13th Day of Lent
Dear friends in Christ. Tonight we heard of the events surrounding our Lord’s arrest in Gethsemane. Even though the disciples, led by Peter, assured Him that they would not deny our Lord; even though they assured Jesus that they would not stumble in their faith in Him, we still read in our text: Then they all forsook Him and fled. Our reading is really nothing more than Jesus being all the more forsaken and abandoned. Jesus is the all-knowing God. He knows beforehand and announces to the disciples that they will leave Him. Then leaving eight disciples at a certain place, Jesus takes with Him the three disciples closest to Him—Peter, James and John; the very ones who had seen Him perform His greatest miracles and had seen Him at His transfiguration in His greatest divine glory. Then Jesus left them behind at a certain point, continuing on a bit further to pray. Then, alone—and this seemingly by choice—Jesus prays to His heavenly Father. He is alone with God in prayer. So great is His torment, so great is the agony that He is already enduring, shown by His sweat that is like great drops of blood, that an angel comes from heaven to strengthen Him. After prayer, Jesus goes to find Himself truly alone already as the disciples had fallen asleep—not once but several times. Not only had His disciples forsaken Jesus at His time of greatest anguish and need for their prayers and support, but then Judas, one of the 12, comes and betrays Jesus with a kiss. How could Jesus be more forsaken, deserted, alone? –But then it gets worse—Jesus gets more alone and deserted when all of His disciples run away: Then they all forsook Him and fled. But then it actually does get worse; then Jesus gets actually “more deserted/ forsaken” when some unnamed young man runs away naked. Now a certain young man was following Him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And they [probably the temple guards] seized him and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked. The image here is of Jesus utterly forsaken and alone—there is no one; not even a straggler with Him favorable to Him. Jesus is completely surrounded by His enemies.
That complete and utter forsakenness is not something that we can even imagine. After all, as Christians we know that even if all our friends and all those nearest and dearest to us forsake us, even if we are in the worst possible situation/ condition, even if we are in the greatest danger of body, we are certain of our Lord’s gracious presence; we are certain of the protection and presence of our Lord’s holy angels. But here in Gethsemane, Jesus is completely alone; these events of the disciples running away, of the young man running away naked, are a clear picture of the complete and utter abandonment Jesus was enduring. It was Jesus and Jesus alone.
Not only was He forsaken by His disciples but even now by His heavenly Father. Now Jesus was beginning to be marked as the world’s sinner; now the sins of the world were certainly being placed and charged to Him. This complete abandonment found its climax on the cross as there, as the world’s sinner, Jesus was enduring all of God’s wrath and punishment; there He was suffering the very pangs and terrors of hell, that is, being completely rejected and forsaken by God, so much so that He cried out on the cross: My God! My God! Why have You forsaken Me? That began here in Gethsemane and in bright, bold colors the physical and spiritual reality is pictured this way: Now a certain young man was following Him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And they seized him and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked.
Jesus being completely and utterly forsaken, though, is the way it had to be. This is not to say that God made the disciples run away; it’s not as if they didn’t have a choice in the matter. It was the disciples’ “choice” to run away. It was sin and they chose to save their own lives rather than to stay and die with Jesus even though we read of Peter saying: “If I have to die with you, I will never deny you.” And all the others said likewise.
The warning for us from this is clear: we dare never get cocky when it comes to our faith; we dare never rely on ourselves, puff ourselves up, and say: “I’d never do such and such.” We see what happened with the disciples here. Instead, we best heed the holy and inspired words of St. Paul [Ph. 2.12]: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. The lesson we learn here is that if we place our trust for remaining in the faith in ourselves, if we think we can handle it ourselves, we will stumble and fall. But when we work out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling, we are recognizing our own weakness, we are recognizing our sinful human nature prone to sin and prone to look out for “#1”. But where there is fear and trembling, then let us turn all the more to our Lord’s means/ instruments to keep us in the faith: we make diligent and faithful use of His holy word and sacrament and rely on Him and keep turning to Him saying [Mk. 9.24], I believe, help my unbelief.
But again, Jesus being utterly forsaken by the disciples is the way it had to be. Of course there is the prophecy that Jesus had just reminded the disciples of before all this [Mk 14.27]: You will all fall away, for it is written, ‘I will strike the Shepherd and the sheep will be scattered’. It was a prophecy—not because God now made these men run from Christ—but because the all-knowing God eternally knew they would run away; and now that God had placed it in a prophecy, it became a sign—a sign by which we would recognize—even by their running away—that Jesus is the Messiah, the One promised by God.
Jesus’ abandonment had to be. It was part of His suffering. Speaking about His saving work, Jesus says through the OT prophet Isaiah [63.3,5]: I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with Me….I looked, but there was no one to help, and I wondered that there was no one to uphold; therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me. So is it any surprise when we read: Now a certain young man was following Him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And they seized him and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked?
But again, this is the way it had to be—just as another OT verse points out [Am 2.16]. Speaking of the day when God’s judgment would strike the sin of His OT people, the Lord says: the most courageous men of might shall flee naked in that day. What a striking parallel to our text where a young man—one a person would suppose would be full of vim and vigor—runs away naked, fear conquering modesty. But now that “that day” had come, the day of God’s judgment for the sins of the world had come—no one could stand in that judgment, no one could face the judgment of God and survive—except One: Jesus the holy and sinless God-man. The young man in his prime running away naked from this scene, abandoning Christ, is a glorious preaching to us: the judgment for the sins of the world, the sins placed on this Man—Jesus Christ, was just about to come, and He would stand alone as the only One to endure it; and by that He would reconcile the sinful world to the holy God!
Here we come to the heart and core of the holy Christian faith—Jesus alone is responsible for our salvation. The weight, curse, condemnation of the sins of the world—of all people ever to live—was placed on Him and He alone bore it until all of God’s wrath over every single sin of every single person was appeased; until God’s righteous judgment and punishment over every single sin of every single person was poured it. By His holy life and innocent suffering and death—all alone—Jesus reconciled the sinful world to the holy God. That means that He alone is Savior; that means that there’s nothing I can do to reconcile God, to earn my way to heaven. When it came time to pay the price for sin, may each of us see ourselves running away from Jesus and Him left standing there all alone.
2. And that’s a good thing! That’s faith in Jesus and His saving work alone. Especially now in this Lenten season as we examine our hearts and lives all the more fervently and diligently, we see all the sin and wretchedness filling them. Do we think that we can somehow now “get right with God;” make things right between us and Him by throwing Him a few “what we call” good works and expect that to appease Him and make Him pleased with us and open heaven to us? No, instead in faith we run away from Christ and let Him alone bear our sins and God’s wrath over them. And that’s where the certainty of our forgiveness and salvation come in. Jesus alone bears our sin; Jesus alone paid the price. On the cross He said, It is finished, the salvation of the world has been accomplished—by Christ alone. It’s not that we were there helping Christ; it’s not that we have a hand/ part in our salvation—no matter how small. It is Jesus’ work alone; and what a glorious preaching of it in our text: Now a certain young man was following Him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And they seized him and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked.
And what’s so wonderful for us and our salvation is that the Father accepted Jesus’ work. He raised Him from the dead Easter Sunday morning. That was His stamp of approval on and acceptance of Jesus’ work. Now we sinners are reconciled to the holy God—our sins are paid for and God’s wrath stilled; now heaven stands open to us; now in Christ God is our dear loving heavenly Father. How clear it is beyond any shadow of a doubt—Jesus alone is our salvation.
The young man fled from Christ, naked. That too is a picture of us—especially now in this holy season of Lent. Running from Christ naked is a picture for us of confession. What do we do? We recognize and sorrow over our sins; we confess our sins; we confess our lack of righteousness; we see that we have no holiness before God. In confession we are like the young man in our text, following Him, that is, we give Christ all of our sins and wretchedness, and then run away from Christ and let Him alone reconcile us to God. In confession, we lay bare to God our sin and unrighteousness—we can hide nothing; there is nothing good in us.
But the glorious thing for us is that Jesus does not leave us naked in our sin and unrighteousness when we confess our sins. Remember, He alone bore our sins and brought us forgiveness. Now He seeks us out; He forgives us our sin, He covers us with His perfect holiness and sinless keeping of the commandments. That means in the absolution we are declared forgiven and righteous and God does not see our sin and rebellions but only Jesus’ perfect righteousness.
Again, it is a good thing that we run from Christ naked—that is, that we give Him our sins in confession, letting Him alone deal with our sins. For what happens? He doesn’t leave us naked but He covers us—not with a linen cloth with His most perfect holiness and righteousness; and that’s what God sees. That’s what we are as Christians—covered by Jesus and His perfect robe of righteousness. It began at our baptism as St. Paul writes [Gl. 3.27]: As many of you as were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. Luther points out here: Christ Himself is our garment…the garment of our righteousness and salvation.
Although the disciples and young man fled from Jesus at His arrest, it had to be that way: only Jesus could be the world’s Savior. How more clearly could that be preached than that they all ran away? Although the young man disgracefully ran away naked, let that image serve us to teach us to give our sins to Jesus in confession and then run, let Him alone deal with them. He will seek us, find us and give us/ cover us with His holy perfection in baptism and the absolution. INJ Amen.