"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)

"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)

The Gospel of Mark is the only one to include this interesting tidbit regarding the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. And just who is this mysterious naked man? Most biblical scholars agree that it is probably the young John Mark: the boy whose family home was used that night for the Last Supper and who eventually grew up and wrote this Gospel!

It is believed that after that evening meal, when Christ and His disciples had left for Gethsemane, young John Mark fell asleep – but was awakened when Judas and the soldiers came there to arrest Jesus. Finding the Lord already gone, they started to search for Him. John Mark, who by estimation must have been about fifteen years of age, hurriedly ran from the house wrapped only in a sheet in order to warn Jesus and the disciples. Then, during the chaos of the arrest, he, too, was grabbed, but wriggled out of his sheet and ran away naked.

Because there is no legitimate explanation as to why this little episode should be included in the account of our Lord's Passion, most believe it was simply Mark's way of relating the fact that, "I was there."

Fr. John