The First Christians -- Mystics?
Stuck in the midst of the Gospel of Mark is a mystery that's rarely been mentioned from the pulpit. It occurs in Mark 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.
What are we to make of this strange event which jars the entire reading experience, the verses coming completely out of left field only to be dropped without comment and without continuing? Various groups have pointed toward it as some kind of odd behavior on Jesus' part, but the truth behind it opens a fascinating journey into an entirely new strata of early Christianity.
TTo follow this thread, we can start with Morton Smith in 1958. While researching in a monastery near Jerusalem, Smith discovered a copied letter from Clement of Alexandria, one of the most important of the Church Fathers. Clement (c. 150 - c. 215), mentioned not the familiar Gospel of Mark, but rather a different, secret gospel that Mark had written in Alexandria, and Clement said it was "for the use of those being perfected" and it would "lead the hearers into the innermost sanctuary of that truth hidden...."
No less startling, Clement quoted from the Secret Gospel of Mark in which the tale is told of a young man who, like the Lazarus story, was raised from the dead but who comes to Jesus "wearing a linen cloth over his naked [body]. The quote also explains that Jesus spent the night with the man, teaching him "the mystery of the kingdom of God."
What we have, then, in the popular Gospel of Mark are the poorly edited remnants of the Secret Gospel. It's enough to make your head spin. First and foremost, one has to ask, what was this mystery? Beyond that question, there is another -- what exactly was going on in the beginnings of Christianity that tie it to Christian Mystics? Most importantly, some say, 'are you saying there were various opinions as to Jesus' teachings and, indeed, to Jesus himself within the very foundations of what we call the Church or Christianity?" Yes.