The Road to Jerusalem: Mark 10:32-34

They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them.

Mark captures the scene with haunting precision: Jesus striding forward, alone at the front, his face set toward what awaited. The disciples followed, and they were astonished. Those who trailed behind were afraid.

Something in his bearing communicated destination, purpose, doom. He walked like a man going to his death.

He took the twelve aside once more. The details this time were horrifyingly specific:

"We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise."

Delivered. Condemned. Handed over. Mocked. Spit on. Flogged. Killed. Rising.

The full script of the passion, laid out before it happened. Jesus was not walking into a trap. He was walking into a plan—the plan he had agreed to before the foundation of the world, the plan that would crush him and through that crushing save everyone who followed.

He knew every blow that was coming. And he walked toward Jerusalem anyway.