There are two elements of today’s Passion account that struck me.  I was preparing to give a PowerPoint presentation to one of the grade school classes from my trip to the Holy Land.  That, and a commentary I read made me realize something about Jesus.  When Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, the implications of the geographical location of the garden didn’t really dawn on me.  Around the city of Jerusalem there was a great wall – and the wall that faces the Garden was the longest and straightest.  There was one main entrance in that wall - and therefore, probably, only one main road that came down from the city of Jerusalem, crossing the small valley there (the Kidron valley) and leading into the garden.  It would not have been difficult for Jesus or anyone to notice the crowd of soldiers coming.  There would have been plenty of warning.  There were several roads out of Gethsemane, crossing over the Mount of Olives.  One would have led directly to Bethany, the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus. John tells us that Bethany was near Jerusalem, only 2 miles away. It would have been about a 15 minute walk to their home from the garden.  15 minutes that’s all.  And from there, it would be another 15 minutes and he could disappear into the desert – not to be found unless he wanted to be found.  Jesus, seeing the crowds coming from the city would have a 5-10 minute head start.  At that moment, he could have easily escaped, easily walked away from what he knew was in store.  Perhaps the Romans might have followed him to Bethany, but the chance of people there noticing the arrest and rebelling might have changed things. 15 minutes in which to save his own life.  Would you have used it?

   WHETHER THAT THOUGHT OF LEAVING entered his mind, we will not know.  But we do know he made that choice to stay – to stay and face the soldiers, to stay and finish his saving desire for us.  Knowing that 15 minutes was all it would have taken for him to walk into freedom, he thought, not of himself, but of us and our need for salvation.  15 minutes.   This week, will you make the same choice and stay in a difficult situation/conversation for an extra 15 minutes, pray for an extra 15 minutes, serve for just an extra 15 minutes?  Will you also make the choice that Jesus did in the Garden – not my will but yours be done… 

Secondly, that story of the mysterious young man running away naked always struck me as so strange in the middle of the story.  Almost like (reach up and pluck an imaginary something out of the air)  “where did this come from?”  However, a little study reveals that the linen cloth with which he is clothed is called a sindona in Greek – the same word used for the shroud that covered Jesus in the tomb.  Who wears a shroud in public?  No one.  So, obviously there is something else going on.  Mark is writing some 35-40 years after the death of Jesus.  And he is writing to a community undergoing persecution where some people have witnessed to Christ and died and others have not witnessed to their faith and kept living.  So, this young man symbolizes for Mark all those who have been buried with Christ in Baptism, and have supposedly risen to a new life.  This neophyte, wearing his baptismal ‘shroud’, his baptismal robe, who had accepted the responsibilities of Baptism, had followed Jesus as far as the garden, perhaps even to saying in his heart: “Thy will be done in me” as well.  But when the threat of him being seized became very real, when he was invited to ‘take up his cross’ and follow Jesus all the way, it became more than he was ready for.  Afraid of the suffering, afraid of the cost associated with being a disciple, he abandoned his baptismal commitments and fled.  His is, perhaps, the story of so many of us – who are only willing to follow Jesus when the crowds are shouting hosanna and not ‘crucify’ about Jesus. 

This week – I invite you to read THE story of the passion – as Mark presents it.  What part of the story calls to you?  Challenges you?  Invites you to repent, to change, to deepen, to renew your own commitment to be a disciple?  And then pray for the grace to spend that extra 15 minutes, not running from God’s invitation, but embracing it as did our brother Jesus.