Alone

"Lonely" and the more country word, "lonesome" is one of the most written about and sung about themes ever. God said it first, "It is not good for man to be alone." "One is the loneliest number." "I'm so lonesome I could cry." In John 8 Jesus hung onto the fact that He was not alone. Jesus was surrounded by disciples whose loyalty was untested, and would have to be perfected before it was sufficient. He was also surrounded by enemies who looked for every reason to prove He was a poser, a fake, an isolated figure who acted completed on His own. Did this work on His head? Did Jesus struggle with feelings of aloneness? The Gospels tell us He often went away to lonely places alone. But was He really alone? Did He ever feel alone except on the cross? What is aloneness really all about? Of course it is not about being in a crowd. It is not just about having partners in projects. It is not merely knowing others believe what you believe. It must be much deeper than that. Jesus describes His relationship with the Father in 8:28-29 and gives us insight into what He means when He says He is not alone.

Jesus wanted others, even His enemies, to know that what He did and what was to happen to Him, being lifted up (See John 3:14; 12:32), was fully endorsed by His Father and that He was not acting off of His own agenda. Aloneness is when someone might say, "You didn't do this for God; you did it for your own selfish reasons." If a person can be led to believe that what they do is merely a fulfillment of some selfish dream that has nothing to do with God's agenda, then they will be left feeling very alone. This is exactly the message the Jewish leaders were sending Jesus. Jesus reflected the message back on them. In 8:28 Jesus held tenaciously to three truths, if anyone one of them could have been proven to be untrue, Jesus would have been alone, separated from the Father. Truth one was His identity: "I AM." Truth two was that His actions were based on Divine authority. Truth three was that the source of His message was God the Father. That is why Jesus can say in 8:29 that the One who sent Him was with Him and that the Father had not left Him alone. The outcome was that Jesus lived to please the Father.

So how does this apply to me and you? I also have an identity that is based in Divine reality. If it can be proven that I am not a child of God in possession of eternal life, then the alternative is that I am a fake Christian, with no assurance of salvation, cut off from the Father and ALONE. Secondly, if it can be shown that what we do in the name of Christ is really not by His authority and that we merely represent ourselves and our own opinions, then again we are left exposed and ALONE. Thirdly, if it can be shown that what we teach and preach is not from the Divine source, then they are merely our human words, and we are left without a confirming witness, and stand ALONE. There is more at stake in dealing with ALONENESS than merely knowing whether or not God is there. Does he confirm my identity, my authority and the source of my words. If so, then I am truly not ALONE.