The CROSSroads: Personal Lessons from Mark's Gospel by Rev. Mitch Schultz

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:34:24utc

Lesson Forty-Six: EXPOSED (Mark 14:43-51)

"He fled naked..." (vs.52)

We just learned that Jesus had to experience the agony of his passion alone. Not even his three closest friends could completely share the full depth of his pain. Jesus, we saw, would draw his courage for endurance from his Abba Father.

Left alone in his agony, it would take his arrest for him to be completely abandoned. His disciples slept when he needed them to pray but they ran when he was arrested. It was here that discipleship fell apart and in the crunch their weakness to die for Jesus was exposed.

I heard a gripping story recently of a pastor whose true loyalty to Christ only emerged when his life was in danger. I believe the setting was North Korea where freedom to live out ones faith is severely tested. Pastoring a house church this pastor and his family were one day betrayed and brought before the authorities. Taken to a remote field the authorities offered the pastor a tempting ultimatum, which if accepted would spare his life but would cost the lives of his wife and two daughters. All he would need to do was take the pistol offered him and execute the three people he loved most. If he accepted, he would be offered his freedom. A bullet in each head and he can just walk away. Just like that. As I read the story I did not expect the pastor to do it. I thought this would be one of those rich testimonies of a man who bravely faced death for the love of his Lord and family. But I was sorely disappointed. The pastor calmly took the gun and served as the executioner of his wife and two daughters. "You are a weak man" one of his captors snarled. "You do not deserve to live for such weakness." And with that the fourth bullet found it's lodging place in the pastor's head.

There were no disciples who stood with Christ when it came to the time of his arrest. Peter had vowed that he would die with Christ (14:29) but they would turn out to be hollow words and later would haunt him. Judas, we know, deliberately calculated his betrayal of Christ, but what about the disciples who meant so well and never planned on running out on him? What happened to them? They had declared their allegiance to Jesus and promised to die with him, but when the time came they ran.

One of the disciples who was there is described to us a young man "wearing nothing but a linen garment following Jesus." (vs.51) At the moment of Jesus' arrest the Roman authorities grabbed the young man but he managed to struggle away but without his clothing. "He fled naked, leaving his garments behind." Many believe that this young man was Mark the author of this gospel. He was not one of the twelve but was one of the committed followers of Jesus. However, at this moment when his commitment to Jesus would mean the most he ran. His true allegiance was exposed. He did more than leave his physical garments behind, he also allowed his loyalty to Jesus to fall to the ground. He ran not only physically exposed, but also showing to all his spiritual nakedness.

I am sure it would take Mark years to get over his betrayal. It was the same Mark who later drew severe criticism from Paul for abandoning the team at Pamphylia in Acts 15:38. Paul's reaction must have been formed some by his knowledge of what Mark did at the garden. "Paul did not think it was wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphlia and had not continued with them in the work." If this is the same young man referred to in Mark's gospel then we most conclude that Mark had a tendency of running when he felt the pressure. The threat of death would expose his true spiritual allegiance.

Peter, who would blatantly abandon Jesus in the next section of Mark's gospelwould later refer to Mark as "my son." (1 Peter 5:13) Tradition suggests that Mark drew his information to write his gospel from Peter. It was perhaps in this setting that Mark would find through his relationship with Peter the forgiveness of Christ for his own abandonment. Having been forgiven and restored by Christ, Peter knew the grace Mark needed to be restored. Perhaps it was out of gratitude for Christ's forgiveness to Peter that formed the rich content of Mark's gospel.

The call to discipleship is not a whimper, but a firm demand to follow Jesus to the end. I have commented several times that the map Mark draws of the road Jesus takes to Jerusalem begins as a broad road in Galilee but narrows as it reaches the city. As it narrows two things happen. Less people walk the road and the cross becomes more visible. Up till this point most of the disciples looked good in their commitment to Jesus and their loyalty to Jesus could not be questioned. Remember what Mark said early on; "They left their nets and followed him." (1:18) Many rejected Jesus as that road narrowed and the cross became more visible, but not the twelve. Yet in this first test of sacrificial love they all failed. They were left exposed and shamefully naked when their life was demanded of them.

Few of us like Mark or the Korean pastor will ever have to make such a dramatic choice between life and death, but nevertheless the demand is there on us daily. Look at your life this last week and what does it say of your commitment to Jesus Christ? Let the outward garment fall to the ground for a moment and what do you see? What do others see? Sold out commitment? Or desertion when the pressure is too great? Thankfully Jesus, as we will see, is in the restoring business and he does forgive and helps us when we are weak.

I understand that discipleship is a process. God is patient and merciful with us when we do fail. He restored Peter and Mark, and would have gladly restored even Judas had he asked for it. May the Lord help you to be real in your commitment to follow him. May his word shape you into a solid disciple who will not run when the pressure is greatest.

Jesus did not say, "Come to me and get it over with." He said, "If any man would come after me, let him take up his cross daily and follow me." Daily is the key word. Our commitment to Christ, however genuine and wholehearted it may be today, must be renewed tomorrow . . . and the day after that . . . and the day after that . . . until the path comes at last to the river. Louis Cassels (1922–1974)