And he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked.
All Commentaries on Mark 14:52 Go To Mark 14
Bede
AD 735
After that our Lord had prayed three times, and had obtained by His prayers that the fear of the Apostles should be amended by future repentance, He, being tranquil as to His Passion, goes to His persecutors, concerning the coming of whom the Evangelist says, “And immediately, while he yet spake, cometh Judas Iscariot, on of the twelve.”.
But Judas had still something of the shame of a disciple, for he did not openly betray Him to His persecutors, but by the token of a kiss.
With envy and with a wicked confidence, he calls Him master, and gives Him a kiss, in betraying Him. Butthe Lord receives the kiss of the traitor, not to teach us to deceive, but lest he should seem to avoid betrayal, and at the same time to fulfil that Psalm, “Among them that are enemies unto peace, I labour for peace.” It goes on: “And they laid hands on Him, and took Him.”.
Peter did this, as John declares, with the same ardent mind with which he did all things; for he knew how Phineas had by punishing sacrilegious persons received the reward of righteousness and of perpetual priesthood.
As if He had said, it is foolish to seek with swords and staves Him, who offers Himself to you of His own accord, and to search, as for one who hides Himself, by night and by means of a traitor, for Him who taught daily in the temple. It goes on: “And they all forsook Him and fled.”.
In this is fulfilled the word, which the Lord had spoken, that all His disciples should be offended in Him that samenight.There follows: “And there followed Him acertain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body,” that is, hehad no other clothing but this linen cloth. It goes on: “And they laid hold on him, and he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked.” That is, he fled from them, whose presence and whose deeds he abhorred, not from the Lord, for Whom his love remained fixed in his mind, when absent from Him in body.
