Mark doesn’t waste words in his Gospel. His Jesus, the Jesus, is a man on a mission, determined, racing. Mark doesn’t waste words, but his words pack a punch and his brief descriptions beg for deep reflection. Like a passenger in a car driving quickly, we can easily miss the details of the landscape if we don’t pay careful attention. Mark sets us on a race, but it’s important to stop along the way.

A Path Strewn with Sinners sets us on Jesus’ race to the cross, but it also insists we take time to ponder, to notice what Mark notes, and what he doesn’t. A master storyteller, Mark leaves room for us to ask questions of the text while at the same time giving us enough information to make that profitable. In so doing, He introduces us to Jesus in a most useful and unique way and makes our race well worth the effort, as A Path Strewn with Sinners shows.