A certain young man was following him, wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him, but he left the linen cloth and ran off naked. (Mark 14: 51-52)

Only Mark includes this rather strange - even comical - scene of a youth being unwrapped.

Without any real evidence tradition has generally identified the young man as John, known as the youngest of the disciples, or as Mark.

Why the young man was wandering about half-dressed in the middle of night is a reasonable question. But no answer is suggested.

It is certainly an image of vulnerability. Even in his vulnerability the young man attempted to follow Jesus. But he too fled to safety.

It is a stretch, but the Greek for linen can also mean shroud, as in a death shroud. Perhaps Mark perceived in this a premonition of Jesus escaping the shroud.

At left is a detail from the Betrayal of Christ by Giuseppe Cesari.