“Take, eat, this is My body. Take, drink, this is My blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” You are not alone. Your Lord does not abandon you.

The other day, as I walked through the church, I paused for a moment, standing in the center aisle, contemplating the nature of this place. I have found I do this occasionally when the church building is empty, when all the doors are locked, and there is no one else around. There is something profound about this space. It does not look like the big box stage of a contemporary church, nor have the beauty of a classical sanctuary. It remains, for all outward appearances, a fairly typical and unassuming Christian place of worship: Cross, altar, pulpit, pews. Yet, when I consider this place, when I think about what it means or what it functions as, it is, in every way, a sanctuary. It is not a launching pad for the mission field or a resource for the community. It is a place for you, for the people of God. This is a space for you to gather around the gifts of God and rest from a world of constant drive and turmoil, a place of refreshment and strength. Here is where you are reminded, you are not alone.

The fear of being alone lurks within us all. This is not to say we do not have times when we just want to get away from everything, to lose ourselves in a good book, or to escape the commotion of this world. But to be truly alone, to be abandoned to ourselves, is something no one wants to endure for very long. My dad is a lover of old westerns, and growing up, we would regularly watch these portrayals of the lone cowboy who did not need or want anyone else in their life. For them, to be alone was to be free. But as I have grown, I have learned what a lie that is. It is not good for man to be alone. We need others. We need friendship. We need love and fellowship. We need to know we are not abandoned.

But sometimes we wonder if we have been abandoned. Sometimes we can feel desperately alone even in the midst of our families and friends. We keep our true thoughts to ourselves. We do not want to risk upsetting the cart. So, we just press on, trapped in our own thoughts and fears, with unspoken longings, wondering if anyone will even notice. Will anyone even care?

The disciples have endured massive turmoil, from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs. From the shock of their Lord’s arrest in a garden to the sham of the trial and the brutal execution. They cowered in fear, wondering if they might be next. If they did this to Jesus, what would happen to them? Do they need to escape from the city? Where will they go? What comes next? Then, as they are locked away in fear, He appears to them. Our risen Lord arrives in their midst to give them peace and send them out.

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