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He Was Misunderstood and Often Stood Alone, May 18
I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was
none with me.
Isaiah 63:3
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What a support Christ would have found in His earthly relatives if they
had believed in Him as one from heaven, and had co-operated with Him
in doing the work of God! Their unbelief cast a shadow over the earthly
life of Jesus. It was part of the bitterness of that cup of woe which He
drained for us.... With their short measuring line they could not fathom the
mission which He came to fulfill, and therefore could not sympathize with
Him in His trials. Their coarse, unappreciative words showed that they
had no true perception of His character, and did not discern that the divine
blended with the human. They often saw Him full of grief; but instead of
comforting Him, their spirit and words only wounded His heart....
These things made His path a thorny one to travel. So pained was
Christ by the misapprehension in His own home that it was a relief to Him
to go where it did not exist. Often He could find relief only in being alone,
and communing with His heavenly Father.
Those who are called to suffer for Christ’s sake, who have to endure
misapprehension and distrust, even in their own home, may find comfort in
the thought that Jesus has endured the same. He is moved with compassion
for them. He bids them find companionship in Him, and relief where He
found it, in communion with the Father. Those who accept Christ as their
personal Saviour are not left as orphans to bear the trials of life alone. He
receives them as members of the heavenly family; He bids them call His
Father their Father. They are His “little ones,” dear to the heart of God,
bound to Him by the most tender and abiding ties. He has toward them an
exceeding tenderness, as far surpassing what our father or mother has felt
toward us in our helplessness as the divine is above the human
[146]
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The Desire of Ages, 325-327
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