Alone in the Garden

Have you ever experienced the heartache of loneliness? As the time of His crucifixion drew near, Christ, speaking to his disciples, said, "The hour cometh when you will leave me alone." This was the hour of His great passion. The hour of Gethsemane. In that tragic hour the disciples fled, and He was left without one human friend to walk with Him the road to Golgotha. Finally, on the cross His last support seemed to crumble beneath Him, and His tragedy of isolation came to a climax in the hour of that awful cry, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"

It makes Jesus seem nearer to us to realize that He knew the experience and heartache of loneliness. How often He was alone. Alone on the mountainside. Alone in the garden. Never more alone than when the multitude thronged about Him. Alone, because He was so little understood. Alone, because even His most intimate friends were unable to give Him a full and understanding sympathy.

There are ties of kinship and friendship which bring us very near each other. But "there is ever something which is withheld--secret chambers of the heart into which no one can enter." There are depths in the human soul into which no voice can penetrate--no voice save the still small voice of God. There is a solitude where the soul stands isolated and alone unless there be communion with God.

Jesus walked the solitary road that all human beings walk. How deeply grateful we are that He endured the loneliness of human life and death that He might lead us into fellowship with God, and thus save us from the heartache and despair of our aloneness.

"The hour cometh when you will leave me alone." John 16:32.