Palm Sunday is celebrated as the Sunday of the Passion. The Sunday of the Passion is the Sunday before the week of Jesus’ passion, the Sunday before his suffering and death. This part of the story of Jesus was one of the earliest parts of the Jesus story to be told. In Mark’s Gospel the account of Jesus’ passion takes two full chapters, chapters 14 and 15.

We hear from Mark at the outset of chapter 14 that the chief priests and the scribes were seeking ways to arrest Jesus secretly and have him put to death. We know, therefore, what these chapters are going to be about. They are going to be about Jesus’ road to death.

This road-to-death story, this passion story, is boundaried by two stories of the women involved with Jesus’ life. It was Wednesday of Holy Week. Jesus was in Bethany in the…