The apostles’ reaction to Jesus’ insistence that he must go to Jerusalem to die showed that the way of the cross was the opposite in all respects of their expectations of what the Messiah would be like, whilst their questions after Jesus had met the Rich young man showed how their understanding of what was accepted as God’s blessings were also fundamentally challenged. In exploring Mark’s pivotal chapters, 8-10, Tom shows just how subversive Jesus’ way of the cross was then, and is now. He concludes, ‘I have found five ways of understanding the Rich Man passage. Four avoid taking it seriously.’