Page 78 - laten-08-06-2020

Young Man

Who Ran Naked

Mark 14: 51-52
Introduction

he account of a young man fleeing naked when the soldiers
Tseized him, is an unusual passage in the passion narratives
that is seldom read or reflected upon. It’s a trivial detail on a
solemn story! It is noteworthy that only Mark records this
mysterious account. Some commentators believe that he was
Mark himself! Perhaps he recorded this event to say that he too
was present at that moment.

Immediately after the prayer in Gethsemane where Jesus
communicated with the Father and reinstated his willingness
to fulfil the purpose for which he was sent, Jesus was betrayed
by Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples and was arrested. Jesus
saying, ‘the hour has come…rise, let us be going; see, my
betrayer is at hand’ (14: 41-42) is the clear indication that Jesus
was fully aware of the events that would follow. Judas came with
six hundred imperial soldiers who had swords and clubs, from
the chief priests, the scribes and the elders. They laid their hands
on Jesus and seized him. As Jesus was led to the high priest, a
young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about
his body. When the Roman soldiers seized him, he left the linen
cloth and ran away naked (Mark 14: 51-52). The identity of
the man is certainly unknown! Some have conjectured he was
the owner of the garden of Gethsemane; others Lazarus; others
Joses, the brother of the Lord; others, a youth of the family
where Jesus had eaten the Passover. It is far more probable that
it was St Mark himself, the son of Mary, the friend of Peter. The
minuteness of the details given points to him alone for only
one well acquainted with the scene from personal knowledge,
probably as an eyewitness, could record this seemingly trivial
incident.

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Lenten Meditations Re - Imaging People