The road to the cross was filled with decisions and calculations. What would it cost Jesus to redeem us? Are we worth the cost? What does it cost us to follow him? Is he worth the cost? And knowing the cost of following him, will you take the same road that he walked?

The journey to the cross began with Jesus at a crossroads. Would he leverage his power for himself, (as people in power often do), or would he leverage his power for us? For Jesus to have us, he had to give his life as a ransom for the life of his subjects. Jesus didn’t have to die despite God’s love; he had to die because of God’s love. That’s because life-changing love requires substitutionary sacrifice. It’s true if you have children. It’s true if you have a needy friend. And it was true if Jesus was going to save us from our sins. In this message, we will discover the absolute necessity of the cross.

We all want to belong, somewhere. It’s human nature. Often, what we think of as finding a place to belong is just us fitting in with the crowd. If all we’re doing is compromising to fit in, how do we find where we can fully and truly belong? Our next story in Mark takes a look at one woman who takes a path nobody else wants her to take. We’ll see what she did and what Jesus says about what it means to fully belong instead of simply fitting in.

Have you ever seen a side of your hero that surprised you? Peter did. Right after Peter told Jesus that he would never leave him, Jesus took him to a garden. Jesus broke down, filled with extreme grief as he knew his time had come to bear all the sins of the world. And how did Peter react? He fell asleep. When Peter woke up, he continued to do things his way stumbling as he went forward. The garden revealed the difference between having faith in yourself and having faith in God. What’s remarkable is that it didn’t change Jesus’ love for Peter. Jesus saw it as an opportunity for transformation. When we are confronted with the depth of our sin, we have the opportunity to experience the power of God’s grace.

Over the past ten years, there has been a swell of interest in podcasts, tv series, and investigative journalism on the topic of wrongful convictions. There's something that deeply bothers us when we discover that justice has been falsely served. Before Jesus died on the cross, he appeared before a Roman Court. There was no real evidence, there was no attorney with exhibit A or a last-minute witness to take the stand. Still, there was one opportunity for true justice to be served, one last chance to right this wrong, but it didn't happen, and a murderer was set free.

The Biblical authors give considerable attention to describing the contrasting values of Jesus’ suffering. Mark makes a point of contrasting light and darkness. Most of the story of Jesus’ arrest, trial, conviction, and crucifixion take place under the cover of darkness. In fact, when Jesus was crucified, the earth descended into darkness in the middle of the day. That’s because the Son of God himself, the world’s creator, was descending into darkness on the cross. God is light, but Jesus was cut off from God, entering the darkness in order to give us access to God. And that’s how we know God will never leave us or forsake us. God forsook Jesus on the cross so that he will never forsake us.