Homily For Palm Sunday 2026
We now enter Holy Week and we have this Palm Sunday’s readings from two Gospels. One speaking to Christ’s Davidic royalty and the other to Our Lord’s suffering servanthood. One to the reality of Christ’s eternal Sonship; the other to the truth of his true Humanity through his suffering - which we see in the varied betrayals. The first mark of His royalty came during the blessing of the palms at the beginning of the service. We read in St. Mark’s Gospel of the commission of Jesus to his disciples to find the proper royal mount - for Messiah would be recognized by his riding of a donkey. The royal mount of the Davidic king, the bloodline of which Jesus was a true heir. He comes to His people and they rejoice as they should. We read that the very rocks would cry out if these people were not joyous in their reception of the Son of David, coming with all glory, laud and honor.
It was right that they should roll out the red carpet, that they should take their cloaks and cast them in the path and cut down branches of palm to carpet his way into the holy city. Blessedness comes from welcoming the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the kingdom that David’s truly royal Son should establish.
The Gospel for the service of Holy Communion puts a different lens on the story. The Church has appointed that the Passion narratives, the stories of Christ’s betrayal, torture and death should be told from the perspective of all four gospels during Holy Week. The Holy Spirit chose that these men would be moved by His direction to record these events from their perspective so in reading them we can see every nuance of the story and more fully appreciate the price of our redemption.
And because of the overlap I want to look at the distinctives in the narrative for today.
St. Matthew’s Gospel is written to a Jewish audience - he assumes that his reader will know the practices and background of the Old Testament. That is why his Gospel is full of allusions to or direct quotations from the prophets - St. Matthew is all about the fulfillment of God’s purposes in Jesus Christ that there is nothing lacking in Christ’s work - every action bearing witness to the promises of God in ages past. It has been said that St. Matthew covers the whole story of the Old Testament. As the first book of the Bible is Genesis, in the first verse, Matthew uses the word Genesis and introduces the new creation through Jesus. The Jewish Old Testament ends with II Chronicles and the pronouncement of Cyrus that God had given him all kingdoms of earth and sent the Jews out of exile. Cyrus was the Lord’s Anointed, but Matthew announces Jesus is Greater, the truly Anointed ruler of all creation - both in heaven and in earth - who commands His church to announce the return from greater spiritual exile through faith in Jesus.
St. Matthews gives us a full record of the conversation, the remorse of Judas. Judas regrets what has done but he doesn’t turn in repentance. The Sanhedrin have what they want. They have a path to destroy Jesus, and in their minds, the conscience of Judas is of no consequence. Instead of repenting, Judas takes his own life and leaves the 30 pieces of silver with which the leaders bought a graveyard for strangers. The prophetic reference here is complex. St. Matthew is bringing together a greater part from Jeremiah's emphasis on payment for the potters’ field for burying strangers and another reference from Zechariah. The prophetic communication is that Israel resisted Zechariah’s leadership as a good shepherd of the people and paid 30 pieces of silver (a paltry amount) truly to be rid of him. Here, Matthew sees the same in the intentions of the Sanhedrin, the religious leadership, to destroy Jesus, the Good Shepherd, for the same amount of money.
In the next phase of the St. Matthew narrative, we have the only appearance of Pilate’s wife in the Gospel record. As Pilate interviews Jesus and tries to create a diplomatic solution through the tradition of releasing a prisoner, trusting the crowd would condemn a murderer and let Jesus go free. As Pilate puts forward this solution, his wife appears on the scene and is greatly troubled for she has had a dream about Jesus and tells Pilate to have nothing to do with the condemnation of Our Lord. St. Matthew is keen to communicate that the innocence of Jesus is known to a Gentile woman through her dreams, while the Jewish leaders refuse to believe what is plainly before them. Tradition holds that Pilate’s wife was named Claudia Procla and is believed to have either been a follower of Jesus at that time or became a Christian after our Lord’s resurrection. The Eastern Church has gone so far as to have Pilate's wife canonized - adding her to the formal list of saints within their tradition.
St. Matthew’s Passion narrative has the most comprehensive record of Judas’ conversation with the Sanhedrin and St. Matthew is the only Gospel writer to mention Pilate's wife. He is also distinctive in the blood curse of the crowds in Christ’s condemnation (when the crowds say, ‘his blood be upon us and our children’) and for his telling of the saints rising at Christ’s resurrection. As this is the beginning of Holy Week with the particular focus on Christ’s Passion, his suffering, I want us to look at the blood curse and consider its implications. The crowd, in a prophetic sense, spoke for Israel in refusing to receive the Messiah when he came unto them. Yet, this is not a justification for the anti-Semitism that has been attached to it. We are not to blame the Jews, en masse for the rejection of Jesus. This crowd was a thoughtless unruly mob that had been brought by the Sanhedrin to support its determination that Jesus would die. The call for his blood to be on them and their children speaks to the animus and intensity of their belief.
We read that the children of the mobs would later grow up to be the rebels who were killed and crucified by the thousands by Pilate’s successors during the revolt of 70 A.D.
But the point here is that ALL parties are guilty here, Pilate despite his washing of hands, the religious leadership, the mob, ALL are guilty. They stand in our place, for they stand in the guilt that is common to all of us, for all of mankind's sins required atonement. Let us consider the effect of this saying, “His blood be upon us and on our children”. It was through the unwitting, the unthinking request of the crowd that forgiveness might be given. Even to the chiefest of sinners, for if Christ’s death was sufficient for a repentant murder who was crucified next to him, then that very same death, which the crowds so desired, provides atonement for them as well, as long as they meet Jesus, with the same faith and repentance that characterized the believing thief, for to as many as would believe, gave He the right to become children of God.
Chrysostom speaks of God and His mercy in this way, “Yet this lover of humanity did not hold their own sentence against them. He did not confirm it upon their children or even upon them. Rather he received both from them and from their children those who repented. He counted them worthy of good things beyond number. Think of who might have been among them! Even Paul perhaps. Even some among the thousands that believed in Jerusalem,....” This is so typical of God, who uses those things meant for evil and turns them for good.
As we consider the Triumphal entry which happened on Palm Sunday and the fullness of the Passion Account in St. Matthew’s Gospel, how do we reconcile the two? How do we make sense of the way they are brought together on the same day in the Church calendar? Our Epistle explains the divine logic in juxtaposing glory and suffering.
Jesus was glorified through his suffering and St. Paul tells us the mindset of Christ - the One who directed his disciples to go and find the proper royal mount for his procession into Jerusalem. The King acts according to His true identity. He truly came to His people but he ascended the cross of death before he ascended to the glory that was properly His as the Incarnate, Eternal Son of God. We have seen throughout Lent that Satan tempts Jesus with escape from pain, escape through sin. That is the summary of his temptation of our Lord. Yet, Our Lord trusts the Father, he is committed to doing his Father’s will even if it brings him into the shadow of death and immense, unjustified suffering. He does so because Jesus valued, loved His people more than He loved His own comfort. He would not avoid pain.
St. Paul tells the Philippians - “Let this mind be in you…In other words, this approach of life, with the same commitment to be obedient to God, to love Him with all of your being and in doing so you will serve and care for the world He came to save.
Jesus loved his Father and trusted His will. He knew that the path that God had set for Him required Him to pass through undeserved pain and affliction. St. Paul summarizes the Passion narratives of this week by speaking of Jesus as being of no reputation, being known as a Nazarene, a product of a cultural backwater, the son of a lowly maid who lived a life of complete service. Giving Himself to drive away all sickness of mind and body through his preaching and healing. Being found as the true man, the second Adam, the new Israel, He tasted death that he did not deserve, indeed despising its shame, He desired it for in it He completed the obedience offered to the Father for our redemption. As he ascended the cross of shame and suffering, as He died and was laid in the tomb, it was the preparation for His coronation, of His Ascension whereby He rules and reigns in the present. We celebrate the cross, we celebrate His passion because we believe the Hosannas of Palm Sunday are fulfilled in the coronation at Ascension.
We keep our eyes on the Ascended Christ as we contemplate His suffering during the coming days. For He promised that if He were lifted up he would draw all men to Himself. Every aspect of His Passion, His Death, all the events that we re-enter this week, all of it was to purchase us - his peculiar people zealous for good works. A new people united by His sacrificial love for them. So, beloved, meditate on the love of Jesus for sinners and let that love be the foundation for how you engage with the sufferings in your own life. Pray, this week, that God would grant you to know more fully His love by pondering Our Lord’s suffering. Amen.
