Palm/Passion Sunday
Mark 14:51-52
There's a lot of ground to cover in our lesson today. Thirty years or so ago this would have just been Palm Sunday and all our energy would have been directed at the short lesson that we read at the beginning of our service--Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem. But some years ago worship leaders began to notice that a lot of people weren't attending the holy week services on Thursday and Friday. Vast numbers of Christians were missing the most critical, most holy part of the whole Christian year. So Palm Sunday became Passion Sunday because true Christian understanding can't just fly from the triumphal entry into Jerusalem to the resurrection. There is no way to skate over the last supper, the garden of Gethsemane, the arrest, the trial, the crucifixion, the burial. Christianity without the cross isn't Christianity.
On the other hand it is somewhat impossible in this short sermon to direct our thinking to the entirety of our gospel lesson. So rather than some kind of scatter shot approach I would challenge us to consider a mere two verses. An odd bit of text, a detail perhaps found only buried in the gospel of Mark. In the midst of the tension and the chaos of the arrest in the garden of Gethsemane, with the soldiers physically restraining Jesus and at least one of the disciples drawing a sword to protect him, Jesus calms the situation and we read. "And they (the disciples) all forsook him and fled. 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."
Now some scholars connect this naked man to the angel in the tomb at the resurrection. I'm not personally fond of that interpretation. I prefer to go along with those scholars who suggest that this is a signature statement. A signature statement is a way for the narrator to write themselves into the story. Sort of like Alfred Hitchcock used to do as he appeared as an extra in some small scene in each of the movies he directed. Well this is Mark the writer, the narrator, watching from the shadows. Not a disciple, perhaps because he was too young--but following nonetheless. Here at this critical crucial moment Mark appears--personally invested, not just an observer. Suddenly for Mark after having written about Jesus preaching and teaching and healing, after having shown the disciples being dumbfounded and slow to understand it is not enough to stand on the sidelines, he has to put himself into the action. A few years ago there was a commercial where a guy is watching a football game and he gets so involved he's up on his feet jumping around his living room and suddenly there's a football falling right at him. He's imagined so hard that there he is in the middle of the action with the whole defensive line bearing down on him. That's what this moment is for Mark. This precise moment, where it's all on the line--stay with Jesus or run away to save your own skin--is so real for Mark that he is there.
A friend of mine once did a little unofficial survey of dreams with a group of pastors. It seems pastors dream a lot about giving sermons. For many there were dreams about loosing their manuscripts, notes or train of thought so that they were standing in front of the congregation with nothing to say. But for a significant number the nightmares centered on clothes--not having the right clothes, or not being able to find clothes or indeed standing in front of the congregation naked--a nightmare for the congregation as well I am sure. It is as much as to say if we could find the right words we would be cloaked, instead we are exposed, vulnerable, defenseless. I dare say this is not a nightmare unique to preachers. Surely we all in our own ways have fears of having all that we know in our intellect, all our competency, our charm, our preparation found wanting. We fear having our whole selves laid bare and being exposed for who and what we really are. Oh we may manage to fool a lot of people but in our dreams the deep dark questions of our own worth begin to sneak out.
Indeed I think that this scene is Mark's worst nightmare. Here he is in the garden with Jesus. Here he is at a moment of decision. Will he stand with Jesus through all that is to come, the fear, the torture, the suffering, the abuse the scorn; will he stay with Jesus and remain faithful or will he flee like the other disciples. In this his signature scene we see the answer. A Roman guard holds a linen cloth and a naked man is silently consumed by the darkness.
I wonder if this isn't also our signature scene. Can't we imagine ourselves in a moment of confusion and tension and fear when the moment calls for us to step up, have courage and take a stand. I wonder if, in this our signature scene, we wouldn't also be found running, trying to skirt, hide from, fly over, circumvent the tough parts of Christianity. Let's just go from Palm Sunday to Easter and forget that the only way to get to Easter is through the cross, through the giving of our selves to others and the commitment to a faithful life.
The thing is the disciples run and Mark escapes, Judas betrays and Peter denies and if were nakedly honest we see ourselves doing the same thing. But Jesus, Jesus humbls himself and is obedient even to the point of death. It is for sinners such as Judas and Peter and Mark and us that Jesus empties himself and faces death--even death on a cross.
Amen