Articles
"Living (and Dying) by the Sword"
Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. (Matthew 26:52)
Jesus was often misunderstood, not because He spoke in an unclear way, but because His hearers filtered everything through earthly perspectives. During His last Passover, Jesus had indicated a coming transition in the apostles’ work. He said, “But now, he who has a money bag, let him take it … and he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one” (Luke 22:36).
Just a short time later, Jesus is confronted by a weapon-wielding a mob with in Gethsemane. Ever-impulsive Peter leaps to His defense, draws his sword, and whacks off the ear of Malchus, leading to Jesus’ rebuke quoted above. Peter should have known by now that the Lord was not advocating violence to support and defend His kingdom. But Peter misunderstood Jesus’ words and a basic tenet of life “under the sun.”
Daily headlines remind us that violence breeds violence, and those who live by the sword (read: AK-47, gang war, terrorism, spousal abuse, etc.) will eventually be the victim of the very thing they inflict upon others. Truly, we reap what we sow. Extremism accepts hatred and death as inevitable, even desirable, but Jesus calls us to purer principles of love and mercy.
