The Holy Week services, from Palm Sunday to Easter Day, are quite unlike anything else in the church’s calendar. For once we are not spectators: instead we are here to take our part in the events around us. We are the people of Israel, waving our branches of palm and shouting Hosanna to the Son of David. We are the disciples, eating and drinking at that solemn and mysterious last supper in the Upper Room. With St Mary and St John, we watch in shock and despair at the death of Jesus on the Cross. And, with Mary Magdalene, we see an open tomb and, singing Alleluia, we run to tell our friends the glorious news of Christ's resurrection.

The week begins with Palm Sunday. We process through the church to symbolise our Lord's entry into Jerusalem. Together with the people of Israel, we have followed Jesus and been amazed as he has performed his miracles and pulled the crowds. And as he dramatically enters Jerusalem, on a donkey, we bathe in the sunlight of the superstar and wave our palm branches to welcome him.

But the people who will crucify Jesus on Good Friday are the same people who honour him today. They don't crucify an unknown or a stranger. They crucify a man who had extended to them a love, a dignity and a majesty. Today they shout, ‘Hosanna to the king’, and on Friday they will shout, ‘we have no king but Caesar’.

Why? Because we human beings are fickle, we change our minds, we are swayed by others - because we are made up of a mixture of different people and different feelings. And because of that thing inside us which makes it so difficult to receive unrestrained, unlimited, boundless and undemanding love.