Mother Theresa once said: “The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.” In the words of Sylvia Plath, an American poet, novelist, and short-story writer, “the loneliness of the soul in its appalling self-consciousness is horrible and overpowering.” Many people experience loneliness. Sometimes that loneliness is overpowering. Who understands? Our Lord understands because He, too, experienced deep, soul-shaking loneliness.
Author Dan Brown said: “the worst kind of loneliness in the world is the isolation that comes from being misunderstood.” Few people understood the ministry of Jesus Christ during His lifetime. Probably the only ones who had some understanding of His purpose were his mother, his father, John the Baptist and his relatives Zacharias and Elizabeth (the aged parents of John the Baptist). But Zacharias, Elizabeth, Joseph, and John the Baptist were all dead by the time Jesus began His public ministry.
His community did not understand Him. Most of the Jewish leaders, who should have rejoiced at His arrival, considered him a bastard. They said to Jesus, we “were not born of sexual immorality.” John 8:41 By such hateful words they were saying that Jesus was either a bastard or He was the product of sexual immorality.
The temple guards hunted him down at night like a common criminal.
The Sanhedrin was so eager to condemn Him to death that they procured knowingly false witnesses to testify against Him. Finally, when Jesus boldly announced that He is the Messiah, the high priest tore his robes in fury and pronounced the death sentence.
Pontius Pilate did not understand Him, considering Jesus as just a pitiful itinerant preacher who had not violated any Roman law and posed no threat to Rome.
The Romans soldiers scourged and mocked Him before the crucifixion, leaving Him in terrible pain and utter exhaustion. In prophetic ignorance they crowned Him as the King of the Jews, His actual status. But Jesus is not just King of the Jews, He is King of kings, the King of the universe. Without compassion or sympathy those same soldiers cruelly nailed Him to the cross.
A little later these Roman soldiers gambled for His clothing at the foot of the cross.
The thieves who were crucified beside Him mocked Him.
The passersby mocked Him.
The Jewish leaders derided Him as He suffered on the cross.
His own family did not understand Him. His brothers did not believe in Him and considered Him a publicity hound. “So his brothers said to him, ‘Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.’ For not even his brothers believed in him.” John 7:3-6
His disciples did not understand His ministry. As a result, they often jockeyed for their position in what they thought was a coming political kingdom. One of them betrayed Him for thirty pieces of silver, the price of a common slave. Therefore, when the moment of crisis came, namely Jesus’s arrest, all the apostles abandoned Him despite His multiple warnings that this would happen. And At the cross all His disciples and followers were gone.
The only friendly faces at the cross were his mother, the repentant disciple John and the other two Mary’s.
Worse of all His heavenly Father turned his back on Him and His suffering, causing Jesus to cry out in loneliness and despair: “’Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46 The Father turned His back on Jesus and treated His Only Begotten Son as accursed. “[W]e esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.” Isaiah 53:4
Jesus willingly suffered this loneliness so that His heavenly Father could adopt us into His family to live with Jesus for eternity. He willingly chose to be treated as not a son, so that all those who believe Him could be treated as sons. His loneliness swallows up our loneliness and enables us to say that we belong to the Father, we are His children and in Him we will always be loved and included in the Divine Family for eternity. Jesus’ loneliness ensures that we will one day never be lonely again. If one wants to live with Jesus now and in eternity, one must make a conscious decision to believe Jesus and to receive His incredible salvation. Have you made that decision?
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