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Palmarum ’12 – The Passion according to St. Matthew

The contrast of our Lord’s triumphant entry on Palm Sunday with the rest of His Passion is stark. At each turn the good confession that Christ is Lord, the Son of the Living God, is forsaken, ignored, or blasphemed. Finally, only the women through their presence at a distance and the Centurion through boldness declare “Truly, this was the Son of God.” This confession is the essential Christian confession. Without the Son of God dying for you, the sinner, and rising for your justification, your faith is in vain. This Great Week teaches us that the confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of David and the Son of God, is inextricably joined to the death and resurrection for you. To be the Christ is to ride on in majesty and lowly pomp to die for you.