It All Falls Down | Crossroads Daily

Hi, welcome back. My name's Kirsten. I'm Miko. I'm Chris. And I'm Debo. And we are in John 18 right now and Jesus is in the garden right now and it's about to go down. I'm going to pass it off to Chris to kick us off. It's crazy to look at this time because it looks like Jesus is just at the will of everyone around him, that he just has to play along. The reality that he is a volunteer, not a victim in this space, that he's choosing to do something, he's choosing to give his life as opposed to it being taken away from him. How does that, how do we respond to that reality? That he's not a victim in this space, he is a volunteer. Yeah, I think like for us now, being able to read it, like we obviously know that, but I'm trying to imagine like what the disciples were thinking in that moment. They were probably like, Jesus, you're the son of God. Like come on, like you can do anything. Like why aren't you doing something? I can imagine just like a mix of emotions, like actually living that out as the disciples, watching Jesus go through all of this, be whipped and beaten and really like succumbing to the power of other people. He's the most powerful. So it's just like, I'm just imagining like what their thoughts are, like not knowing. Right. I think it's so cool that this is at the core of what Jesus has been telling them for days now. Like just a few chapters before, he's like, the greatest thing you can do is lay your life down for your friend. Like calling them friend, everyone, like even the ones that are doing the beating.

And it is just him, you know, he's not just talking the talk. He's walking the walk and he's connecting all the pieces through this sacrifice that is for everyone for always. And I think that's, yeah, you can't comprehend it just sitting around. Yeah. Because like you said, like he had the power to remove himself from the situation, but him choosing that sacrificial obedience. And I don't know. I think this is like, I just get hung up on that piece all together, this, that choosing, because it's so often where I feel pressure and it's like, if I had an out, I would have taken it. You know what I mean? Easy. But like the idea that it's like, he recognized the purpose in the suffering. It wasn't, you know, like his eyes were fixed on things above. He recognized that, no, that this is something to endure because there's something far greater on the other side of this. And to just like posture yourself in that knowing and like being encouraged in that and that being a fuel to help you to endure whatever that is, man. And I don't know. It's just an incredible example. And I don't know. I think. Yeah. I relate to the disciples so much too of their confusion, even though, like you said, Kirsten, he's dropping hints for weeks. He's like, hey, like I'm going to die. Like that's going to happen. But like, don't worry. You're going to go sleep for a bit, right?

Like he's like, no, hey, I'm going to die. And then Peter's like, hey, that's a bad idea. And he's like, you're get behind me, Satan. He's like, this is crazy. And I think if I was in that space too, I'd be like, okay, like maybe you get on board with it by the end. But like, as soon as anything starts going down, I'd be like, okay, well, like what's going on? Why is he being flogged? Why is like, yeah, why is he being a crown of thorns on his head? And like, I, I think I can do the same thing in my life where I can be like, okay, one day, like one second, God loves me. He's for me. He has a purpose and plan for me. And then just the slightest hiccup happens and I'm like, is there a God like this? Is this all? Is this just fake? Am I making all this up? It's so easy for me just in a moment's notice to lose trust. I was just thinking of that. And I think we can dig a little bit more into this too of how quickly I'll speak for myself. How quickly am I to be like, oh, I'm not hearing God right now. I'm not seeing him. Is he, is he real? Like is he there? Imagine watching the person that you knew as the son of God, you've been following him for years, devoting your every second to him, be flogged and going to the cross. Like how do you keep faith in that moment? Like I would be Peter, I think. Yeah.

Yeah. Get out of there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like not to go too far left, but it's like the idea of seeing your heroes fall. And I'm a big boxing, big boxing guy. And I remember watching Terrence Crawford beat Earl Spence and he beat him bad. to the point where I literally like when I went to bed that night, I was so low to point my wife acts like did he die? What's going on? Yeah, it was wild. That's one of those fights. I will not rewatch like I have zero desire to rewatch that but on the like a larger scale right to see Jesus the son of man the person who you've been you know being poured into by the person who you've been following to see them lose like I can only imagine the level of devastation that you like in your gut like I'm starting to feel that now just thinking about Jesus and Earl Spence but still man like it's it's it's yeah man I can imagine them probably watching him like about to be crucified and yeah like all right this is probably the moment yeah like you're probably about to like hop off yeah where's your wings you know like just fly away and just show your power in these moments everybody like I can just imagine them just waiting for that yeah moment yeah um yeah for the shoe to drop and just be like this isn't real right yeah I feel like it hints at a larger idea too of like when success looks like failure and in the moment where uh what Jesus is doing it's ultimately it is to to save the world but in the moment it looks like this is like the movement is over the disciples scatter like they realize on paper like this is this is looking bad and does it feel like there's times in our life where it's like I'm doing the obedient thing but in the moment it does not look good on paper everyone thinks I lost this looks like a failure even though I'm trying to be obedient mm-hmm yeah I'm reminded of maybe 2018-2019 um and at this point walking away from you know um a career in logistics and also you know not too far removed from um coming home from prison and trying to figure life out together and not just walking away but like walking away because I felt God called me to walk away and to the point where even the people you know my co-workers were so confused you know they were emailing me and and asking questions like you know like you were

crushing it like what what's going on and I'm like I don't know I don't know it makes me like to one point it's like I can I can I guess what a calling you know that Jesus had it's like he he you know was able to foresee what was coming after that um which is you know um amazing I know in in in my situation which was nowhere near you know to the degree of the severity that Jesus had to endure but I didn't know what was on the other end of it so I was actually just going through a season and um not quite sure um like what what the other side would look like I remember my brother I was um doing some work and I was at a um at my desk at the house and every day I would come out for months and just do the same thing rinse and repeat every morning and my brother simply asked he was like how do you do this every day like how are you still doing this and like without a thought I just I said I believe like I believe that this is what God's called me to do and I'm just being obedient in it and whatever this looks like now and whatever it eventually looks like I'm trusting him with that but yeah that's good I you know it doesn't make sense to people in the obedience realm is when you donate a lot of money back to the church when you're like okay I know I need to tithe okay you start tithing and you're like wow this is actually really good for my heart and it's tied to money you you really want to throw off start donating a lot of money on top of that whether to a friend in ministry or to your church's campaign so they can buy whatever other things that they need and I I know that's what God has called my family to we're in the middle of it by the way where we my husband has now lost his job not once but twice during this financial commitment of three years that we've done and uh obviously everyone's like you know you can stop right like you know you can just like not have that come out of your bank account and I'm like no because I know I know that's what God asked us as a family to do my husband feels that in times where I don't feel peace he does and so God's definitely like calling us to this obedience um and I don't know what it's gonna look like in a year and a half it's definitely not gonna look like a new house well actually I shouldn't say that yeah because you never know God you never know but yeah that's after party at your house there's a lot of uh poopy diapers right now but um maybe not in a few years So yeah, that's what came to mind for me. Yeah, I just think about like faith in general. Like Jesus, this is like Jesus's example for us of like what obedience looks like.

And in general, I feel like when you say yes to being a follower of Jesus, there's daily decisions that you make out of obedience. And I think about how like a lot of the times the decisions that you make as a follower of Jesus to the world look absolutely dumb. Like they go against culture. They go against what's cool. Like I can think back my younger years and like deciding not to go to parties, deciding not to drink, deciding to do like certain things when everybody else was doing things like that felt cool or just mainstream, whatever. Like it's like daily decisions. That's like going against culture and like the world and what everyone else is doing. I just, I feel like it's daily, like daily decisions that you just make out of obedience. And I think that is what faith, our faith journey looks like. Yeah, big picture. Well, wherever you're being obedient and you don't see the end of the story, hey, Jesus died for you. He chose to die for you. And on Easter morning, he rose. So I'm gonna pray for us. God, thank you. Thank you for choosing to lay your life down,

not only in a way that saved us for eternity, brought us to a place where we will be in heaven with you forever, but it was difficult. It was gruesome. It was humiliating. And yet you said, we are still worth it. We are worthy of your sacrifice. We're worthy. And I think that is a label that you give us freely, joyfully, lovingly that we can carry in any situation. And so God, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You're good, good King, good Father. We love you. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.