This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions. This is day three of our look together
through John chapter 19, the day that Jesus died. We're walking through this
chapter looking at the pictures.

It's as if we're turning the pages on this day in the life of Jesus Christ. And
yesterday as we ended, Jesus was put on a cross. He's crucified.

As you turn the page, we begin to see the pictures of what happened at the foot
of the cross as Jesus is giving his life on the cross. The eighth picture in
John 19 is the picture of the sign that is scrawled out and then put on this
cross, John 19, 19 to 22. Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the
cross.

It read Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Many of the Jews read the sign
for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city and the sign was
written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. The chief priests of the Jews protested to
Pilate, "Do not write the King of the Jews, but that this man claimed to be the
King of the Jews.

" Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written. " And so you see here
that Pilate finally takes a stand when it's a safe stand. He says, "I'm going to
let the sign that I wrote stand.

" It was common to put a sign on the cross that proclaimed the crime for which
the person was being crucified. So you would walk by and see crosses and
sometimes there would be dozens of crosses. There's one account where there's
literally hundreds of crosses that were put out where people were crucified.

And as you walked by, you would see signs on those crosses, Simon of Bethany,
murderer, Lucas of Jericho, traitor. And here on Jesus's cross is the sign,
Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Here is the sign that shows who Jesus
is.

Even on this day, even in the midst of everybody trying to crucify him and lie
about who he was and put him away, this sign shows us who Jesus is. There are
three things that we learn about Jesus from this sign. We learn, number one,
that no circumstance can diminish the power of who Jesus is.

Even on the cross, Pilate was led, the one who sent him there. Pilate was led to
put the sign, "He is the King, the King of the Jews. " No circumstance can
diminish Jesus's power.

Second thing we learn is the world can clearly see who Jesus is. There are those
of us who try to hide from who Jesus is because we may not want to change. There
are those who want to hide from who Jesus is because it may feel uncomfortable,
but it's clearly seen.

The power of who Jesus is is clearly seen. It was even seen that day, even as he
was on the cross. And then there's a third thing that we learn.

First we learn no circumstance can diminish the power of who Jesus is. Second,
the world can clearly see who Jesus is. People will try, but they will always
fail.

They will try to change the truth about who Jesus is. People are still trying
today. They're trying to say, "Well, he was just a good teacher.

" Well, they never claimed to be a good teacher. He claimed to be the Son of
God. He claimed to be the way, the truth, and the life.

People will try, but they will always fail because Jesus told us clearly who he
is. You just have to go to the original source. And Jesus had said, he had said
to Pilate himself, "I am a king.

My kingdom is not of this world. " And Pilate chose to put on that cross. He is
the king.

At the foot of the cross, you have this picture of Pilate and the religious
leaders arguing about the sign. Picture number nine in this chapter is the
picture of the casting of lots for Jesus's clothing, verses 23 to 24. "When the
soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares,
one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining.

The garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. 'Let's not tear
it,' they said to one another. 'Let's decide by lot who will get it.

' This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled, which said, 'They divided
my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. ' So this is what the
soldiers did. " It was common in that day for the Roman soldiers who were
performing these crucifixions to divide the property of those they were
crucifying.

And they saw this nice garment that didn't have any seams in it, couldn't be
ripped apart easily. And they said, 'Let's just cast lots for it. ' There are
those who think that somehow Jesus controlled the events of what happened on
that day so that they would fit in with prophecy.

And it is true, later we're going to see he asked for a drink because he knew
that it was prophesied that he would. But here's an event that he had no control
over. And yet on this day, they cast lots for his clothing.

Imagine Jesus in this moment. He is dying for these Roman soldiers on the cross.
And as he looks down, they are caught up.

And who's going to get what piece of clothing? They're casting lots, maybe
laughing that this person lost and rejoicing that this person won. They have no
idea.

They have no idea what Jesus is doing for them. Philip Yancey has written about
this day, 'I've marveled at the self-restraint God has shown throughout history,
allowing the Genghis Khans, the Hitlers and the Stalins to have their way for a
time. But nothing, nothing compares to the self-restraint shown on that dark
Friday in Jerusalem.

The father watched his son giving his life for us on that day. ' Now the next
picture of what happened at the foot of the cross is in sharp contrast to what
the soldiers were doing. Picture number 10 in this chapter is Mary at the foot
of the cross, verses 25 to 27.

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of
Clopas and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there and the disciple whom
he loved, remember that's John, the disciple whom he loved standing nearby. He
said to his mother, 'Dear woman, here is your son,' pointing to himself, you can
sense.

And to the disciple, 'Here is your mother,' pointing to Mary his mother. And
from that time on, the disciple took her into his own home. We read in these
verses of the four women that were standing at the foot of the cross watching
Jesus die.

There was his mother. There was his mother's sister. We learned from one of the
other gospels her name is Salome.

We also learned that she is the mother of James and John. This John, this very
John who's standing at the cross, the foot of the cross. This very John who
wrote this gospel.

His mother was there. And we also learned that Mary the wife of Clopas, who is
likely the mother of another of Jesus' disciples named James the Less. And also
Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus' disciple followers.

So think of this with me. Here is John. He's standing at the cross.

He's the one disciple that we know was there. He is the eyewitness who writes to
us in the gospel of John of what he saw happen that day. And standing at that
cross with John is his own mother and Jesus' mother who happened to be sisters.

So it's his aunt. Mary, Jesus' mother, is the aunt of John. He may not have
known this before.

We talked about it near the beginning of this gospel, but it's important to see
in this moment. There is this family standing together watching Jesus die. And
then there is Mary Magdalene standing with them, who has become a deep close
friend as a follower of Jesus.

And in this moment, Jesus cares for his mother. He says to John, in essence,
take care of my mother and to Mary, here is the one who's going to be taking
care of you. Now we know that Jesus had other brothers and many have wondered
why didn't Jesus let his other brothers take care of their mother?

We don't know all the reasons, but possibly because they were not yet followers.
And he wanted to make sure that John, who was a follower of Jesus from this
beginning, took care of him. But even more likely, it was so that Mary could be
in her sister's household.

They would be together. The important thing is that Jesus cares for his mother.
Even with the terrible pain he was facing on the cross, he's thinking of others.

He forgave those who were crucifying him. We learn in another gospel. He
welcomed one of the thieves who was dying beside him into paradise as he was
dying, and he even arranged care for his mother.

Here's Jesus dying on the cross, and here's Jesus loving others even from the
cross. As we take a moment today to pray, to talk to him, I want you to imagine
with me that you're at the foot of the cross. You're standing there with John,
with Salome, with Mary, with Mary Magdalene.

You're in that group, and you're watching what Jesus has done for you. What are
you doing? There may be tears that are coming down your face.

There may be anger that's welling up in your heart. There may be a shock and
numbness. What's happening as you stand at the foot of the cross?

In a spirit of prayer, put yourself in that moment. You see, they didn't
understand it yet, what Jesus was doing for them. To them, it looked like a
loss.

But they knew they loved Jesus, and they knew that Jesus loved them, and that
even from the cross, he was showing his love for them. And they knew that he had
spoken of some hope in the future that they weren't quite sure of yet. You see,
as you stand in that moment with them, the truth is, in all of our lives, there
come these moments when we're at the foot of a cross.

We're not sure what God is doing. We're not sure what's next, but we know he's
talked about hope. As you stand with them in this moment, recognize that
whatever you're going through in your life right now, God has hope for you, in
this life, but all the way into eternity.

And whether you're feeling the tears coming down your face, or you're feeling
the anger that's welling up in your heart, or feeling shock and numbness at
what's happening in your life right now, when you put yourself at the foot of
the cross, see Jesus Christ loving you even there, even at that place. See what
he's doing for you, and recognize that hope is in the future. Jesus, thank you
for loving us.

Jesus, thank you that you never stopped loving us for a moment, and never will.
In your name we pray, amen.