Stroll through Scripture for Palm Sunday, 2026

Based on John 18-19

The Narrative Lectionary has been taking us on a slow walk through John’s passion narrative.  For Palm Sunday, pastors have options.  The Narrative Lectionary doesn’t give us the triumphant entry passage, which is from John 12.  John has a different time sequence for Jesus than the synoptic Gospels.  Instead, the Narrative Lectionary, continues us along the path, with the crucifixion in John 19.  The reading is shorter than the more traditional passage, which tells the full story.  

I chose to have a full reading of John 18-19, which we have been reading throughout Lent.  Now that we have been focusing on individual sections of the story, we’ll be able to hear the full story all together, with the addition of the crucifixion narrative.  

In this, we’ll be able to see how the parts fit together.  We’ll hear the consistency that runs through the narrative.  We’ll hear the developing argument for crucifixion.  We’ll hear about the anxiety that has a death grip on the entire situation.  We’ll hear through the spin, the power dynamics, the facades present.  We’ll hear how what is presented is not what it appears.  We’ll hear people avoiding truth at all costs. 

And we’ll see Jesus.  And we’ll notice some things about Jesus.   He doesn’t get angry.  He doesn’t react.  He doesn’t try to control what is happening.  Yet through it all, he is the only person in the entire narrative that is whole.  He is the only person who is well in spirit.  He is the only person who speaks the truth and is comfortable with it.  

The society Jesus was a part of struggles with truth, with occupation, with power, with abuse and more.  And no one wants to acknowledge any of these realities.  Not much has changed in the two thousand years since that time.  Humanity continues to struggle with these things.  We see them continue to play out today.  The circumstances are different, the technology is improved, but humanity is the same.  

Which leads to a variety of questions that we should be asking ourselves:  Why do humans struggle with these things?  How do the arrangements of power we are a part of impact us and how we face these challenges?  In this narrative, we watch what people do and we watch Jesus.  Move beyond your emotional response to the story – walk alongside Jesus on this journey.  What do you notice?  What do you notice about yourself?  

We know how this story plays out.  But that doesn’t make the story any easier to read.  In some ways it makes it even harder.  What is the key message of the passion narrative that you are taking away for the coming Holy Week?