Are You Lonesome Tonight?
As we move into short days and long nights, it becomes easier to feel discouraged. If we are increasingly secluded (by weather and, this year, by governmental edict), we can experience genuine loneliness. I enjoy being alone, but I have a choice in the matter; others do not. Solitude occurs when we want to be alone; loneliness happens when friends and family are taken from us. Solitude soothes, whereas loneliness looms. Because God knows all about us, His Word speaks to us about the painful subject of loneliness. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
It is with extreme reticence and extraordinary reverence that I approach today’s central teaching: the most powerful example of loneliness is the Cross of Jesus Christ. We are kneeling on hallowed ground, and we are pondering the imponderable. We know that God exists in Three Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We know that there is perfect harmony and unity within this Godhead – One God in Three Persons. We also know that a separation occurred in this relationship when Jesus, God the Son, died on the Cross for our sins. Quoting and fulfilling Psalm 22:1, Jesus in Matthew 27:46 cried out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” As darkness descended on His Cross (Matthew 27:45), Jesus experienced spiritual death – our spiritual deaths. The words of Jesus make it clear that He was absolutely lonely at that time. At the same time, though, II Corinthians 5:19 states that “God [the Father] was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” We are not able to understand fully the mechanics and dynamics of the relationships within the Divine Trinity at the unprecedented event of the Cross, but we are certain of this: because Jesus took our punishment, we do not have to be lonely now, and we do not have to be lonely eternally. May each of us be sure that our faith is in the Savior, Jesus Christ, who suffered the ultimate loneliness so that we would never have to utter His God-forsaken cry of the Cross.