Open Dialogue on The Cross

In this Palm Sunday sermon, Matt explores the profound isolation of Jesus on the cross, forsaken by the crowds, the government, his disciples, and ultimately crying out that even God had abandoned him, arriving at a thesis both simple and staggering: while everyone forsook Jesus, Jesus forsook nobody. Drawing on Psalm 22, Matt argues that Jesus' cry of dereliction wasn't despair without context, but a man quoting the first line of a psalm he knew didn't end there, expressing both his anguish and his faith in the same breath. The invitation for us is equally direct: since Jesus remained faithful to every mocker, every passerby, and every sinner, we are free to offer that same love to the people in our lives we're most tempted to write off.