IF THE SHOE FITS....

   (Background from Scripture)

[The night Jesus was betrayed] "...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. Was he himself perchance that young follower of Jesus whose well-to-do mother is identified as Mary of Jerusalem? Mark is referred to by historians as 'John Mark of Jerusalem'. His mother is known to have hosted Jesus and His disciples on numerous occasions in her probably spacious home. It remained a gathering place for prayer for the early Christians. (Acts 12:12). She may have been one of the women who followed Jesus seeing to their collective material needs with their own resources.

Her home may have been the location of the Last Supper. (Mark 14:15) My pure speculation, but Mark may have been there that night assisting his mom with the hospitality. After they had sung the last hymn and headed off to the Mount of Olives, (Mark 14:26) young Mark might have been getting ready for bed when his mom got wind of something sinister about to happen to Jesus in a familiar location not far from their home. The young man might have taken off at a run to see for himself, neglecting to put his clothes back on. Could he have been "the young man wrapped in a sheet" who got scared and ran off after the soldiers arrested Jesus?

 From a Commentary: The early Church is practically unanimous in ascribing the Second Gospel to Mark, the cousin of Barnabas and associate of apostles Paul and Peter. Thought to have been baptized by Peter, strong tradition also supports the assertion that in this Gospel he recorded the firsthand recollections and preaching of Peter, who calls Mark "my son" in 1 Peter 5:13. Mark was along on one of the early missionary journeys with Paul and Barnabas but dropped out and returned home to Jerusalem for unknown reasons. (Acts 13:13) This resulted in "a sharp disagreement" between Paul and Barnabas and a parting of their ways. (Acts 15:39) As John Mark, the unproven fledgling Christian, grew up and matured in his faith to become a steady, dependable disciple, he was restored into the good graces of Paul. (Colossians 4:10) After the death of Peter, historians say that John Mark became the first bishop of the Alexandrian Church.

HIS SANDALS

(An imagined scenario)

What happened to Jesus’ sandals?
Leona Choy

Soldiers jerked off His sandals

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

stained with blood

from 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

hosting the Last Supper?

Perhaps in Gethsemane

running naked from the grasp
of Jesus' enemy?

What would that lad do

with those precious sandals?

Were they just a souvenir

of a grisly spectacle

that even in a later movie age

would surely be rated "R"
for violence and brutality?

Hiding alone in the shadows

on the fringes of the crowd

the boy watched the Man on the cross

suffering and dying.

Without Parental Guidance

to explain the meaning

of this atrocity

would he grasp the import
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 that God 
had planned it all
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 grimy feet of His friends?

Would the boy wear those sandals?

Would he dare?

Would he be found worthy

and chosen eventually

to walk in the sandals

of that God-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

a Gospel for those 

who weren't there

those scattered everywhere

down the corridors of time

to tell what he had witnessed

firsthand with his youthful eyes

at the Cross that terrible day

and received from the keen memory

of Peter the fisherman-disciple

who too had known

the beloved Christ of Galilee

and followed Him

in his own sandals!