joy.
Our Palm Gospel reflects the triumph of a different type of power. There are no Roman legions, just a humble teacher on a donkey, symbol of peace and reconciliation. The crowd are caught up in the moment even as they cannot fully understand the countercultural spectacle they are seeing. They are witnessing a God who has no enemies, makes no threats, destroys no cities, and damns no unbelievers. But soon this joy at Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem will turn adulation into abandonment, letting fear rather than love rule their hearts.
We may wonder what would have happened if love had won the day? What would have happened if the crowd rose up in love rather than fear; if the leaders had embraced wonder rather than worry; and embraced a new spiritual vision rather than dead institutional power? We will never know because neither they, nor we, have ever tried to live out the radical vision of a resurrection that does not require death!
Palm Sunday anticipates tragedy enacted by governmental and religious leaders and another kind of celebration, the resurrection of the Crucified One and an Empty Tomb and an Open Future. Our passion readings are graphic portrayals of religious and political abuse. The Christ of Philippians 2 challenges all religious power plays. Our protests and politics must be motivated by love and reconciliation, they must be guided by the power of love not the love of power.
And so we shout ‘hosanna’. Christ is alive and invites us to sing songs of praise even in the beauty of our own lives. So, hold onto your palms and wave them with gusto, but be prepared for a rough ride until we can sing ‘Christ the Lord is Risen Today’.