Day 21: Lonely
Illustration
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?” Jesus cried out this verse from Psalm 22:1 when He was dying on the cross. We can feel the pain of His loneliness in these words.
Jesus Christ had come to this world, and the world did not recognize Him as their Creator but rejected Him (John 1:10-12). Jesus had come to His own, the Jewish nation, and they did not receive Him as the Messiah but instead hated Him. And at His last hour, Jesus’ disciples all ran away from Him. Finally, on the cross, His Father had forsaken Him. He was alone.
Talk about lonely! There He hung between heaven and earth, rejected by God and man, forsaken by all. He had said earlier, through the prophet Isaiah, “I have trodden the winepress alone; from the nations, no one was with me” (Isaiah 63:3). Hanging on the cross, Jesus was utterly alone in the dark, alone as He bore the curse of the Law, alone as He suffered the wrath of God, alone as He paid for sin. No one was with Him. There was no relief for Him.
The reason He chose to enter this abject loneliness was to connect you forever with God; to unite the body and the Head. Jesus received rejection so that you could be accepted; He was forsaken so that you would be welcomed and embraced. He died lonely that you would forever live in the presence of God (2 Corinthians 4:14). Jesus rose victorious over loneliness. You have been raised with Him to a new life of fellowship with God and His people (1 John 1:7).