Alone

I never played much in the way of team sports or what most people think of as sports or games – like tennis or golf. I very briefly tried playing basketball in eighth grade, and I boxed and wrestled a little in high school. Mainly I did my schoolwork, did our farm work, did some target shooting, hunted, fished, and rode horses, a bicycle, or a dirt bike. None of this involved much cheerleading. Personally, I never understood the need for cheerleaders. Either you are giving your best effort or you are not. No amount of “support” from the sidelines is going to change what a person is capable of doing.

This kind of thinking probably indicates some sort of character flaw on my part.

Then they all deserted Him and ran away – Mark 14:50

It’s a verse worthy of committing to memory, though it is probably rarely quoted. All the cheerleaders were gone. His teaching, His wisdom, His love and compassion, even the miracles they had witnessed could not hold them. They all deserted Jesus. They left Him to face His doom.

But He was not yet alone. Through the rest of those dark morning hours, the Lord continued to do what He knew He had to do. He had been born for this ugly, painful, humiliating day. He had known all along this was where He was headed. He had, in His humanity, no doubt wondered if there might be some other way of fulfilling the prophecies, perhaps a more figurative, allegorical understanding. Even at the last in the garden, He had beseeched the Father for another path to follow, but when Judas arrived with the soldiers, He knew that was not to be. Still, He knew He was doing His Father’s will in the kangaroo court of the Sanhedrin, before the petty, cynical Roman governor, in the decadent presence of Herod, under the lash at the whipping post, and, stumbling under the weight of the cross, all the way up the hill.

The blood didn’t shake Him. The pain didn’t move Him. He was doing His Father’s will. It had to be done, and He had to do it.

And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice … “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” – Mark 15:34

Then He was alone.