Free Grace Women

As we celebrate Easter this weekend, many of us will be rereading the gospel accounts of the Lord’s arrest, death, and resurrection. Regardless of the centuries that have passed since these accounts were written, I am always amazed by their beauty. They never grow dim, nor lose their wonder. It is the story that is forever glorious, ever true, and bright. With each passing year, these words refresh us with the promise of life as we await His second return. 

Many of us have the stories memorized, like our multiplication tables or the alphabet. With that comes a certain comfort that follows routine, like the familiarity of a well-loved quilt when you are cold. They bring peace and hope when all seems unfamiliar and scary. Easter, in many ways, is like muscle memory, reminding us of the promises we didn’t realize had been forgotten in the haze of these dark days. 

I know the ending, and yet I shatter with shame when Peter denies the Lord…

I know the ending, and yet my heart races with John as he sprints to the tomb…

I know the ending, and yet I still get goosebumps when I hear the words of the angel…

“He is not here”

Luke 24:6

At the same time, and despite all the Easters in my life, I am still learning from these accounts. It is one of the great mysteries of the living word of God: that with each year, these words still have things to teach us. I was reminded of this recently in a conversation about the garden of Gethsemane. 

This is a well-known account in the Easter narratives, where the Lord is arrested. Climactic in many ways, this event includes political intrigue, corruption, and cowardly betrayal. Peter cuts the ear off of a man (Luke 22:50), Judas betrays the Lord with a kiss (Matthew 26:49), and all the soldiers fall down like dominoes, just by the power of the Lord’s words (John 18:4-6). It is in this scene, fraught with drama and despair, that Mark provides us with another vantage point. Unique to his book, this gospel writer tells us about another person in the garden that night. 

Found in the center of all that chaos, in two short verses, Mark draws his reader to cast our gaze on the edges of the scene. In a shadowy corner, we are told of an unlikely person, naked and afraid.   

Now a certain young man followed Him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And the young men laid hold of him, and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked.

Mark 14:51-52

I don’t know about you, but I find these verses strange. Blink, and you’d miss them. 

Who was this young man? Scholars would place his age around 15 years old, more boy really than man. Why did Mark include this in his gospel when the other three gospel writers didn’t? What is the significance? And why was he NAKED?! I mean seriously…who goes around with just a sheet on? Where is his mother?

I have questions! 

To understand this account, there are some key contextual elements to the book of Mark that are helpful. 

First, the Gospel of Mark was written for believers. More specifically, it was written to suffering believers. Mark wants his readers to understand that the persecution they are facing by following the Lord is worth the cost (8:34-38). This isn’t so they can “earn” eternal life by suffering. We are saved by believing in Jesus for eternal life (John 3:16, 5:24, Ephesians 2:8-9), not by suffering. For Mark, it is to show his readers that the suffering they face will have eternal value. He does this first and foremost by using Christ as our example.

 That said, Mark doesn’t sugar coat things. While it is the shortest of the gospels, it is also the most brutal. It depicts the Lord’s spiritual, national, and physical suffering more explicitly than the other gospels. For Mark, the Easter accounts are for believers. It is for us to look upon the Lord as the ultimate example of one who suffered even unto death, and then was exalted.

Mark pulls back the veil and shows all the nitty gritty. This is especially true for his treatment of the disciples. 

There are three boat accounts in Mark. In all three, the disciples are just plain stupid. They’re fearful on the first boat (4:35-41), hard-hearted on the second (6:45-52 note vs 52), and spiritually blind on the third (8 13-21 note vs 18). Three times the Lord is trying to teach them, and they never seem to learn. They are often shown disbelieving, rejecting the Lord’s teachings, especially about the cross (8:31-33). As the spokesman for the 12, Peter basically lives with his foot in his mouth. They are prideful, arrogant, and self-seeking. While these men were saved, Mark holds nothing back when it comes to showing the disciples’ immaturities and spiritual shortcomings. 

In fact, we need not go any further than the verse right before our passage to see Mark showcase their stupidity once again. After all that they had seen and heard, and after three years of walking with the Savior, we are told of one of the greatest failures, if not THE greatest failure, of the disciples. Talking about the eleven, during the Lord’s arrest, Mark says: 

   Then they all forsook Him and fled.

                                                      Mark 14:50.

I think it could be easy at this point to think Mark’s a little bit of a tattle tale – I mean, he basically wrote a whole book airing everyone else’s dirty laundry! We might even walk away thinking Mark is arrogant, writing about all their failures. He must have thought pretty highly of himself to expose the failures of other men. 

I think that’s exactly why Mark added the account of the boy. For who else would know about the boy, or care to add it, if not the boy himself? 

Many scholars agree that the naked teenager was Mark. The Lord’s supper was most likely held at his parent’s home. Reading between the lines, Mark woke up and went looking for the Lord in the garden. Perhaps he even saw the soldiers coming, and was going to warn the Lord. Since it was the middle of the night, he just wrapped himself in his sheet. It was a short walk, and he had no idea what was going to happen. After 14 chapters of exposing the disciples, at the pinnacle of their failures, Mark interjects himself into the narrative so no one would be confused. 

Mark failed too. 

Talk about airing some dirty laundry.

Notice that Mark even uses the same word he used in vs 50 in describing the disciples to describe himself. They all “fled.” 

It could be easy to justify it. Mark was basically a boy. There was a whole army of soldiers. The disciples had left. Who could blame him? I think that’s partly why none of the other gospel writers added it. But in true Mark fashion, he doesn’t sugar coat it. 

He bares it all. 

It is worthy to note, this wasn’t the only time Mark failed. Later, we are told in the book of Acts that Mark once left Paul on the mission field (Acts 15:36-38). In short, Mark is no stranger to Christian failure, especially when faced with suffering. He writes of something he intimately knows about and experienced on more than one occasion. 

I wonder how Mark must have felt about this moment later in his life. 

I wonder how he felt while the Lord was in the tomb.

I wonder how he felt knowing that after he fled, the Lord allowed the same soldiers who tried to arrest Mark, to arrest Him. 

I imagine that is why Mark added these two small verses. For in that dark corner of the garden that night, the glory of our Savior shone that much brighter. He still loved and died for that naked teenager. 

The Conclusion: 

Like the disciples, Mark, and his readers, we too live in dark times. It is easy to be overcome with fear, like these men. But Easter reminds us that the Lord is faithful, even when we are faithless.

Easter is not just for the unbeliever to hear about how to be saved. 

Easter is also for you.

It’s for me….

It’s for those believers who have failed to be reminded of His goodness and to draw near again in fellowship.

It’s for the suffering believer: to look to Christ as our example, to learn something new and be encouraged. He knows our suffering. 

So let us gaze upon our Savior, and be reminded. 

Be reminded that HE was naked and afraid. 

Be reminded that HE was persecuted, hated, and betrayed. 

Be reminded that having gone through that suffering, He was exalted, and He will reign forever over the eternal Kingdom. Not only that, but He has promised that those believers who suffer for Him now, won’t just be in that Kingdom, they will also reign with Him (2 Timothy 2:12).

Happy Easter!