If you told your son, "I reject you," what would he do? My son Josiah is at that stage where everything his Dad does is perfect. I'm his hero times seven. If I cry, he cries. If I laugh, he laughs. If I tell him that doodle bugs eat planets, tomorrow he'll tell all his friends that this doodle bugs eat planets.

But if I told him one day, "I reject you. You're not my son," I can't imagine what would happen to him. It'd change his life. It'd ruin his world. No one could tell how this single devastating comment would slash his heart and send him into a world of misery and sorrow. Through repeated surveys it's been proven that a huge majority of felons had a terrible relationship with their father or no relationship at all. The impact of a father's love is beyond measure. 

But then I turn my thoughts toward Jesus. God rejected Him. In fact, it was worse than just rejection. Isaiah 53:10 tells us that the Lord was pleased to crush Him. It was this horrid rejection by His Father that moved Jesus to scream in relational agony, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Mark 15:34). 

Jesus experienced a rejection and loneliness that we cannot fathom. The longer I live with my seven year old son the more I love him and the more he loves me. But Jesus' relationship with His father was not seven years long but for an eternity. Until the cross, there never had been a moment when Jesus wasn't in perfect fellowship with His Father. Their love and bond was so strong and true that only one thing could destroy that: your and my sins. And they did. What crushes my soul is that it was because of my sin that God rejected His Son. 

And the loneliness must have been unbelievable. No one likes to be alone. I once remember a cartoon where the character ends up in a future dimension where everything around him is perfectly white. There is no end and no beginning. And he says, "Finally I'm alone!" The word "alone" echoes through the room until it's sounding everywhere and the cartoon character starts running hysterically. 

Jesus experienced loneliness not just from people but from His own Father. On the cross, Jesus experienced the ultimate loneliness: all of creation and the Creator had rejected Him. There was no one to hold His hand, no one to say, "I'm so sorry for what you are suffering," no one to even try to sympathize. 

If you and I experienced this level of loneliness, it would literally kill us. Our heart would burst. Our spirit would crumble. Our soul would burst in utter despair. This amazes me. God's love for me and you is beyond description. All I can do is worship in response.