One of the questions I've had for a long time is why the Palm Sunday service goes from the triumphal entry into Jerusalem and then immediately moves to the Passion narrative, or the story of Jesus' death. I know others have wondered this too.
I've spent time looking for answers, which have been hard to come by. This is what I have been able to discover.
According to Leonel Mitchell in Praying Shapes Believing, at one point in time the Easter service focused on both the Crucifixion and the Resurrection (pg. 23). Eventually Easter was made to focus on the joy of the Resurrection. Thus the Sunday of the Passion, where we remember Jesus' death, was moved to the Sunday before Easter.
This is where the Passion part of this Sunday comes from. There is also the element of the celebration of Jesus' triumphal entrance into Jerusalem. This aspect of the Palm Sunday service comes from early Christian practice for Holy Week. You can read an early account from the late fourth century in The Pilgrimage of Egeria (pg. 65-67).
The history of these two elements, triumphal entrance and Passion narrative, coming together on the same Sunday is an early development in the church. The Pilgrimage of Egeria speaks of the entry into Jerusalem ending with a prayer at the cross (pg. 67). Marion Hatchett in his Commentary on the American Prayer Book speaks of the early rites in England combining the procession with palms and the Passion Narrative in one service (pg. 224).
Both Mitchell and Hatchett agree that the tension between triumph and sorrow in this day is important, and I would agree too, as you can read here. We tend to focus on the name of the service as Palm Sunday. Perhaps we would be better to remember the tension of triumph and sorrow that is inherent in the service, as well as in our faith in the Resurrection itself, by going with the full Prayer Book title for the day: "The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday" (BCP 270).
Bibliography
- Egeria. The Pilgrimage of Egeria. ed. and trans. M.L. McClure and C.L. Feltoe. London: SPCK, 1919. http://www.ccel.org/m/mcclure/etheria/etheria.htm.
- The Book of Common Prayer. New York: Church Publishing, 1979.
- Hatchet, Marion. Commentary on the American Prayer Book. New York: Seabird Press, 1980.
- Mitchell, Leonel. Praying Shapes Believing: A Theological Commentary on The Book of Common Prayer. Harrisburg: Moorehouse Publishing, 1985.