Holy Week: Another garden, another person exposed and afraid

By Dean Collins

Sometimes in a sermon from Genesis or at a marriage seminar, a pastor, teacher, or therapist quotes from the creation story where Adam and Eve were “naked and unashamed.” Usually, the speaker says this is how God intended things to be in their perfect state. God the Creator brought a wonderful world into existence and gave it to Adam and Eve where they might have every need met and experience intimacy with God and with each other. No shame in appearance and no shame based on any mistakes or flaws in God’s system or in man himself.

But early on, Adam and Eve made the tragic mistake of choosing to ignore God’s instructions. Tempted by the enemy and without consulting God, Eve chose to take the bait of the enemy and the bite of the forbidden fruit. Adam was a full participant. Suddenly fear and shame entered this perfect world. When God came for his evening walk with Adam and Eve, he did not find them at their usual meeting spot. He called out to them: “Where are you?” The response from behind the bushes was that they heard God walking in the garden but had hidden because they were naked. Yesterday’s walk they’d felt no shame, but today was a different thing entirely.

Exposed and ashamed

Sin brings cascading problems and emotions, and left unresolved results in death. Even our friends who don’t believe in God certainly know and have experienced the impact of shame and seen the destruction that can enter one’s life through poor moral choices and selfish behaviors. One need only read or listen to any day’s news to find many stories of someone’s mistakes being shared with the world. Shame usually follows exposure.

Naked and afraid

The Gospel of Mark gives us one unique story that none of the other Gospel writers tell us. Apparently, when Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane and his disciples fled, there was one young man, along with Peter, who followed the soldiers takingJesus. No one knows the identity of this young man. There are a few theories. Maybe it was Mark himself who would have been a young man and not one of the 12. If you accept that Mark’s mother may have owned the house where Jesus ate his last supper with the disciples, you can imagine a young tagalong seeing what happened next.

The Gospel of Mark gives rise to this speculation with this curious detail. “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.” 

Rather than Mark, maybe this young man was the owner or caretaker of the garden. Some think he was from one of the many families likely camped out nearby or even in the garden because of the Passover. We don’t know his identity. All we know is in Mark’s brief mention. How would you like to be remembered as the man who ran away naked?

Following until challenged

Some of us might like to be remembered as young. Maybe all of us would like to be remembered as one who followed Jesus, especially in a very difficult moment. He had just been surrounded and captured by a large angry and armed group. Yet this young man followed. It doesn't sound like he marched into the middle of it all but more likely attempted to lag behind or move along with the crowd. But we probably would rather not be remembered as the one who tagged along until someone challenged us or tried to associate us with Jesus and in our panic we pulled away and ran naked into the night.

We don’t know how this story resolves. If the young man was actually the Gospel writer Mark, then we can see how hearing all of the stories of Jesus from Peter and from his own mother shaped him to write his account and later become a missionary. But we can’t be sure if this was Mark. It might be that this young man hid for a few hours or days, especially as everyone near the scene would have known about the abuse and the crucifixion of Jesus. Maybe the young man was there at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles. I am sure he upgraded his wardrobe to avoid any future equipment malfunction.

Adorned at last

As I think about this passage and read ahead to the man dressed in white at the resurrection, I do ponder the imagery. Jesus took the suffering of the cross because he was well aware of our nakedness. Not our physical nakedness but rather the full exposure of our sin. We come to him with imperfect and flawed lives. We come with our shame and exposure and Jesus meets us there, washes away our sins, and gives us a new garment of praise. He transforms us and clothes us in his righteousness. The shame of the nakedness of the garden is taken away completely by the gift of Jesus on the cross.

Maybe as we approach these final hours of Holy Week and we walk with Jesus to the cross, we will remember that we can come as we are without fear of rejection. As we consider the love and mercy of Jesus, may our courage grow so that when and if someone catches us by the arm, we can face the person in full confidence instead of fleeing in fear. We have much to share about what Jesus has done for us—and what he can do for them. We no longer need run in fear. Because of the cross, we are fully adorned and beautiful in God’s eyes.

Your time with God’s Word
‭‭Mark‬ ‭14:50-52; ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭2:25; ‬ ‭3:9-10 ‭ESV

Photo by Quentin Lagache at Unsplash

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