51Now a certain young man followed Him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And the young men laid hold of him, 52and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked.
This is a curious passage. It raises more questions than it answers. Why was it included? Who is the young man? Why was he garbed as he was? Note, it says he followed Him, it doesn't say he followed the commotion. I assume the ones who laid hold of him were some of the multitude who came with Judas, but why does it reference them as the young men rather than as the servants of the high priest?
I don't think the young man in this verse was one of the disciples, because in all the other references to the disciples Mark doesn't hesitate to tell us it is one of the disciples. And I don't think he is one of the multitude that Judas brought with him, otherwise why would they just lay hold of him now? So I think this is someone else. Footnotes in my Bible say some suggest this was Mark himself.
Following is a story I just made up that could be one possible explanation of this man and what happened. There is no evidence to support this story, but is just one way to ponder what this verse might be about.
The only reason that comes to my mind as to why he would be garbed as he was, is because he was woken up from sleep. Imagine, traveling through the countryside, finding a nice quiet spot to camp out for the night, your camp fire mostly died out as it is reaching the early morning hours. All of a sudden being woken up by a multitude who are prodding a bound man down the road. Out of curiosity, you quickly grab your blanket, and sneak along behind, knowing you don't have time to dress as they would soon be gone. You are intrigued by the crowd, but you are most interested in the captive. You are following Him.
The high priests, scribes, and elders had gathered a large crowd to capture this man, Jesus. They roused the crowd's righteous indignation and got them fired up about doing this deed for them. So this group had gone out to capture someone they were told was a threat. They came armed for battle, but no battle ensued. Jesus came peacefully. There were probably young men in the crowd who were disappointed, who had been looking for a good fight. They were only told to capture Jesus. That was too easy. All of Jesus' followers had fled. Now here was this nervous little rabbit of a man sneaking, following along behind. So they grabbed him for sport. They probably had a good laugh when the scared young man ran off naked.
Though this story of mine is totally made up, it helps to set the stage for why Jesus' other followers didn't try to help Him. Even though Jesus is the only one who was supposed to be captured, they still feared for their safety. They kept their distance now and would try to show they had no connection with Jesus. Scripture said they would scatter, and scatter they did, even if it meant leaving literally everything behind. There was something about Jesus that made people want to follow, but this is one journey in which no one would be able to follow.