“Reproach hath broken my heart: and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.” (Psalm 69:20)
The appropriate title for the picture painted in this verse is “Alone”. We can only identify with being alone in a human sense. We do not have the capacity to feel as our blessed Savior felt. He obviously enjoyed the friendship and fellowship of his disciples, and especially “the twelve”. He had even a closer relationship with the inner circle of Peter, James and John. Yet when he was facing the reality of his crucifixion in the Garden of Gethsemane, and needed their support, they fell asleep.
When he was being led away after his arrest, “... All the disciples forsook Him and fled”. (Matthew 26:56)
We sometime refer to the Passion of Jesus. The Latin word “passio” originally meant to endure suffering. This is an appropriate term when we try to imagine the agony and pain that Jesus suffered during those sham trials and the brutal beatings. As we well know a cruel crown of thorns was forced upon His head, and His hands and feet were nailed to the cross of crucifixion.
We should keep in mind that He suffered all of this for the sins of the world. Because He bore our sins, just before His death He cried, “...My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)
“Alone, Alone, He bore it all alone;
He gave Himself to save His own,
He suffered, bled and died alone.” ---Ben H. Price
Jesus died the death of a sinner.
This devotional is the Monday, March 14, 2016 entry of Opening the Word.
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