Passion/Palm Sunday Everybody loves a parade or a celebration. Everyone loves to be part of something big and exciting.

Early in Frank Sinatra's career, George Evans, his publicist, used some slick tricks to get Sinatra extra publicity. Evans hired teenage girls to hang around outside the club where Sinatra was singing. They were paid to scream out his name and "swoon." He even arranged for an ambulance to park outside the club. The faked hysterics worked; crowds packed the club to hear this fabulous new singer. (1)

There were people in Jerusalem that first Palm Sunday who were there mainly for the spectacle. They had heard of this new, itinerant preacher who, they said, could heal the sick and raise the dead. They had also heard that he was not intimidated by the secular authorities or …