Neither Mark nor John is setting the incident under the banner of a Jesus who is going up to Jerusalem to perform a sacrifice for sins through offering his own body for execution, even though they know such traditions and they often take over the story when we retell it. Such traditions are largely absent in the passion narratives and appear mainly in the last supper tradition. Instead, the narrative plays with competing expectations of messiahship, hope and humanness, and ultimately, of God. That play begins dramatically at the entry. We need to help people make their entry, too.
People can usually imagine themselves into the different responses and expectations very easily.
Many an effective yarn has been spun about how onlookers might have felt, especially those who had already encountered Jesus. The key is to take the people right into the story to the point where they can find themselves and make their decisions about whether such a story really has anything salvific about it.