HIS SANDALS

                      Background

"And they all left Him and fled. And a certain young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body; and they seized him. But he left the linen sheet behind, and escaped naked." 
Mark 14:50-52 (Mark is the only Gospel writer who records this incident.)

The early Church is practically unanimous in ascribing the Second Gospel to Mark, the cousin of Barnabas and associate of Paul and Peter. Strong tradition also supports the assertion that in this Gospel is recorded the recollections and preaching of Peter, who calls Mark "my son" in 1 Peter 5:13. Most scholars hold that this is the earliest of the four Gospels, safely dated between A.D. 50 and A.D. 70.

HIS SANDALS
Leona Choy
 

(An imaginary scenario)

What happened to Jesus’ sandals?

No one wanted them!

Soldiers jerked them off

to nail His bare feet

to a rough-splintered cross

callously casting lots

for His seamless garment.

They tossed aside His filthy sandals

caked with mud

and stained with blood

from scourging and His painful struggle

up Golgotha's hill

—not worth a throw of dice.

Then I noticed the sandals

hugged tightly under the arm

of a frightened youth.

They called him John Mark.

Where had I seen him before?

At the synagogue door?

Or helping his mother

host them all at the Last Supper?

Perhaps in Gethsemane

running naked from the grasp

of Jesus' enemy?

What would that lad do

with the precious sandals?

Were they just a souvenir

of a grizzly spectacle

that even in a later movie age

would be rated "R"

for violence and brutality?

Hiding alone in the shadows

on the fringes of the crowd

the young man watched wide-eyed
the suffering, dying Man on the cross.

Without Parental Guidance to explain

would he grasp the meaning

of this scandalous documentary?

Would this wide-eyed youth

understand the dreadful drama

he beheld that historic day

outside the city wall?

Would he realize God had planned

this event from Eternity?

Would God provide a mentor

to relate the significance

of the death of this Man

who laid aside His sandals and robe

in the Upper Room

and stooped to wash

the feet of His friends?

Would that youth ever wear 
those sandals? Would he dare?

Would he be found worthy

and chosen eventually

to walk in the sandals

of that Man of Galilee?

Would they be to him

like the mantle of Elijah

enduing him doubly

with power for service?

Would he wear those very sandals

to take the Good News
 one day far away
on missionary journeys?

YES! And he would write
in the Gospel that bears his name

for those who weren't there

those scattered everywhere

down the corridors of time

what he had seen firsthand

with his youthful eyes

and received from the keen memory

of Peter the fisherman-disciple

who had known

the beloved Christ of Galilee
and followed Him
in his own sandals!