Why did the crowd love Jesus on Palm Sunday and want him to die on Good Friday?

Answer 1

A:Many scripture students have seen this disjunction, and wondered how it is possible that the people of Jerusalem could worship Jesus so readily and yet bay for his crucifixion only a few days later. Some theologians have sought to resolve the paradox by suggesting the gospels have very much exaggerated the size of the crowds on both occasions.

John Shelby Spong (Jesus for the NonReligious) has identified an anachronism in the story of Palm Sunday which could point to the story being a literary invention, in which case the contradiction with the trial of Jesus disappears. He says that the season wastoo early for leafy branches (except palms). Reading Mark 11:8-9 (NAB), "

Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out: 'Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!'."

The Jewish celebration of the harvest season, known as Sukkoth and also called the Festival of the Tabernacles or Booths, was probably the most popular holiday among the Jews in the first century. In the observance of Sukkoth, worshippers processed through Jerusalem and in the Temple,waving a bunch of leafy branchesmade of willow, myrtle and palm. As they waved these branches in that procession, the worshippers recited words from Psalm 118, the psalm normally used at Sukkoth. Among these words were "Save us, we beseech you, O Lord."Save us in Hebrew is hosianna or 'hosanna'. This is typically followed by "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. (Psalm 118:25-6)." In other words, the account in Mark's Gospel describes a Jewish celebration held at another time of year.

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke more or less follow Mark, but John's Gospel corrects this, because of the season, to say 'palm branches', creating our modern tradition of Palm Sunday.