Was the angel in the tomb the same ‘young man’ who ran away naked during Jesus’s arrest?

“On entering the tomb they saw a young man in a white robe seated on the right-hand side, and they were struck with amazement.” (Mark 16:5)

Why does St Mark, alone among the evangelists, describe the angel in the tomb as a “young man in a white robe”?

The only other time he refers to a young man is during the arrest of Jesus, and again there is a reference to the clothing being worn:

“A young man who followed him had nothing on but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him, but he left the cloth in their hands and ran away naked.” (14:51-52)

Could St Mark be referring to an angel in both of these passages? St Luke says that an angel came to strengthen Jesus in his agony in Gethsemane (Luke 22:43), but would this angel, appearing in human form, then run away naked when the soldiers seized Jesus?

Perhaps Jesus’s words, to restrain St Peter’s violent resistance to his arrest, help us answer this question: “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53)

Jesus wanted to renounce the protection of the angels in his Passion so he could suffer totally for us; so it is understandable that an angel might withdraw, to fulfil Jesus’ desire. Jesus let only the fallen angels have influence over him in his sufferings, as he said to those arresting him: “this is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53).

At the start of his ministry, Jesus had resisted the temptations of the devil who then “departed from him until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13): now that time has come for Satan, through the betrayal of Judas.

For the same angel who fled from Jesus’s arrest to be the one to announce his Resurrection in the opened tomb is important: the rising of Jesus is not only victory over death, but also over the fallen angels, above all, over their leader, Satan.

Now the angels of light can return; even the one who had run away naked comes back, clothed now in a white robe of glory.

Using traditional Jewish words for angels, St Paul says that, through the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Father “disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him.” (Colossians 2:15)

Let us rejoice that the resurrection of Jesus gives our bodies glory and protection from death, but even more, that it guards our souls from Satan.

Photo: Women at the empty tomb, by Fra Angelico, 1437–1446.

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