Everyone longs for a comforter in times of trouble. Not just words, but someone to come along beside us, and help carry the load with us, or at least to understand and sympathize with our trouble.
The great irony of the suffering and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus is this: in order to comfort us by saving us, it was necessary that Christ have no man to comfort Him!
This was foretold by the Spirit of Christ to the Psalmist David in Psalm 69. There it was said of Christ, that He would suffer rebukes, and shame, and dishonor, and false accusations from wicked men. He would take upon Himself the sins of His people, and treat them as His very own, suffering for them in our place.
The Psalmist denounced those wicked men: "For they persecute him whom thou [God] hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou [God] hast wounded."
The great composer George Frederic Handel, in his oratorio "Messiah," put it this way:
Thy rebuke hath broken His heart; He is full of heaviness. He looked for some to have pity on Him, but there was no man, neither found He any to comfort Him. Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto His sorrow.
It was, of course, God's rebuke, and God's strokes against Jesus. It was the reproach of our sins that fell on Jesus.
There was no man anywhere to comfort Him, because nobody understood the travail of Christ's soul that day.
No man could come along side Jesus, to help bear His heavy load.
In that crucial sense, the Lord Jesus was quite alone. There was no other human being who could understand what He was suffering, much less help Him endure it!
Featuring a sermon puts it on the front page of the site and is the most effective way to bring this sermon to the attention of thousands including all mobile platforms + newsletter.
Text-Featuring a sermon is a less expensive way to bring this sermon to the attention of thousands on the right bar with optional newsletter inclusion. As low as $30/day.
John Pittman Hey was born in 1961 in Jackson, Mississippi, to Godly parents who from the beginning raised him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. With child-like faith he came to Christ on his fourth birthday at his mother's knee. He received his education at church...