And Jesus answering said to them, Are ye come out as against a robber, with swords and sticks to take me?
Judas has betrayed Him, Peter has swung a sword, and now Jesus turns to the armed crowd — not to resist, but to ask a question. His question exposes the arrest for what it is: a night raid, with weapons, against a man they could have taken openly in the temple on any day.
The word behind "robber" means a bandit, and it appears at more than one turning point in the Gospels.
(ληστής, lestes) 'robber, bandit.' The Lord used it of those who bought and sold in the temple. Matt. 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46. In the parable of the Good Samaritan the traveller fell among robbers. Luke 10:30, 36. When the Lord was arrested He asked if they had come out as against a robber. Matt. 26:55; Mark 14:48; Luke 22:52. The two criminals crucified with the Lord were also men of this kind. Matt. 27:38, 44; Mark 15:27.
The party sent to take Him was large, armed, and drawn from both Gentiles and Jews.
Judas had at his disposal the officers and a detachment of Roman soldiers, most likely several hundred. These carried swords and other weapons, besides lanterns and torches. These were Gentiles... But there were others, and they carried sticks. The temple guard had turned out in full force; these were the paid men of the chief priests and elders. No doubt the street crowd was there too, for it was a great crowd. What a scene! Gentiles and Jews come to lay their hands on the Prince of Life, the Lord of Glory... But why such a great multitude and such precaution to capture one man, who was "gentle and lowly"?
His question turns the light back on the men holding the swords — and on what they could not see in Him.
The greed of Judas has been exposed, and so has the energy of the flesh in Peter, who was ready enough to fight, if not to pray. Now the cowardice and meanness of these Jewish leaders comes out. They could have taken the Lord any day in the temple, out in the open, for He had taught there in full view of everyone. But their cowardly fear of the people, and their lack of all principle, led them to act as if they were dealing with a thief. They understood a thief, and how to deal with a thief, but the infinite perfections of Christ were far beyond them.
They chose the night, and the choice says something about their case.
He speaks a searching word to the consciences of the crowd. He had taught in the temple in front of them every day, and they did not arrest Him. Now they come looking for Him in the dark of night, as though He were a thief dodging the law. So He exposes the unrighteousness of their cause — a cause they were afraid to push through in the light of day.
Mark's account leaves something out, and one writer reads purpose into the omission.
Peter draws his sword and cuts off the ear of the high priest's servant. That healing is not mentioned in this Gospel, for here the Lord is seen only as the suffering Son of man, the rejected Prophet of Israel, the smitten Shepherd. What proves His undiminished power is not the point here. The point is His bowing to all shame, and the key is, "the Scripture must be fulfilled." Nothing in Him had ever called for such treatment at their hands — coming out against Him as against a thief. But the Scripture must be fulfilled.
The name they used that night became the company they gave Him at the cross.
Mark, like Matthew, mentions the robbers (indeed, all do) as a testimony to the complete humiliation of God's Servant and Son on the cross. Men would not even let Him have that place alone. He was indeed alone in the grace and moral glory of the cross. But to increase the shame, they crucified two robbers with Him, one on His right hand and the other on His left.
- Robber. The word means a violent bandit — the same term used for the two men later crucified beside Him.
- Weapons. Hundreds came armed with swords and clubs, Gentiles and Jews together, to seize one gentle and lowly man.
- Night. They avoided the daylight temple where He taught openly, and so exposed the unrighteousness of their own case.
- Question. He does not defend Himself; His question lays bare their cowardice and their blindness to who He is.
- Submission. Mark leaves out the healed ear on purpose. Here we do not see unbroken power. We see a Servant bowing to shame so that Scripture would be fulfilled — arrested as a robber, then crucified between two.
I was daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye did not seize me; but [it is] that the scriptures may be fulfilled.
A crowd comes at night to arrest Jesus, and He answers them in one short sentence. He points to His daily teaching in the temple, out in the open, and then to what God had written in the Scriptures.
The Lord had not been hiding. His teaching was public and daily, and these same men had stood in front of Him without laying a hand on Him.
The greed of Judas has been exposed, and also the fleshly energy of Peter, who was ready enough to fight, if not to pray. Now the cowardice and meanness of these Jewish leaders is exposed. They could have taken the Lord any day in the temple, out in the open, because He had taught there openly and publicly. But they were cowards, afraid of the people, and they had no principle at all. So they acted as if they were dealing with a thief. They understood a thief, and they knew how to deal with a thief. But the infinite perfections of Christ were beyond their understanding.
The timing itself accuses them. One writer, commenting on the same words in Matthew, draws out what the night reveals:
Now they come to search for Him in the dark of night, as though He had been a thief trying to evade the law. In this way He exposes the unrighteousness of their cause, which they were afraid to carry out in the light of day.
Just before this, the Lord asks if they have come out against Him as against a robber. That word does not mean a petty thief. It means a violent bandit — the same word used for the two men crucified beside Him.
(λῃστής) 'robber, bandit.' When the Lord was arrested He asked if they had come out as against a robber. Matthew 26:55; Mark 14:48; Luke 22:52. The two criminals crucified with the Lord were also men of this character. Matthew 27:38, 44; Mark 15:27.
The Lord gives one reason for not resisting, and it is not His own innocence. He points to what God had already written. Older translations render His words, "the Scripture must be fulfilled."
The Lord wishes to bear witness to the authority of the Scriptures; if these announced His death, He must die. The Scriptures are the revelation of God's counsels and purpose as well as of all His thoughts. The Lord too, as a man on earth, took them as the rule and motive of everything He did and said. Yet He was always in unspeakable communion with His Father.
Another Gospel records that the Lord healed the ear Peter cut off. Mark says nothing about it, and one writer reads that silence as deliberate.
Peter, ready enough to fight, though not to pray, draws his sword and strikes the high priest's servant, and cuts off his ear. The healing is not mentioned in this Gospel, for here the Lord is simply the suffering Son of Man, the rejected Prophet of Israel, the smitten Shepherd. What proves His power unbroken is not the point here. The point is His bowing to all shame. The key is, "the Scripture must be fulfilled." He had never given them any cause to treat Him like this, coming out against Him as against a thief. But the Scripture must be fulfilled.
His calm in front of the crowd had a source. One writer traces it back to what passed between Him and His Father beforehand.
It is a good thing to think of the Lord's anguish before God, when He opens all His heart to His Father. And we see His deep sufferings and His perfect calmness before men, the fruit of His perfect submission. Men counted as nothing in it. Satan could do nothing — for the Lord had taken the cup from His Father's hands. This is most important teaching for us.
- Open. He taught in the temple openly, day after day. Arresting Him at night exposed the cowardice of His accusers, not any guilt in Him.
- Seized. The word He uses means a violent bandit — the same word used for the two men crucified beside Him. They knew how to handle a thief. They could not grasp who He was.
- Written. He gives one reason for yielding: the Scripture must be fulfilled. If God's word announced His death, then He must die. He bows to its authority at the hardest hour of His life.
- Bowed. Mark leaves out the healing of the severed ear. Here the point is not His unbroken power, but His bowing to every shame as the suffering Son of Man.
- Calm. He had already taken the cup from His Father's hand. So He stood before men in perfect peace — and that pattern is teaching for us.
And all left him and fled.
The arrest is over, the crowd has closed in, and every man who had promised to stand by Jesus runs. Mark records their collapse in one line, and it raises two questions: why did they all run, and what did it mean for the One they left behind?
Earlier that night Jesus had said the shepherd would be struck and the sheep scattered. Their flight was the first visible part of that word.
First, the sheep are scattered. This came true on the night of His arrest. All His disciples, the men who had owned Him as the Shepherd of Israel, left Him and fled. In another way, we cannot doubt, it has also come true in the scattering of the Jews over the face of the whole earth. He came to gather His sheep. But when they as a people refused to listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd, and He was struck, God, acting in government and in judgment, scattered the flock.
They ran from death. One writer explains what only Christ's own death would change in His people.
"And all left Him and fled." Power would have kept them, but yielding to suffering began to take effect on them. "The sheep were scattered."… Man is powerless to face death. The only reason believers are able to face it — even to welcome it and rejoice in it — is because of Christ Himself and His death. He has taken out the sting, but it was not yet done. So the disciples left Him and fled. In Christ alone, who suffered for us, we stand.
Mark does not say most of them. The rest had echoed Peter's boast, so the failure was shared, not just the fall of the loudest man in the group.
It shows perfectly that divine grace alone can be the hope of anyone. Whoever thinks he stands must take heed lest he fall — not because of the general danger only, but as being then most of all in danger. Our own strength is just our weakness, as our weakness realised will be our way to strength — a strength not our own. Every one of the Gospels presses this most solemn lesson. Matthew and Mark assure us that the other disciples shared Peter's dangerous self-confidence. Anyone who would claim exemption condemns himself by that very claim.
It is easy to read this verse as a story about weak men long ago and to feel safely distant from it. One writer turns it on the reader.
Still we must consider the time of stress that came into their lives. A storm of fear and confusion swept over them. They were alarmed and shocked at the turn events had taken. The danger unnerved them. Panic seized their hearts when "they all left Him and fled." So, before we are tempted to throw stones at them and call them cowards, let us ask ourselves one thing. Have we ever sought our own interests at the expense of His company, His reproach and His concerns?
From here Jesus goes on with no human companion. Yet losing His friends was not His deepest loss.
Christ did feel the absence of love in Peter, and in His friends in Israel. But when everything else was gone, when all left Him and fled, He still had God left to Him. He looked ahead to the anguish of God forsaking Him. Yet, perfect as He was in His divine nature, His purpose never wavered and His focus never changed. That, in its fulness, was His alone to bear. God forsook Him so that He might never have to forsake us.
Others make the same point from the day of atonement, where no one else was allowed inside while the work was done — the flight of the disciples pictures a loneliness that went far beyond it:
Even His disciples left Him and fled; while, far deeper, no one could share the burden of atoning work, no one was able to assist in that — it was His alone.
The verse is not the end of their story. The men who had run had every reason to expect the Lord to replace them.
But how could they meet the risen Lord? Had they not left Him in the middle of His deep sorrow? Might He not then discard them for others more faithful and worthy? They might have thought so, and gone to hide from Him out of sheer shame — but He had "appeared to Simon."
- Struck — The prophecy said the Shepherd would be struck and the flock would scatter. Their flight was that prophecy coming true.
- Scattered — They ran because man has no power to face death; only Christ's own death takes the sting out of it.
- All — Not one stood. The others shared Peter's confidence. To claim you would have stayed only proves you would not.
- Alone — He went on with no companion left, yet He still had God. The deeper anguish ahead was His alone to bear.
- Sought — They expected Him to replace them. Instead He sought them out, and appeared first to the man who had failed worst.
And a certain young man followed him with a linen cloth cast about his naked [body]; and [the young men] seize him;
Only Mark pauses the arrest scene for one nameless follower. He wore a single linen cloth. Men grabbed him, and he got away by leaving the cloth behind. It is the smallest incident in the darkest night. Readers have long asked who he was, why the Spirit kept the story, and what his flight says about following Jesus.
Only one Gospel writer kept this follower, and he tells us why the man ran.
Only Mark tells us about the young man who followed, wearing nothing but a linen cloth over his bare body. He left it behind rather than be arrested with Jesus.
Some have dismissed the verse as too small to matter. One writer replies that Scripture keeps other small details too:
Some dare to treat the record of this incident as trivial. It is the same kind of thing as Paul's request to Timothy in his second letter (2 Tim. 4:13)… Nothing seems too ordinary for the Holy Spirit to use.
Because the story survives only here, some have guessed that Mark, who wrote this Gospel, was describing himself. Commentators differ, and none of them claims proof.
Some have thought he was the "young man" with the cloth thrown around his bare body who followed the Lord to the Garden… Only Mark tells us about this incident, but we cannot be sure it was him.
Whether or not the name can be settled, the value of the scene does not depend on it:
But whatever the answer, I always think that no other small detail gives such a vivid picture of the dismay and horror that fell on the disciples of Christ on that terrible night.
He stayed close when the rest had already scattered. One grab from the arresting party ended it.
"And they all left Him and fled." Power would have kept them, but giving in to suffering began to work on them… Strength fails, and so does shame. The first attack was enough to drive him away. Man has no power to face death. Believers can face it — and even welcome it and rejoice in it — only because of Christ Himself and His death. He has taken out the sting, but it was not yet done. So the disciples left Him and fled, the young man and all. In Christ alone, who suffered for us, we stand.
One follower went deeper into danger than the rest. That is why his escape was more shameful.
One young man did try to go farther. But as soon as the officers seized him and grabbed his linen garment, he fled and left it in their hands. Without the power of the Holy Spirit, the farther you go along the path where the power of the world and of death is at work, the greater the shame you escape with — if God lets you escape at all.
Now look at the cloth itself. He had it thrown around him, and it was not his real clothing. One writer treats that as the point:
the young man who wants to follow only shows his shame, since the linen cloth thrown around him is no part of his real clothing — taking it as a symbol. Anyone who follows in nature's own strength will only show his own shame and lose the righteousness he seemed to have.
The word Mark uses for the cloth is often taken for nightwear. It appears once more in the New Testament:
It seems significant that the sindon, though usually called a nightdress, was the kind of wrapper people used to wrap the dead. In the only other place it appears in the New Testament, it is the cloth the Lord's body was wrapped in (Matt. 27:59; Mark 15:46; Luke 23:53).
This flight is not there for its own sake. It deepens the picture of the One left alone.
But this figure only deepens our sense of bleakness and loneliness. It fits the sight we are given here of that ever blessed One, Who during this hour was lonely and forsaken, exposed and humbled, as the Servant of the glory of God in the redemption of sinners.
- Followed — He stayed near Christ when the rest had run. His was a real and brave try.
- Seized — One grab was enough. Without the Spirit's power, the deeper you go into danger, the worse the escape.
- Stripped — The cloth was never really his. Follow in your own strength and you lose the covering you seemed to have.
- Recorded — Only Mark keeps this small scene. Nothing is too ordinary for the Holy Spirit to use, and we need no name to feel its weight.
- Alone — Each one who runs sharpens the picture: the Servant left forsaken and exposed. In Christ alone we stand.
but he, leaving the linen cloth behind [him], fled from them naked.
On the night Jesus was betrayed, one unnamed young man followed Him, lost the only thing covering him, and ran. Only Mark keeps this detail — so why is it here, and what does it say about that night?
Some readers treat these two verses as filler. One writer answers by setting the incident beside a small request Paul made in his second letter to Timothy:
Some are ready to treat the record of this incident as trivial. It is of the same order as Paul's request to Timothy in his second letter (2 Tim. 4:13)... Nothing seems too ordinary for the Holy Spirit to use.
Mark leaves him unnamed. One writer holds that Mark was describing himself, then admits the point cannot be settled — and says the scene matters for another reason:
It is that the young man who followed the Lord at a distance, on the night of His betrayal, was John Mark himself. The soldiers, seeing him, snatched at his linen cloth, the only garment he had on him... Only Mark records this... But whatever the truth may be, I always think no other small incident gives such a vivid picture of the dismay and horror that fell on the disciples of Christ that terrible night.
This man tried to go farther than the rest. One writer ties what happened to a power he did not have:
They all forsake Him and flee. Who besides Himself could follow this path to the end? One young man did try to go farther. But as soon as the officers seized him and grabbed his linen cloth, he fled and left it in their hands. This path is where the power of the world and of death is at work. Without the power of the Holy Spirit, the farther a man goes into it, the greater the shame he escapes with — if God allows him to escape at all.
The cloth itself is part of the lesson. It was not his real clothing at all:
The young man who wants to follow only shows his shame. The linen cloth thrown around him is no part of his real clothing — taking it as a symbol. Anyone who follows in the strength of his own nature will only show his own shame and lose his apparent righteousness.
This is the last flight in the scene. One writer weighs what it says about every man, and what changed for believers:
Strength fails, and so does shame. The first attack was enough to drive him away. Man is powerless to face death. Believers can face it — and even welcome it and rejoice in it — only because of Christ Himself and His death. He has taken out the sting, but it was not yet done... In Christ alone, who suffered for us, we stand.
Mark adds this figure to a scene that is already bleak, and the effect falls on Christ:
But this figure only deepens our sense of bleakness and loneliness. It fits the picture we are given here of that ever blessed One. In this hour He was left alone and forsaken, exposed and humbled, as the Servant of the glory of God in the redemption of sinners.
The word Mark uses for this cloth is not the ordinary word for clothing. It comes back at the burial:
The word for the linen cloth in Mark 14:51 is the same word used for the linen wrappings that held the Lord's body in the grave (Mark 15:46; Luke 23:53).
Commentators differ on how far to press that link. One draws it out this way:
People have spoken of it as showing how empty human effort is against the Christ of God. The priests and people, Herod and Pilate, all combined against this Man. All they got of Him was the grave-clothes, empty of the One who had worn them for a short time. The living Person had escaped: the true life was untouched. And this might be a parable about all His followers... who carry a hidden life that death cannot touch. In a hostile world, the Lord of life has provided well for His own.
- Kept. God preserved two verses about an unnamed runaway. Nothing is too ordinary for the Holy Spirit to use.
- Unnamed. One writer thinks Mark was writing about himself, and the point cannot be settled. What the scene does show is the horror that fell on the disciples that night.
- Uncovered. The cloth was never his real clothing, so the first grab took it. Follow in your own strength and you lose your apparent righteousness.
- Powerless. Strength failed and shame failed. Man cannot face death; believers stand only in Christ, who suffered for them.
- Empty. His enemies kept the cloth and lost the Man. His followers carry the same hidden life that death cannot touch.