Christ Bore Our Loneliness on the Cross
This devotional reflection considers the deep loneliness Jesus endured from his arrest through the cross. His abandonment and suffering reveal the cost of sin, but also the promise that those who belong to him are never alone.
- Jesus was deserted by everyone as the Scriptures were fulfilled.
- Christ endured ultimate loneliness so sinners could be reconciled to God.
- Those forgiven and adopted into God’s family have Jesus with them always.
By Sandy Mayle
Is there any loneliness like the loneliness of Christ on the cross?
Only a few days before, he’d been given a king’s welcome into Jerusalem—crowds cheering, palm branches waving, cloaks being spread in his path.
Deserted and Alone
But on Passover night a different kind of crowd gathered. Instead of palm branches, these men wielded swords and clubs. Jesus said to his captors, “Every day I was with you, teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest me. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled” (Mark 14:49, New International Version). At that, “everyone deserted him and fled” (v. 50).
And Jesus was alone.
Alone when he faced the Sanhedrin. Alone when he stood before Pilate. Alone when he was hauled off to Herod and alone when he was brought back to Pilate. He was alone when the soldiers mocked and abused him; alone on the Via Dolorosa, that Road of Sorrows; alone on his cross. And utterly, devastatingly alone when he took our sins upon himself, and the Father withdrew from him.
Never Alone Again
But the sinless Jesus did all this so that we, who were so utterly alone in our sins, might trust that God took his sacrifice as payment for those sins and never be alone again.
Instead, we who have been forgiven and adopted into God’s family have someone with us always and forever, and that wonderful someone is Jesus himself. How can we be sure of this? We know it by the promises he has given us:
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me” (Revelation 3:20).
“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).
“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
Is there any friendship like the friendship of the One Who bore our loneliness?
Author: Sandy Mayle
Sandy Mayle is a freelance writer who lives in Erie, Pennsylvania.
