Teaching the Road to the Cross: A 6-Week Framework

Some traditions map out the weeks leading up to Easter with careful intention. Others don’t mark them at all. But here’s what both approaches can miss: the Gospels themselves already have a structure.

And that structure has a pace.

Mark spends nearly half his Gospel on Jesus’s final week. The narrative doesn’t rush toward the cross—it slows down, lingers, and forces readers to walk each step with Jesus. When we teach this material too quickly, we work against the rhythm Scripture sets.

Whether you’re planning a sermon series, leading a Sunday School quarter, or facilitating a small group, you don’t need a liturgical calendar to teach this season well. You need to follow where the Gospels lead.

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The Gospels Already Have a Structure

Here’s something worth noticing—and it changed how I teach this material: the Gospel writers made deliberate choices about pacing.

Mark dedicates chapters 11-16 to Jesus’s final week—roughly 37% of his entire Gospel. John gives 38% to the same period. These writers weren’t padding their manuscripts. They were telling us where to linger.

The journey to Jerusalem isn’t just backstory; it’s part of the story the cross completes. Jesus’s testing in the wilderness, his teaching that provoked opposition, the mounting conflict with religious leaders, his decisive turn toward Jerusalem, the confrontations of his final days—each step matters.

When teachers compress this material into a week or two, we lose its magnitude. Our audiences hear the information but don’t feel its gravity. They arrive at Easter having learned about the cross without having walked toward it.

A 6-Week Framework: Wilderness to Cross

Here’s a framework that follows the Gospels’ narrative arc. Adapt it to your context, but notice the building momentum.

Week 1: Testing (Matthew 4:1-11)

Jesus begins his public ministry in the wilderness, tested on identity and trust. The same testing Israel failed, Jesus passes. This week establishes the foundation: who is this one walking toward Jerusalem?

Teaching focus: Faithfulness under pressure. What was at stake in each temptation?

Week 2: Teaching (Matthew 5-7, selections)

The Sermon on the Mount is a kingdom announcement—and kingdom announcements threaten existing power structures. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth,” challenged both Roman military dominance and religious hierarchies. Jesus’s teaching draws crowds and creates enemies.

Teaching focus: Which teachings would have been most offensive to first-century authorities? Why?

Week 3: Conflict (Mark 3:1-6 or John 11:45-57)

Opposition crystallizes. After Jesus heals on the Sabbath, the Pharisees begin plotting his death. After he raises Lazarus, the chief priests decide he must die. The road to the cross runs through real enemies with real power.

Teaching focus: Why did Jesus’s actions provoke such hostility? What did the leaders fear?

Week 4: The Turn (Luke 9:51)

“As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.”

This is the hinge. Everything after this verse moves in one direction. Jesus knows what waits in Jerusalem. He goes anyway.

Teaching focus: What does “resolutely” tell us? How does this verse reframe everything that follows?

Week 5: Final Week (Mark 11-13, selections)

Triumphal entry. Temple clearing. Confrontations with every power group. Apocalyptic warnings. The tension escalates daily. Teach this week without rushing—let your audience feel the pressure building.

Teaching focus: Why did Jesus provoke conflict during this week instead of avoiding it?

Week 6: The Cross (Mark 14-15 or John 18-19)

Betrayal, arrest, trials, crucifixion. Resist the urge to leap to resurrection. Stay here. Let the silence of Saturday—the day between crucifixion and resurrection—do its work.

Teaching focus: What do we lose when we rush past Friday to get to Sunday?

Follow the Pace Scripture Sets

The framework gives you the content. But content alone isn’t enough.

Here’s the discipline that will transform your teaching: spend more time where Scripture spends more time.

If Mark devotes 37% of his Gospel to the final week, your series shouldn’t cover that week in a single session. If the Gospel writers slow down as Jesus approaches the cross, you slow down too.

This is about trusting the text. When you rush, you teach content. When you match the Gospels’ pacing, you lead a journey.

Creating Space for Absorption

The pitfall I see most often: teachers cover the material without helping audiences absorb it.

We move from event to event, checking boxes. Triumphal entry—done. Last Supper—done. Gethsemane—done. Trials, crucifixion, burial—done, done, done. By Easter morning, we’ve transmitted information without creating space for it to land.

Absorption requires time. It requires silence. It requires questions that don’t have quick answers.

Here’s something to try: After reading a passage aloud, don’t immediately explain it. Let your group sit in the text for sixty seconds. The silence will feel long. That’s the point.

Ask questions that resist easy resolution: “Why do you think the disciples fell asleep in Gethsemane—three times?” (Mark 14:37, 40, 41). Don’t rescue them with answers. Let the discomfort do its work.

And resist the urge to comfort with resurrection hope before Good Friday arrives. Your job during this series is to walk with people into darkness. Easter will bring the light. Don’t shortcut the journey.

Practical Techniques That Work

The slow read: Read the passage aloud without comment. Then read it again. Ask: “What did you notice the second time that you missed the first?”

Progressive questions: Start with observation (“What happens in this scene?”), move to identification (“Where do you see yourself in this story?”), and end with implication (“What does this demand of us?”).

Environmental shifts: In Sunday School contexts, consider dimming the lights as the weeks progress. Remove decorations. Simplify the room. Let the space reflect the journey.

The “don’t skip ahead” rule: If someone jumps to resurrection during week four, gently redirect: “We’ll get there. But this week, we’re still on the road.”

Start Planning This Week

Pull out your calendar. Count backward from Easter. Map your six weeks.

Then open Mark’s Gospel and read chapters 11-16 in one sitting. (If you don't have a study Bible, it’s worth the investment for teaching preparation.) Notice where the narrative slows. Notice what details the writer includes. Notice what he wants you to feel.

Your job isn’t to explain the cross. It’s to walk people toward it—one step at a time, at the pace Scripture sets.

The road is long enough to change those who travel it. Don’t rush.

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