Mark 14... strange inclusion

I have 2 topics which I want to write about, but I'll split them into two separate posts, so I'll simply being with the first one here:

Read: Mark 14. This is what I did during lunch today. I went to lunch alone, bought my Turkey Tuscany panini from Brueger's Bagels, sat outside (it was such an amazing afternoon), and prayed and read the Bible. I started with my prayer, and ended asking God what He wanted me to read.--

-- I'm still learning how to properly communicate with God. Don't get me wrong; I understand that God doesn't really care how I speak with Him... and yet at the same time, I think there's something to be gained and learned from understanding how to properly communicate with Him. There's a certain reverence that should be involved; an understanding of the many, many forms in which God expresses His relationship with me (King, Savior, Lord, All-powerful Creator, Provider, Father, Friend); a required understanding of God's makeup - the Trinity factor and how each element should be addresses and plays a role in communion with God; all these things that I'm still learning about, still trying to understand. Does it keep me from reaching out to Him, from talking with Him? Absolutely not. However, just because He allows me to seek Him - in spite of my lack of understanding about the complex Lord that He is - it doesn't allow me to be off the hook for learning. Ignorance is not an excuse, but through His mercy, He's allowed to "rules" to be ignored. But I digress --

So I asked God what he wanted me to read, and I felt like I was being told, Mark 14. Have you ever read Mark 14? As it turns out, I have. Or rather, more appropriately, I've had the "content", the story of Mark 14 (and likely even had the specific scripture itself) read to me.

It's a nice enough story: Pharisee's want to kill Jesus, but it's the Passover so they decide to wait. Judas agrees to betray Jesus. They eat the Passover meal; Jesus breaks bread and drinks wine; Jesus declares he will be betrayed. They go to the Mt. Olives where Jesus takes James, John and Peter further up ahead and then Jesus prays by himself. Judas comes and betrays Jesus. Jesus is tried before the Sanhedrin. Peter denies Jesus 3 times.

"So...?"
"So, What?"
"Exactly."
"Huh?..."

Don't get me wrong. This is powerful stuff. I just don't know what I was supposed to gain from it. So I decided to pick apart the things that stuck out to me. I don't really have explanations or solid ideas about what I'm supposed to get from it all, but I decided to share with you my "current" lasting-thoughts.

1) Pharisee's, while wanting Jesus dead, are worried about doing it over the passover because of fears of rioting, so they decide not to do anything yet. Then Judas comes to them and offers to "betray" Jesus. Suddenly - apparently - it's OK to take Jesus during the passover? Furthermore, the pay Judas to do what exactly? Show the guards who to arrest? Wasn't Jesus well known enough that he was recognizable by the religious leaders already? So how exactly did Judas betray Jesus? Why did the Pharisee's pay Judas to do what they could already do without him if it was simply saying "There he is! Arrest Him!"?

2) When Jesus says to the disciples, "You'll all abandon me", Peter says, "I'll never abandon you. I'll die first!" They then go to the mountain to pray, and James, John, and Peter fall asleep while keeping watch for Jesus... To which Jesus responds, "Try to stay alert and pray, otherwise temptation will overpower you. For your spirit is willing enough, but your body is weak." This hit home. How many times have I been disgusted with myself for continually falling prey to my own wicked desires... even after I've prayed over and over and over again, "Lord I give this to you. Forgive me and give me strength." And it's true. It's not that in my soul I'm a wicked person, but rather that my body is weak... thus giving up my wickedness is not necessarily a "Change of the Heart" - a phrase we so often hear in christian-ese lingo - but rather a "Preparation of the Heart."

Jesus doesn't say, "Peter, this proves you lack of loyalty to me. How evil of you! You have a lot of work to do to change!". Instead, Jesus acknowledges the weakness of the body, and gives the answer... "Keep alert and pray". The shame is not in the fact that the body is weak... it is what it is, and will always be... the shame is not not being prepared, since we have the knowledge that the body is in fact weak. Too often I come down on myself for not "being strong enough"; but that is misplaced energy. Rather, I simply need to accept the fact that I'll never be strong enough. Instead I need to take that knowledge of my weakness and compensate for it with prayer and the Armor of God.

3) Perhaps the most confusing thing that stuck out to me: Versus 50-51
"Meanwhile, all his disciples deserted him and ran away. There was a young man following along behind, clothed only in a linen nightshirt. When the mob tried to grab him, they tore off his clothes, but he escaped and ran away naked."

Umm... yeah. I looked at this account in Matthew, Luke and John. None of these mentioned this account of the "young man". So I wonder... A) Who is he?, and B) Why was this deemed important enough to mention?


Young naked men aside, I still don't know why I was to read this passage.