And Yet I Am Not Alone
Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. John 16:32-33a
I’ve read that verse many times but this time a specific phrase jumped out.
“And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.”
Jesus not only predicts the abandonment of his friends but the faithfulness of His Father who He implicitly trusted would never leave or forsake Him.
That is no easy feat considering abandonment is a powerful, consuming feeling that strips away all comfort and peace.
In that moment, Jesus could have been overwhelmed at knowing He was about to endure every negative and dark thing a human can experience…alone
And yet…he fully surrendered Himself to truth, not feeling.
Hours before His death Jesus remained unshaken in His belief that He was more than a conqueror through the love of his Father and was persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, would be able to separate him from His Father. (John 8:37-39) He was assured beyond all doubt that His relationship with His Father would remain, and He would overcome.
Even in agony, when the sin of the world was being placed on His shoulders while he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, He was not alone.
Even when His friends abandoned Him as He said they would, He was not alone.
Even He was beaten and mocked by a backstabbing crowd, He was not alone.
Even when he was stripped of all dignity and cruelly nailed to the cross, He was not alone.
Even when He cried out in great anguish on the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34) He was not alone.
Even when His body was wrapped in grave clothes and sealed in a tomb, He was not alone.
These truths really brought to life what the Psalmist David spoke in Psalms 139
O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Psalms 139:1-6
Jesus’ words remind me that as He was not forsaken, I will never be forsaken. No matter how abandoned I could ever feel at moments in my life, I can declare with the same confidence He did,
“And yet I am not alone”.
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