AND YOU WILL LEAVE ME ALONE

By His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Please remember us in front of the Throne of Grace.

"INDEED THE HOUR IS COMING, YES, HAS NOW COME, THAT YOU WILL BE SCATTERED, EACH TO HIS OWN,.... " (JOHN. 16:32)

He Stood Alone:

He, the loving and kind-hearted, "went about doing good" (Acts 10:38). He moved from one village to another and from one city to the other, "preaching the gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people" (Matt. 4:23). However, He led a life full of suffering. He was left alone by all, although, in His kindness, He left none. Thus He was alone in His troubles and pains and faced oppression and persecution. No one defended Him or supported Him… He had trodden the winepress alone (Is. 63:3).

In the Garden in Gethsemane He prayed and spoke to the Father earnestly "And His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground" (Luke 22:44). He cried out in agony, "Father, if it is Your will, remove this cup from Me" (Luke 22:42). But, His disciples, who were His friends and beloved ones, left Him alone and slept. Three times did He return to them and ask them to watch but they could not watch one hour with Him (Matt. 26:38-45).

When He was arrested, His disciples were scattered, each to his own and left Him alone as He had said before (John 16:32). And when He was questioned, no one defended Him though He defended the most wicked sinners. In His passions, no one came to comfort Him. It is indeed a lesson we take from the Lord when we find ourselves persecuted by others and left by all, even by our disciples and find ourselves standing alone.

Not only in His passions was He left alone but throughout His life also. Once He was in the temple talking to the Jews about giving them His Flesh and Blood but many of His disciples could not understand this; so, as St. John says, "From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, ““Do you also want to go away" (John. 6:66,7).”

Another time, He invited some, but one of them asked to be excused because he bought a piece of land and wanted to go and see it, the other asked to be excused because he had bought five yoke of oxen and was going to test them, and the third said that he has married a wife and therefore he could not come. The three made excuses though the invitation was for their own good (Luke 14:18-20).

The time would fail me, dear brother, to tell you about the Lord Jesus Christ who stood alone, "He came to His own and His own did not receive Him" (John. 1: 11). He was the light that had " come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light" (John. 3:19).

All this has happened in the past and still happens in the present time. The same old picture: the Lord Jesus Christ is standing, the world occupied with its pleasures, its delights and trifles, no one cares for the Lord Christ, not even one. No one sits at His feet as Mary the sister of Martha did or leans on His bosom like John the son of Zebedee or washes His feet like the woman who was a sinner. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself feels this loneliness and knows that the majority are away from Him... He even wonders saying, "… when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8).

What about you, are you also leaving the Lord Jesus alone? Is there anything taking you away from Him? Ask yourself.