Palm Sunday commemorates the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:1–11, Mark 11:1–11, Luke 19:28–44, John 12:12–19) and opens Holy Week. All four Gospels record the event: Jesus riding into the city on a donkey in deliberate fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9, the crowds spreading garments and branches on the road, and the acclamation 'Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!' The palm branches, mentioned explicitly only in John's Gospel, gave the day its name; the other Synoptic writers mention 'branches cut from the fields' (Mark 11:8) or 'their cloaks' (Luke 19:36). The liturgical observance is ancient. The pilgrim Egeria, writing around 384, provides the earliest detailed description of a Palm Sunday procession in Jerusalem: the bishop rode from the Mount of Olives into the city while the people carried palm and olive branches, and children too young to walk were carried on their parents' shoulders, all singing 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' This Jerusalem stational liturgy — procession from a site outside the city through the gates — became the model for Palm Sunday observances throughout Christendom. By the seventh century, the practice had spread throughout the Western churches. The Bobbio Missal (7th c., Gallican rite) attests Gallican influence on the introduction of palm blessing into Western liturgy, and the ninth-century Romano-Germanic Pontifical codified the full Western pattern of palm blessing, procession, and Passion Gospel that persists in recognizable form to this day.

Palm Sunday is unique among liturgical days in sustaining two contrasting moods within a single service. The BCP 2019 preserves this ancient pattern: the liturgy begins outdoors (or at a station apart from the main church) with the blessing of palms, the reading of the Triumphal Entry Gospel, and a procession into the church with hymns of praise — typically 'All Glory, Laud, and Honor' (Theodulph of Orléans, 820). But once the congregation enters the church, the tone shifts sharply. The Eucharistic Gospel is the full Passion narrative from one of the Synoptic Gospels (rotating by lectionary year: Matthew in Year A, Mark in Year B, Luke in Year C — John's Passion is reserved for Good Friday). The congregation that moments ago cried 'Hosanna' now speaks the words of the crowd calling for crucifixion. This liturgical reversal — from royal welcome to the demand for blood — enacts the central paradox of the Passion: the King who was received with palms was dead by Friday. The BCP's introductory rubric makes the theological point explicit: 'We who hail Jesus as King one moment, may in the next deny him, even joining with the crowd in shouting, "Crucify him!"' The color is red — for the Passion, not for Pentecostal fire. Some parishes use violet through the early days of Holy Week and switch to red for the Triduum, but Palm Sunday itself takes red because the Passion Gospel dominates the Eucharistic liturgy. The palms distributed to the congregation have generated their own devotional tradition: many Christians keep their palms throughout the year, and the custom of burning the previous year's palms to produce ashes for Ash Wednesday creates a beautiful liturgical cycle linking the two days.

Joseph is introduced in the Gospels as 'the husband of Mary' (Matthew 1:16) and as 'the carpenter' (Mark 6:3, though some manuscripts attribute this description to Jesus). Matthew 1:18–25 presents Joseph's dilemma and its resolution: Mary is found to be with child before they have lived together; Joseph, 'being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace,' resolves to dismiss her quietly. But an angel appears to him in a dream and says, 'Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.' Joseph awakes and does as the angel commands — he takes Mary as his wife and names the child Jesus.

Matthew's infancy narrative (1:18–2:23) presents Joseph as the protector of the holy family. He travels with Mary to Bethlehem for the census, witnesses the birth, receives the Magi, and is warned in a dream of Herod's intention to kill the child. He flees with Mary and Jesus to Egypt and remains there until another dream directs him to return to the land of Israel. He settles in Nazareth in Galilee, fulfilling the prophecy 'He shall be called a Nazorean.'

Luke's infancy narrative (1:26–2:52) assigns Joseph a more secondary role. Joseph and Mary bring Jesus to the Temple at Jerusalem for his circumcision and presentation. After the Transfiguration is past, Luke notes that Jesus's parents 'did not understand the saying that he spoke to them' (2:50), indicating the mystery surrounding Jesus's divine identity.

After Luke 2:43, Joseph disappears from the Gospel narratives. Jesus's public ministry begins with no mention of Joseph, and the Gospels make clear that Jesus's family — including Joseph — did not initially understand or support his ministry (Mark 3:21, John 7:5). Joseph is not mentioned at the Cross or after the Resurrection. The traditional explanation is that Joseph died before Jesus's public ministry began, sometime between Jesus's childhood and the beginning of his ministry at approximately age thirty.

Traditionally, Joseph is described as an elderly man — older than Mary — at the time of their betrothal. The Protoevangelium of James (2nd century) presents Joseph as a widower with children from a previous marriage, introduced as a guardian rather than a true husband. This tradition developed to preserve the conviction that Mary bore only one child, Jesus, and that the 'brothers and sisters' of Jesus mentioned in the Gospels were Joseph's children from a previous marriage or, in the Eastern tradition, cousins.

Joseph's profession as a carpenter and his role as Jesus's earthly father became the basis for medieval devotion to Joseph as the model of humble labor, family fidelity, and the sanctity of ordinary work. He is invoked as the patron of workers and of the dying (because tradition holds that Jesus was present at Joseph's deathbed, granting him a 'happy death'). Late medieval and post-Reformation Catholic piety expanded Joseph's veneration significantly, though this expansion has no patristic foundation.

Joseph's silence in the Gospels — he speaks no words in any Gospel account — became a theme in spiritual theology, interpreted as the silence of faith and obedience.