Professor John Swinton, a former psychiatric nurse-turned practical theologian at Aberdeen University, unpacks some of its key moments and their relevance

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday was the time when the people in Jerusalem assumed that Jesus was the Messiah in the way they wanted him to be. So, Palm Sunday is when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey and people are throwing palm leaves in a sense of celebration because they thought the Messiah, who would be a conquering king, was about to take over, crush the Romans and set them free from the horrible oppression they were in. So, it was a tremendous time of celebration.  

The oddness is that Jesus rides in on a donkey. They were expecting this big conquering king and Jesus takes a humble road, but nobody could see it. But if they had seen it, maybe they would have understood the rest of what happened a bit more fully… (Register to read the rest of the article)