The Powerful Image of the Passion

Authors

Jonathan Kraemer, Concordia Seminary, St. LouisFollow

Document Type

Article

Keywords

passion, cross, meditation, dying, contemplation, essay

Submission Type

Bible Study; Lecture; Sermon Prep

Abstract

Of all the images which depict Jesus, perhaps the one that deserves extended and in-depth contemplation is that of the passion of our Lord. This image is both rich in meaning and communicates different things to different people based upon their context and their pastoral need. This becomes clear when Martin Luther considers how one should meditate upon the cross of Christ in two different works written just months apart in 1519. The first, written in April, is called Meditation Upon Christ’s Passion1 and the second A Sermon on Preparing to Die2 was penned in November. Despite being written so close together, they prescribe different types of meditation upon the passion of Christ.

Disciplines

Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion

Scripture References in this Resource (separated by semi-colons)

1 Peter 3:19; Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34; Psalm 51:3; Philippians 4:8;

Submission Cost

Free

Submission Audience

Laity; Ministers; Scholars

People in this Resource (separated by commas)

Martin Luther, John A Maxfield, Anna Marie Johnson

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Kraemer, Jonathan (2024) "The Powerful Image of the Passion," Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal: Vol. 7: Iss. 1, Article 4.
Available at: https://scholar.csl.edu/grapho/vol7/iss1/4