- Mark 10-11 has the healing of the blind Bartimaeus at Jericho immediately precede the Palm Sunday event, otherwise known as the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Matthew 20-21 has the healing of two unnamed blind men at Jericho precede it, while Luke 18-19 has the healing of a single unnamed blind man at Jericho precede the assembling of crowds hailing Jesus riding into Jerusalem. But John 11-12 has no such healing of anyone blind at Jericho at all. Rather John has the presence of the previously raised from the dead Lazarus now back at Bethany, not mentioned by the other Gospels. It is Lazarus arisen the crowds are there to see in John, and his miracle worker Jesus.
- Mark has a single colt for Jesus to ride in procession, found by two disciples, Matthew has an ass and a colt, and Luke has one colt, whereas John has Jesus find a single young ass for himself without the aid of disciples.
- Mark has both garments and branches strewn in the way before Jesus as does Matthew, but Luke has only garments and knows no branches of any kind, whereas John knows no garments but only palm branches.
- Mark says the crowds blessed the Kingdom of David that comes in the name of the Lord as Jesus proceeded on his way, in addition to blessing He that comes in the name of the Lord. But Matthew has only the latter, while Luke has the crowds explicitly bless the King who comes in the name of the Lord, as does John who expands that to the King "of Israel". In Luke the additional intruding narrative about Zacchaeus at Jericho also includes the expectation of the people that the Kingdom of God would appear forthwith.
- The Synoptics agree that Jesus enters Jerusalem after the procession, and heads straight for the Temple. In Mark however it is an anticlimactic reconnoitering mission only, with Jesus entering, having a look around, and retreating overnight to Bethany. Jesus cleanses the Temple only on his return the next day. In Matthew, however, Jesus cleanses the Temple immediately on the same day as the triumphal entry, and hangs around also to perform healings, which elicit Hosannas from the children there, to which the scribes and chief priests object, only after which he retreats to overnight in the safety of Bethany. In Luke the objection is from the Pharisees, to the earlier procession pronouncement Blessed Be The King, not to the Temple healings and acclamations per se, which Luke does not mention. For now Jesus is found in Luke daily teaching in the Temple, where the chief priests and scribes engage him in debate but are frustrated in their attempts to destroy him because he was too popular with the people, a sentiment also expressed in Mark. Matthew includes the Pharisees with the chief priests in fearing the multitude supporting Jesus, which kept him ring fenced and out of their reach. Still by night, Jesus in Luke is said to be retreating to the Mount of Olives.
- John, of course, locates the cleansing of the Temple at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, not at the end of it as in the Synoptics, right after the first of his miracles, the changing of water into wine at the wedding at Cana. Instead, at this point in John's narrative the hubbub producing the Palm Sunday event crowds is the presence of Lazarus at Bethany, and Jesus' public return there after having gone into hiding after raising him from the dead. It is this Lazarus event which the Pharisees see as the cause of the whole world going after him, not the Jericho miracle, and preventing them from prevailing against him. The subsequent entry into Jerusalem, however, is inconclusive in John, if he ever really makes it on this try. A voice thunders from heaven during an interlude in the procession, after which Jesus again goes back into hiding. We next meet him, all of a sudden, days later at a Passover meal in Jerusalem.
Both the Synoptic accounts and John's portray a Jesus who looks less certain of what he's supposed to be doing next than is often admitted. The inconsistency of the more minor details of the narratives suggests there was trouble with this part of the tradition which was not susceptible of easy resolution. It is noteworthy that quite apart from the cleansing of the Temple, the people's acclamation of Jesus as their King, and his refusal to disown it, can stand alone as the reason for his eventual arrest, trial and execution. It is not necessary to make the Temple cleansing the straw which somehow broke the camel's back.
In the Synoptic accounts Jesus is more or less retreating from Jerusalem to Bethany or its vicinity nightly, the cleansing of the Temple having accomplished nothing in the way of ushering in the Kingdom of God. As earlier in the sending out of the disciples to proclaim the gospel in Matthew 10, the failure of the Kingdom to materialize meant to regroup and move forward, not give up. Accordingly Jesus appears to use willingly the protective curtain of the multitudes for safety by day, and hiding out of town under cover of darkness by night. In Mark you almost get the impression that he is nonplussed on arrival at the Temple after all the fuss made over him, says what now, and retreats to Bethany to figure out what to do next. The events in Gethsamene a few days later with armed disciples under cover of darkness suggest further indecisiveness, not purpose. He does not go willingly to slaughter. He has not yet surrendered all. Perhaps just the opposite of the what the text says, he really did call on his father's legions of angels, but they did not come. And from there it was not far to My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
In John the picture of a Jesus hiding out from the authorities is more thoroughgoing. He has to flee, for example, after raising Lazarus, and does so again on Palm Sunday itself, not reappearing until the night in which he was betrayed (nevermind the problem that his attempted entry into Jerusalem appears to be a day later than in the Synoptics). That is all the more remarkable because at least in this part of John's narrative Jesus' pretensions to being the coming King of Israel smack more of an earthly than of the heavenly one of the rest of the narrative. The explicit reference to the palm branches strewn in the procession as opposed to the more generic parts of trees as in the Synoptics must have signified the end of the present earthly conflict with Rome and the commencement of a new era of peace.
It was not to be.
