Let Goods and Kindred Go

 

Good day, I’m Duane Matz and welcome to Today’s Living Word.

 

Mr 14:51 Now a certain young man followed Him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And the young men laid hold of him, 52 and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked.

 

This obscure verse is only included in Mark’s account of the arrest of Jesus. Therefore, some speculate that this “certain young man,” was Mark himself. The problem with that speculation is, we are not told the name of this “certain young man.” Nor are we told what this “certain young man was doing in the garden.

 

If we really needed to know these things, the Holy Spirit would’ve logged it for us. But if  “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, (2 Tim 3:16)

 

What is this account doing here? What possible lesson can we garner from it? Well for one thing we know that this young man had quickly thrown an expensive piece of linen over his naked body and it was ripped away from him as he was following Jesus.

 

The lesson I believe for all of us is this, it’s going to cost you to follow Jesus. Count the cost! Jesus said in  Lu 14:33 "So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

 

Or as Martin Luther put it in the hymn, “A Mighty Fortress,” “Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also, the body they may kill, God’s truth abideth still, His kingdom is forever.

 

Let us learn to be like this certain young man: in this account! Let us go all in with Jesus as we follow Him!

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word.