Welcome to this Daily PBJ devotional. Read 1 Chronicles 11 and 12, Zechariah 6 and John 19. This devotional is about John 19. Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns, set it on his head, and dressed him in a purple robe. And they went up to him again and again, saying, Hail, King of the Jews, and slapping him in the face. Once again Pilate came out and said to the Jews, look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him. When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, here is the man. As soon as the chief priests and officers saw him, they shouted, crucify him, crucify him. You take him and crucify him, Pilate replied, for I find no basis for a charge against him. We have a law, answered the Jews, and according to that law he must die, because he declared himself to be the son of God. When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid, and he went back into the praetorium. Where are you from? he asked, but Jesus gave no answer. So Pilate said to him, Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you? Jesus answered, You would have no authority over me, if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of greater sin. From then on Pilate tried to release him, but the Jews kept shouting, If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who declares himself a king is defying Caesar. When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat on the judgment seat at a place called the stone pavement, which in Hebrew is Gabbatha. It was the day of preparation for the Passover, about the sixth hour, and Pilate said to the Jews, here is your king. At this they shouted, away with him, away with him, crucify him. Shall I crucify your king? Pilate asked. We have no king but Caesar, replied the chief priests. Then Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified, and the soldiers took him away. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on each side, with Jesus in the middle. Pilate also had a notice posted on the cross. It read, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Many of the Jews read this sign, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, Do not write the king of the Jews, but only that he said, I am the king of the Jews. Pilate answered, What I have written, I have written. When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they divided his garments into four parts, one for each soldier, with the tunic remaining. It was seamless, woven in one piece, from top to bottom. So they said to one another, let us not tear it, instead let us cast lots to see who will get it. This was to fulfill the scriptures. They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. So that is what the soldiers did. Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and her sister, as well as Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved, standing nearby, he said to his mother-woman, Here is your son. Then he said to the disciple, Here is your mother. So from that hour this disciple took her into his home. After this, knowing that everything had now been completed, and to fulfill the scripture, Jesus said, I am thirsty. A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in the wine, put it on a stalk of hyssop, and lifted it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, It is finished. And bowing his head, he yielded up his spirit. It was the day of preparation, and the next day was a high Sabbath. In order that the bodies would not remain on the cross during the Sabbath, the Jews asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies removed. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out. This one who saw it has testified to this, and his testimony is true. He knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe. Now these things happened, so that the scripture would be fulfilled, not one of his bones will be broken. And as another scripture says, they will look on the one they have pierced. Afterward, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him remove the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission, so he came and removed his body. Nicodemus, who had previously come to Jesus at night, also brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 75 pounds. So they took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in linen cloths with the spices according to the Jewish burial custom. Now there was a garden in the place where Jesus was crucified, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. And because it was the Jewish day of preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they placed Jesus there. This is God's word. Many people who achieve something in this life believe that they are special. They believe they are smarter than others, prettier than others, or more physically or athletically gifted than others. And those things may be true. but they do not completely explain someone's success. Throughout human history, there have been men more athletically gifted than the greatest professional athlete you might imagine. Goliath, for example, was over nine feet tall with the strength to match. Put him on any NBA team today, and he would be an unstoppable scorer and shot blocker. But basketball had not been invented when Goliath lived. His culture put athletically gifted men into the army, where many of them, including Goliath himself, were killed in battle. Put Wilt Chamberlain or Michael Jordan or Shaquille O'Neal back in those days, and they would be put in the army to fight, not paid millions to play a game. What is true of Goliath is true of men with every other measure of achievement. Leonardo da Vinci may have been smarter than Elon Musk, but the education and technological tools Elon has used to his advantage were not available to da Vinci. Da Vinci accomplished great things, but he never had the kind of personal wealth that Elon Musk and others in our society have. Our text for today, John 19, records Jesus' trial before Pontius Pilate. Pilate was not the emperor of Rome, but he was far more powerful than most people on earth or in Israel. He believed, correctly so, that he was powerful enough to save Jesus' life. But he also seemed to believe that there was something special about himself that gave him the position in life that he occupied. In verse 10, here in John 19, Pilate asked Jesus, do you realize I have the power either to free you or to crucify you? That's verse 10 in the NIV. And verse 11 goes on to say, Jesus answered, You would have no power over me if it were not given you from above. In other words, it was God's will that put Pilate where he was. Whatever human factors like intelligence that contributed to Pilate's success was merely a gift of God, and Pilate's position of power was granted to him by the providence and will of God alone. You and I did not choose to be born at this time in history, nor did we choose to be born to the parents we had. We didn't choose the complex of traits that have enabled us to have whatever success we've enjoyed in life. Most of us probably didn't choose to come to the United States. We were born here in this free country where opportunities abound and where we have the ability to choose one of those opportunities or many of them. We also didn't choose to be chosen by God for eternal life. So none of us has any reason to feel proud, to mistreat others, or even to brag. Everything we have was given to us from above, as Jesus put it in verse 11. So we should be careful about doing what is righteous, wherever God put us. We should also fight the tendency to feel entitled to our success. And instead of feeling entitled, we should give thanks to God for everything we've gotten in this life, including the opportunities that put us where we are. 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