Alone

A lone ice-fisherman back a month ago when the lake was still frozen.
If we forget what we know from the other three Gospels and just focus on what Mark tells us in his account of the passion of Jesus (15:21-41,) we are impressed by how absolutely alone Jesus is on the cross.  His disciples have run away, one young man so anxious to get away that he leaves his clothes in his pursuer's hands.  At the cross Mark describes only the leaders and  their crowd who make cruel fun of Jesus.  No good thief, no mention of his mother or any other disciple.  Even a group of women followers are described as "watching from a distance."  Finally Jesus feels cut off even from God and shouts, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me!"
Jesus embraces all the loneliness and abandonment that we have felt in our lives and redeems it.