All the Way to the Cross

“Will you praise him today and follow him to the cross tomorrow?”—Pastor Mark

Palm Sunday is easy. There's a crowd, there's energy, there's momentum—and it costs nothing to wave a branch when everyone around you is doing the same.

But Jesus was never just headed to Jerusalem for a parade. He was headed to a cross. And the question that separates the crowd from the disciple is not whether you'll show up when worship feels celebratory. The question is whether you'll still be following when the road gets hard, when the cost gets real, when the path leads somewhere you didn't plan to go.

Discipleship was never designed to be a highlight reel. It is a daily decision to stay close to someone who will not always lead you somewhere comfortable.

The crowd thinned out by Friday. It always does. The invitation Jesus extends isn't to join the procession—it's to follow him all the way. Not just to the palm branches. Not just to the upper room. All the way to the cross. Because it is only in following him there that we discover what resurrection looks like on the other side.

Jesus made the terms clear in Luke 9:23: "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." The word daily leaves no room for a Sunday-only commitment. True following is a decision you make again and again—all the way to the cross, and trusting him for whatever comes next.