On the Mount of Olives Jesus said three things would happen: His disciples would flee; one of his closest disciples, Peter, would deny knowing him not once but three times; and after his Resurrection he would go ahead of his band of followers to Galilee.

They are everywhere in the familiar account of the Passion. People whose names we don’t know but who play their part in the greatest story ever told. There are the major figures too: Peter and Judas, Caiaphas and Pilate, Simon the Cyrene and Barabbas the criminal, the Marys at the cross and tomb, as well as Joseph of Arimathea. If we were to create a Passion diorama to match the Christmas crèche, we’d surely include characters like these in the scene.

The disciples came to the city . . . and prepared the Passover meal.

The first day of Holy Week is Passion Sunday. Its more popular title, Palm Sunday, evokes the waving branches, the Hosannas, the welcoming “red carpet” made of the robes and garments of the crowd. The branches in our hands today place us squarely in the crowd. And crowds can have power. Think of recent political “bloodless” revolutions, of Je suis Charlie, of the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2013, or the effect of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s March for Peace in 1965.

O God, you hear our prayers and have not abandoned us. For this we praise you and give you thanks, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

"The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced.” The readings for Passion Sunday seem almost like a choosing of sides: Those who understand Jesus go here, while those who don’t go there. Among the latter you will find the religious authorities of the day, of course, who opposed Jesus at every step. There is also the Jerusalem crowd: Jesus entered the city like a prophet and they gave him the royal treatment, yet he wasn’t quite the messiah many were expecting. The dividing line is the willingness to see Jesus not only as the Messiah but also as a suffering one, and to understand that following him means embracing the entire experience, the costs as well as the blessings of discipleship.

Learning to trust—that is the great thing. —Bede Griffiths (1906-1993)