THURSDAY, MARCH 28, A STREAKER!!! (???)

 THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2024 - A STREAKER?

Its Holy Week, so I'm taking a spiritual jaunt this week.

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From Mark 14 (condensed)

 Just as he spoke, Judas, one of the Twelve, appeared. With him was a crowd armed with swords and clubs sent from the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders. <more>

Then, everyone deserted him and fled.

“A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, followed Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind.”

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Wow - a streaker?  In the Bible?  Really?

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Who was it?

I agree with Biblical Scholars that this was “John Mark.”  

John Mark (or Mark) is discussed in Acts 15

“36 And after some days, Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city.” 37 Barnabas wanted to take John, who called Mark. 38 But Paul thought it best not to take with them one who had left them in the past. 39 And there arose a sharp disagreement so that they separated. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, 40, but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. 

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I was young once!!  <grin>  

Seemingly, this young man grew up in Christianity - but he was young.  He wanted to see the arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane - so at this late hour, he sneaked out of his house and followed Jesus and the Disciples. As the Roman Soldiers and Temple Guards were arresting Jesus, they were also rounding up the disciples.  John Mark was watching in his pajamas (his linen loincloth). Scared, he tried to flee, but somebody grabbed his loincloth, and he escaped.

WOW—would you have wanted to watch Jesus's arrest enough to get out of bed and go to the Garden of Gethsemane?  

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Some years later, Paul and Barnabas recruited John Mark for their missionary journeys.  But John Mark was still young and didn’t follow through well.  Paul was upset with the young man, but Barnabas saw some good traits in him and took him with him on his separate journey.  

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Does it make any difference to you or me?  Probably not.  But it might help us understand younger people.  John Mark had a life in front of him.  He remembered that night in the garden - and went with Paul and Barnabas.  But (speculation) he got homesick and didn’t like the travel (after all, Paul got shipwrecked, bitten by snakes, thrown in prison, stoned, and harassed by both Jews and non-Jews.  I might get homesick, too!!  I think I would rather be kind of safe back in Jerusalem than on the road where death was stalking them.  

So, the Gospel of Mark was written by an old John Mark - experienced in the faith.  And, true to the story, he retells the story of the young man escaping in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Maybe as we get older, we get wiser (I’m not always sure of myself). 

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We have all gone astray, like sheep. But maybe, like John Mark, we can find our way back home again.

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LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

LOVE CAN OVERCOME OUR FEARS

Karen Anne White, ©, March 28, 2024