A Man in the Shadows
(Now, we return to your regularly scheduled blog, finishing up a series on Mark that I left hanging a couple of weeks ago...)
Read Mark 14:12-52.
This passage is so rich, especially reading it the morning after I return from the Holy Land. We stood in these places. Gethsemane, the Kidron Valley...we didn't go to the Upper Room due to time and schedule, but the current "site" is just a big, open room with little to no connection to the actual location anyway. But we stood by the rock where Jesus prayed...where his disciples slept...where he was arrested and led away.
There is a hidden figure in this passage, one we don't see clearly until the very end of today's reading. He's not mentioned until verse 51, but it seems he was there all along. He has intimate knowledge of conversations, prayers and actions that others might not have known. Sometimes I wonder how Mark knew what Jesus prayed. Peter, his main source, fell asleep during the prayer time after all (does that make you feel better or worse for those times you have fallen asleep while praying?). Yet, at least a few of the words Jesus prayed are reported. How? How do we get to overhear Jesus' intimate time with the heavenly Father?
For that matter, this whole passage (until the end) has a small, intimate feel to it. The crowds are gone, the sermons are finished and the miracles are nowhere to be found. Instead, we see Jesus at table with his closest friends—for sure, the Twelve (soon the Eleven when Judas leaves), and perhaps some others. There are probably some people who are serving the meal, and some others in the shadows. They go unnamed and unnoticed, as faithful servants often do. Was this hidden figure among them?
We listen in on a conversation that takes place between Jesus and Peter, a conversation about betrayal. If our "best guesses" are right about the seating arrangement that night, Peter would have been across the room from Peter, but it's hard to imagine such a conversation happening in front of everyone. Did Jesus move near his best friend to have this talk? And if so, was this man in the shadows, nearby?
Then there was the prayer time...perhaps he was nearby among the olive tree saplings or in a corner of the grotto. And then came the arrest...where he must have watched in horror as Judas used another intimate sign—a kiss—to indicate which one was his rabbi. (Jesus hadn't hidden himself away. Did the chief priests really not know which one he was? Or did they not even come to Gethsemane at all? Mark says the crowd was "sent" by them. Did they take the cowardly way out and stay back in town? If so, was Judas' kiss a sign for the soldiers?) Judas betrays Jesus with an intimate sign of friendship, of love, of connection. With a kiss, he ends his discipleship. With a kiss, he turns his back on everything he has believed in the last three years. And this young man, hidden in the shadows, must have seen it. It's enough to make him fall back and try to get out of there as fast as he can. When someone (a guard?) tries to grab him, he leaves his clothing behind and runs through the shadows naked.
There are those who speculate that this young man was Mark, Peter's friend and apprentice, and that he was close by Peter (and therefore Jesus) even in these most desperate hours. The anonymity shown in verses 51-52 may be similar to John referring to himself as "the disciple Jesus loved." We will likely never know, but here's the point: this man hid in the shadows, not yet fully ready to make a commitment to Jesus and come into the light. And when it got difficult, he fled (as he will do once again when he's with Paul—see Acts 15:35-41). He knows what is happening in the garden is wrong, but he is afraid for his own life, his own protection, so he flees. He remains the man in the shadows, the hidden figure in the Gospel.
To be fair, this man who flees is only the first one to run. The other disciples will run as well. They will all abandon Jesus before this night is over.
Which brings us to you and me: are we in the shadows, not quite in the light, or are we willing to follow Jesus wherever he goes, even if it's to the cross? Will we fulfill our discipleship, or leave it sitting in the shadows?
Read Mark 14:12-52.
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| Oldest Olive Tree in Gethsemane - 2,000+ years old - This tree was here when Jesus was here! |
This passage is so rich, especially reading it the morning after I return from the Holy Land. We stood in these places. Gethsemane, the Kidron Valley...we didn't go to the Upper Room due to time and schedule, but the current "site" is just a big, open room with little to no connection to the actual location anyway. But we stood by the rock where Jesus prayed...where his disciples slept...where he was arrested and led away.
There is a hidden figure in this passage, one we don't see clearly until the very end of today's reading. He's not mentioned until verse 51, but it seems he was there all along. He has intimate knowledge of conversations, prayers and actions that others might not have known. Sometimes I wonder how Mark knew what Jesus prayed. Peter, his main source, fell asleep during the prayer time after all (does that make you feel better or worse for those times you have fallen asleep while praying?). Yet, at least a few of the words Jesus prayed are reported. How? How do we get to overhear Jesus' intimate time with the heavenly Father?
For that matter, this whole passage (until the end) has a small, intimate feel to it. The crowds are gone, the sermons are finished and the miracles are nowhere to be found. Instead, we see Jesus at table with his closest friends—for sure, the Twelve (soon the Eleven when Judas leaves), and perhaps some others. There are probably some people who are serving the meal, and some others in the shadows. They go unnamed and unnoticed, as faithful servants often do. Was this hidden figure among them?
We listen in on a conversation that takes place between Jesus and Peter, a conversation about betrayal. If our "best guesses" are right about the seating arrangement that night, Peter would have been across the room from Peter, but it's hard to imagine such a conversation happening in front of everyone. Did Jesus move near his best friend to have this talk? And if so, was this man in the shadows, nearby?
Then there was the prayer time...perhaps he was nearby among the olive tree saplings or in a corner of the grotto. And then came the arrest...where he must have watched in horror as Judas used another intimate sign—a kiss—to indicate which one was his rabbi. (Jesus hadn't hidden himself away. Did the chief priests really not know which one he was? Or did they not even come to Gethsemane at all? Mark says the crowd was "sent" by them. Did they take the cowardly way out and stay back in town? If so, was Judas' kiss a sign for the soldiers?) Judas betrays Jesus with an intimate sign of friendship, of love, of connection. With a kiss, he ends his discipleship. With a kiss, he turns his back on everything he has believed in the last three years. And this young man, hidden in the shadows, must have seen it. It's enough to make him fall back and try to get out of there as fast as he can. When someone (a guard?) tries to grab him, he leaves his clothing behind and runs through the shadows naked.
There are those who speculate that this young man was Mark, Peter's friend and apprentice, and that he was close by Peter (and therefore Jesus) even in these most desperate hours. The anonymity shown in verses 51-52 may be similar to John referring to himself as "the disciple Jesus loved." We will likely never know, but here's the point: this man hid in the shadows, not yet fully ready to make a commitment to Jesus and come into the light. And when it got difficult, he fled (as he will do once again when he's with Paul—see Acts 15:35-41). He knows what is happening in the garden is wrong, but he is afraid for his own life, his own protection, so he flees. He remains the man in the shadows, the hidden figure in the Gospel.
To be fair, this man who flees is only the first one to run. The other disciples will run as well. They will all abandon Jesus before this night is over.
Which brings us to you and me: are we in the shadows, not quite in the light, or are we willing to follow Jesus wherever he goes, even if it's to the cross? Will we fulfill our discipleship, or leave it sitting in the shadows?
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