“I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me.” (Isaiah 63:3-5). “Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God; For, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him. And he hath risen again from the dead, that he might bring all men unto him, on conditions of repentance. And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth!” (D&C 18:10-13). Alfred Worden holds the record for the most isolated human in all of history. As part of the Apollo 15 mission, Worden remained in orbit as his fellow astronauts landed on the moon. At one point on his mission, Worden was 2,235 miles from any other human being. With all due respect to Alfred Worden, the level of isolation that he experienced was nothing to the complete and total solitude that our Savior Jesus Christ experienced as He suffered for the sins of all of God’s children. Jesus Christ plunged so deep into the abyss that the Earth and all who lived thereon, and the sun around which it orbited, and the galaxy of which the sun was a part, and the universe containing that galaxy weren’t even the faintest glimmer as Christ was swallowed up in an infinity of solitude and misery and despair. Why would the Son of God choose to suffer such utter and absolute loneliness? Why would He leave behind all of His friends and His enemies and even allow Himself to be cut off from His Father? Just as Jesus had to die in order to bring about the Resurrection, so too He had to go to the extreme edge of isolation in order to create the possibility for the opposite of such complete loneliness. Jesus Christ was not interested in saving a few of His brothers and sisters. He suffered the pains of all that He might bring all back to Him. He was the most alone that any Being could ever be, so that He could then be surrounded by more friends and brothers and sisters than anyone could possibly hope for. He suffered our sicknesses so he could have the power to heal us. He suffered death so He could have the power to resurrect all of God’s children. And He suffered unimaginable loneliness so that He could bring about the conditions for an infinite and eternal family to experience unimaginable joy in the connectedness and togetherness and companionship of each other for all eternity. I am so grateful that Jesus Christ sp valued having all of us together with Him that He was willing to suffer completely alone to make our eternal family possible. I hope that we also are willing to endure whatever degree of loneliness is required of us in order to qualify for the constant and eternal companionship of our beloved Savior Jesus Christ.
