Sermons on the Passion of Christ
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
Originally preached during the Easter season, these 13 sermons by Martin Luther detail the arrest, trial, suffering, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus. Working through selected passages in the Synoptic Gospels, Luther constructs a vivid passion narrative with his characteristic verve, precision, and spiritual intensity.
- Introductory Meditations
- First Passion-Sermon: The Occurrences at the Mount of Olives
- Second Passion-Sermon: The Seizure of Christ in the Garden
- Third Passion-Sermon: Christ Refusing to Be Rescued by Peter’s Sword
- Fourth Passion-Sermon: The Lord Jesus led to Annas and Caiaphas and Tried by the Jews
- Fifth Passion-Sermon: Peter Thrice Denies the Lord Jesus in the House of Caiaphas
- Sixth Passion-Sermon: Christ Is Delivered to Pilate. Judas Hangs Himself. The Potter’s Field.
- Seventh Passion-Sermon: Christ Accused before Pilate and Condemned to Death
- Eighth Passion-Sermon: Explanation of Several Points in the History Just Given
- Ninth Passion-Sermon: Christ Led Away to Be Crucified. Simon Bears the Cross After Him. The Women Who Follow Bewail and Lament Him.
- Tenth Passion-Sermon: Christ Nailed to the Cross. His Deeds, Sufferings, and Words on the Cross.
- Eleventh Passion-Sermon: Christ’s Prayer on the Cross. The Malefactor on the Right.
- Twelfth Passion-Sermon: Christ Commits His Mother to the Care of John. The Soldiers Do Not Break the Legs of Christ, but with a Spear Pierce His Side, from Which Blood and Water Flow.
- Thirteenth Passion-Sermon: Christ’s Body Taken down from the Cross and Laid in a Tomb. The Soldiers Guard the Tomb.
Top Highlights
“If we would neglect to preach on this subject one, two or three years, the people would surely forget it. Even” (Page 5)
“Even to-day we see such priests’ slaves, who are ready to defend with the sword the sacrilegious doctrines and shameful, sodomitical life of the Pope and his shaved and shorn train.” (Page 82)
“The first of these things is, that Christ, while on the cross, commends His mother to John, and also John to His mother,” (Page 195)
“into the abyss of hell, and placed it upon His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord” (Page 36)
Martin Luther (1483–1546), one of the most significant figures in Western history, was a key figure in the Protestant Reformation. Over the course of his life, Luther was a monk, a priest, a professor of biblical literature, and a Reformer. His Ninety-Five Theses, in which he argued that indulgences were not acts of penance which could replace true repentance, helped spark the Reformation. His refusal to retract all his writings, demanded by Pope Leo X in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in 1521, resulted in his excommunication by the pope and condemnation as an outlaw by the emperor.
Luther has been both praised and vilified for what he preached and wrote. His works continue to impact all Christians and animate the movement that bears his name. Luther’s Works contains many of his writings, including commentaries, sermons, and lectures.