Mar 14:50 And
they all forsook him, and fled.
Do you ever feel you’ve been deserted? The Lord can sympathise as He
knows more than any other person what it is to be alone.
In our passage today we see
that Mark has recorded for us this fact that all forsook Him and fled. Another translation
says ‘everyone deserted Him and fled’ (NIV). He was left alone with those who
had come to arrest Him, this despite all that Peter had said earlier.
The Lord
knew what it was to be left alone in the hour of His deepest need. He was to
face the barrage of abuse with no man standing by to support and help. During
those 3 hours of darkness on the cross he was forsaken by God as He was made
sin for us. Psalms 102 tells us that He was like a pelican of the wilderness:
like an owl of the desert and a sparrow alone upon the house top, pictures illustrating
His loneliness. No one has been lonelier.
It was His
obedience to His Father that led Him to this lonely place. Sometimes you will
find the same happening to you. Friends and colleagues want to do things and go
to places that as a Christian you feel are not for you. That decision may come
with a cost: being alone.
I remember
from my college days that there were many lunch times that I spent alone in the
library because class colleagues had gone drinking. At times I found this hard
and embarrassing as we don’t naturally like to be the odd one out and left
alone.
We can take
comfort that when these situations arise the Lord has been there first. He
knows what it is to be alone and so can sympathise with how we feel at times
like these.
