A Very Solitary Thing

Dying is a very solitary thing.

“Dying is a very solitary thing!” someone has written. In that very insightful statement, we come close to one of the basic teachings of the New Testament — about life, death, and about love.

When we reflect on the last days of Jesus, we can see how lonely He was. His death was a very solitary thing. In three separate chapters of Mark’s Gospel, we find Jesus telling His disciples that He was going to die soon. He knew that his death was imminent, and He wanted to share this with them. But the disciples absolutely refused to listen. They changed the subject. They pretended they didn’t hear. They could not handle it. And surely Jesus’ loneliness began to mount. The loneliness came to a climax, of course, in Gethsemane. It is the last night of Jesus’ life. Death is very too close to Him now. What does He do? He lets His friends know that He wants them…