And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body. And they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked. – Mark 14:51-52 (ESV)
This verse brings back memories. During some of my summers in college and while I was on staff with a campus ministry, we would go to Myrtle Beach for a summer-long program called Leadership Training. The summer between my freshman and sophomore year, I worked at a Kroger’s grocery store where I happened to meet a local youth pastor. This guy was a bit squirrelly; he came across in a very interesting sort of way. At any rate, he shared this verse with me and some of my friends and gave a brief proof of how this had to be the author, Mark. The argument went something like this: (1) Mark was ashamed of his nakedness and his fear, so he didn’t want his name put in the gospel story, but (2) it is not found in any other gospel because it is an important feature is to connect the author as giving eyewitness testimony. Therefore, according to this gentleman, we have Mark streaking in the Bible – he didn’t want to spell it out, but yet thought it was important to give the reader enough clues to let them know that he was indeed there.
Even if this does happen to be Mark (which is still conjecture), the greater point is this: Jesus was abandoned by his closest followers. While v. 50 tells us everyone left, vv. 51-52 show that they were willing to go without clothes rather than suffer with Jesus. What are we willing to do to avoid suffering? Oh how costly it is to follow Jesus.
