Alone. Jesus is left all alone. Jesus who was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordon River is left alone in Gethsemane. Jesus who had heard his Father declare, "This is my Son, whom I love," is alone. Alone and abandoned in Gethsemane. Jesus, who just hours before had instituted the Lord’s Supper and said, "This is my body and blood given for you," is now alone. Jesus, who had sung a hymn with his disciples before going to the garden, now hears no disciples singing. He only hears them fleeing. Jesus, who had encouraged his sleepy disciples saying, "Rise, let us go," is now alone. He is alone. Jesus is deserted. His followers have fled. Jesus is abandoned and the garden, once full of disciples, is now emptied of disciples.
People of God, how did it get this way? How is it that Jesus is alone except for his enemies who are dragging him off to a kangaroo court for a rigged trial? I want to say that it is because of his enemies—the chief priests, the teachers of the law, the Pharisees and Sadducees, the abusive Romans—they did it! But, is that really accurate? What happened to all his disciples—those standing near him, those following him? How is it that Jesus comes to be all alone abandoned in the garden?
Well, unfortunately for us and our egos, Mark tells us how it happens. Note verse 43 of Mark Chapter 14. Mark says that it was one of the twelve. The first key character we meet in Jesus’ abandonment is an insider. One who knew him: Judas. Normally, we refer to Judas as "Judas Iscariot" so as not to confuse him with the other Judas who was part of the band of disciples. But that is not how Judas is identified here. Mark labels him as one of the twelve.
In fact, every time except once that the phrase one of the twelve is used, it is in reference to Judas. Why are we told that Judas is one of the twelve? By the 14th chapter of Mark, this is the third time that we have been told that he is one of the twelve. We, the readers of this Gospel, already know that he is one of the twelve disciples. Why does Mark bother to tell us this again? It is redundant, not necessary to the narrative. We are told because Judas is one of the twelve. Judas is one of us—an insider, a member, a card—carrying, Bible—believing brother and hand—picked disciple of Jesus Christ! Who abandoned Jesus? It all started with one of us.
You know I don’t like hearing that. I know that in my church there is always someone trying to blame everyone in the church for one bad thing or one poor example of one member who has had a bad day. But just because one person out of many betrays her faith, or in Judas’ case betrays his Lord, that doesn’t mean that all of us are guilty of abandoning Jesus. Well, again, unfortunately for us and our egos, it was not just one. It was more.
If it was just one of us, I suppose we could write that off as one rotten egg. But it is not just one rotten egg. Mark tells us of another. In verse 47 Mark tells us about one of those standing near. Now if we are uncomfortable being told that Judas, the infamous betrayer, is one of us, we are likely to feel a little better about this guy standing near to Jesus. We know from the other Gospels that this is Peter—Peter who had boasted that he would never leave or forsake Jesus. Yes, it’s true that the previous verses have shown us Peter as a rather sleepy disciple who can’t even stay awake to pray. But, here in this passage, Peter seems to rally. Peter is a stand up guy. Peter is trying to make up for falling asleep. He is trying to be faithful to his word. He has said, "Even if everyone else abandons you, I will not." So he now does the only thing he can think of in the heat of battle. He draws his short sword, and he lashes out at the servant of the chief priest, smacking him in the ear and cutting the ear off. Mark doesn’t use the typical word for striking an opponent with a sword, instead he uses a word that conveys the idea of smacking, hitting, or slugging an opponent. It is as if he wants us to know that Peter, the fisherman, in the midst of his confusion and uncertainty, simply grabs his sword and swings it wildly.
Peter is somewhat admirable in this passage. Peter is doing the only thing that we, I mean Peter, knows to do in a time of confusion and fear. He lashes out; he wants to fix it; he wants to make it better. He is a man’s man. He is a stand up guy who will not go down without a fight. He is defending his Lord.
We might expect that Jesus will give Peter a well deserved pat on the back at this point. Perhaps he will thank him for his efforts. But no! Jesus simply starts speaking to his captors explaining that he is not leading a rebellion, that he taught every day in the temple courts, that they could have just arrested him there. In fact, we know from the other Gospels that Jesus heals the servant’s ear and rebukes Peter for "living by the sword." Why rebuke Peter? He is just doing what any of us would hope that we would do in the same situation.
This is one of the vexing problems of our faith. We don’t want to betray Jesus like Judas; we want to do something to defend Jesus, promote Jesus, and enable Jesus to live in all people’s hearts and minds. But, Jesus doesn’t seem to appreciate our efforts. For example, a man I know came to faith through the witness and testimony of his wife who brought him to a church which cared for him and his premature newborn child. The man was so touched that he became a believer and faithful member of Christ’s church. But, then his wife, who brought him to the faith, got deathly sick. Why? Why is faithfulness seemingly ignored or even punished? Where does this leave us? Perhaps it leaves us with Peter.
Peter is left bewildered and confused, and perhaps a bit frightened. Peter wants to fix it, and isn’t that what we all want to do? Last year I spent a lot of pastoral time visiting with this man whose young wife was dying. The man’s premature newborn was now a healthy 8 year old boy growing in his young faith. But the boy would look at the dad and ask, "When is mom going to get better?" The doctors said she wasn’t going to get better. The man could hardly bear to tell his son that he would soon be motherless. In the last week and half of his wife’s life, he simply kept saying, "I just want something that I can fix." But he couldn’t fix this. His wife died. Why? I don’t know! And as I pastor I hate not knowing what God is up to. I too want something I can fix—some word to make it better. But oftentimes, like Peter, there is seemingly nothing to do, nothing to say, nothing to fix. This leaves us hurting, fearful, uncertain and confused. It leaves us with Peter and the other disciples in the garden.
The scene in the garden is just about complete now. The betrayal, committed by one of the twelve—one of us—has occurred. The only physical attempt to stand up and defend Jesus has been brushed aside by Jesus himself. The disciples stand fully exposed in their uncertainty, fear and confusion. But then Jesus says something profound. He speaks words that perhaps have the potential to change everything. He says, "The Scriptures must be fulfilled." In other words, Jesus says, "This is all part of the master plan."
So, what comes next? Do the disciples rally? Do they say, "Oh, well, Scripture must be fulfilled…I guess it is all okay." No, the very next line in our text has these chilling words, "Then everyone deserted him and fled."
How does Jesus end up abandoned? It is not just one of the twelve. It is not just the disciple standing near him. It is everyone! All of them turn tail and run. People of God, Jesus is standing alone in the Garden of Gethsemane—betrayed, abandoned, alone—and it is all an inside job. It’s an inside job. Where does that leave us today? Where does it leave any of us disciples today? Where does it leave the man whose wife died? Well, the good news is that we have lots of company in our confusion, uncertainty and tendency to run away from our Lord. The bad news, of course, is that running away leaves us bare, alone, separated from our only Savior.
This brings us to the young man of verses 51 and 52: The young man who fled naked, leaving his garment behind. These are two very odd verses in scripture. They are anti—climatic verses. Mark has just told us that everyone deserted Jesus and fled, but then Mark brings us back into the story to tell us about this one young man who we do not know. Theories abound as to who he may be. But we don’t really know. All we know is that he "was following Jesus." He is apparently not one of the twelve, and yet there he is in the garden with Jesus. When everyone flees he does too. They (that is, the crowd sent from the chief priests to arrest Jesus), grab the man’s garment, but he runs away leaving his clothes behind and leaving himself naked. Naked.
Now, why in the world are these two verses in the Bible? Quite honestly we don’t know what to do with these verses. In fact, when I first preached on this text in my home church, everyone tried to edit these verses out of the passage. First our Worship Coordinator said, "We don’t need to read those two verses, do we?" Then the Worship planning team said, "We’re not going to use those verses are we?" How do you plan a meaningful worship service about verses that have some guy running away naked? The drama team in my church which was planning to act—out the text got very nervous, and asked, "We don’t have to portray those verses, do we?" Well yes, these are strange verses with which we often don’t know what to do.
I suggest, however, that what we need to do is to put ourselves in the Old Testament frame of mind. What does nakedness symbolize for the ancient Hebrew? How is the word used in the ancient text? Remember what happens when Adam and Eve sin and realize that they are naked? They run and hide from God. They experience deep shame. All throughout the Old Testament nakedness is associated with sin and shame. It is associated with the fact that we are stripped bare before the Lord and we are defenseless. The prophets also speak of nakedness as the punishment that comes from God for our sin. The prophet Amos declares that on the day of God’s judgment against sin, "Even the bravest warriors will flee naked."
People of God, by the time everyone flees the garden of Gethsemane, we are stripped naked before our Lord. There is nothing to cover us. We are reminded that Jesus Christ is going to his death, not because of what some outsiders do to him, not first because of the dirty rotten chief priests and false witnesses, not even because of faulty Roman justice, but because of our sin and brokenness. So by the time we leave the garden we are naked in our sin and shame. The betrayal and abandonment of Jesus is an inside job. We are all left bare. None of us are left standing.
Except for one. The ultimate insider is left standing, isn’t he!? Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, is still standing in the garden. He has not abandoned his mission; he is faithful. And what does he tell us is going on here? He says, "Scripture must be fulfilled."
I hope we can recognize what is happening here. We lay naked before God. We flee naked before God. But the Savior of the World stands before us and says, "Scripture must be fulfilled." This is the pay off of the whole text. The pay off is that Scripture must be fulfilled. Without scripture and without Christ we would be left naked and empty, without hope. But Christ stands while we flee.
What is instructive to understand here is that Jesus’ words draw attention only to the Word of God. He is not overwhelmed by the crowd with swords and clubs. He is not confused by the disciples who betray him, do the wrong thing, and flee from his presence in his hour of need. After all, Scripture needs to be fulfilled. Jesus simply focuses on the Word. Jesus does not lash out at his unfaithful disciples. He knows that our abandonment and nakedness is all part of the Gospel. He remembers the words of Zechariah 13:7. He knows that the shepherd will be struck and the sheep will all be scattered. But he also knows the rest of that Prophecy as well. Zechariah 13:9 tells us that although many will be lost, God will refine a remnant. The prophet writes, "They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’" You see, Jesus knows that his betrayal, abandonment, and death will ultimately lead to the scattered sheep being brought back to salvation. Scripture has foretold it.
Oddly enough then, when we find that Jesus’ betrayal and abandonment is an inside job, we also discover that our salvation is an inside job brought about by the ultimate insider himself, Jesus Christ. When Jesus sees those coming to arrest him with swords and clubs and when he sees his disciples fleeing in their naked shame, he says Scripture must be fulfilled. But he isn’t only talking about the sin and shame of us weak disciples; he is also speaking about the rest of the story: His story of forgiveness and grace through his death on the cross. Jesus knows where all of this brokenness is headed. It is headed to the cross, the tomb, the resurrection and the ascension to the right hand of the Father. Scripture must be fulfilled.
So yes we are insiders, and reading this text (and all of Scripture for that matter) shows us that insiders are often filled with betrayal, confusion, and fear. The text shows that insiders frequently flee. But this text ultimately points us to the only real insider who remains standing in the Word.
It is because of this fulfilled Scripture that the man whose wife died so young still believes. In fact, he often plays the drums for our worship services. His faith remains even while his confusion concerning the death of his wife also remains. I remain his pastor even in the midst of my own uncertain and imperfect responses to untimely death. Our faith remains, not because of our strength (we ultimately have very little), but because Scripture is fulfilled in Christ.
So today, my listeners and friends, once again acknowledge your nakedness. Acknowledge your confusion and uncertainty. But rather than running as the disciples in the garden did, cloth yourself with the covering of God’s Word in Christ Jesus. Running away does not cover our nakedness. Only Christ can cover us, comfort us, and assure us that Scripture is fulfilled in him. Scripture has been fulfilled in Christ. Everyone deserted him and fled, but Christ stood in the truth of Scripture being fulfilled. Today, take your stand with Christ.
Amen.
Paul DeVries
Rev. Paul DeVries, most commonly referred to as “Pastor Paul”, is the Sr. Pastor of Brookside Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is married to Diane (nee Vanden Akker) and the father of four children. He graduated from Calvin Theological Seminary in 1989 and served for 12 years as the pastor of Unity Christian Reformed Church in Prospect Park, New Jersey. As a pastor his first love and greatest joy comes in the honor of bringing God’‘s Word to his congregation on a weekly basis through his preaching. He enjoys reading, camping with his family, watching his children’‘s sporting events, and working on home improvement projects - inside and outside his home.
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