Of Guns and Swords

Simon Peter then, having a sword.... (John 18:10)

What a statement. What a reality check. What a warning.

What God has been revealing to me over the past thirty years about Himself and His ways alerts me to the importance of this phrase. And in the context of other things emerging in this passage, this is even more significant.

Shortly before these events transpired in the garden, Jesus had engaged in an interchange with His disciples about swords. He spoke some of the most confusing and cryptic words He had ever used which has caused many to misunderstand His intentions to this very day. (see Luke 22:36) But if there was any doubt as to what Jesus had in mind when He told His disciples to buy a sword if they didn't have one, this passage ought to serve to diffuse such mistaken thinking.

The sad stories of God's people all throughout history repeatedly demonstrates the mistakes we can make when we embrace beliefs in a violent, self-defensive God instead of the real truth about the God of pure agape love. The Jews of Jesus' day were immersed in such diabolical opinions about God and all the disciples were infected with this same virus. The reason there already were two physical swords in the possession of the disciples in a day when weapons were illegal under the Roman occupation, was because they so fervently believed in deliverance by a Messiah who would rely on methods of violence. Just as today, people back then cherished hopes of salvation assuming that God will resort to violence and physical abuse when necessary to accomplish His purposes. Peter was no exception.

There is much debate in the united States today about the right to have weapons. There are many valid and compelling arguments on both sides of this debate, and it is hard at times to refrain from becoming sucked into the fray. But the example and teachings of Jesus must serve as our gold standard of truth if we are to find the straight and narrow path that Jesus said leads to heaven. This path is shunned, scorned and discredited by the vast majority of professed Christians and unbelievers alike. But it still remains the only path of truth that will lead us in the process of true salvation. This path is the same one Jesus followed in every detail of His life. If we want to know the only path to life we have to make the life of Jesus our highest priority for study and emulation, not any other example including Peter.

This verse goes on to say that because Peter had a sword that he drew it out of its sheath and began lashing out with it. This reminds me of the terrible choice his ancestors made long before just after their Red Sea deliverance from Egypt. They were suddenly confronted with a choice about how they were going to relate to God's promises to them. Just after their incredible deliverance from the greatest army in the entire world just hours before, they discovered that many of the armaments of that military machine had suddenly become available to them as bodies of thousands of dead soldiers washed up on the beach. And although the Bible does not detail the particulars of that event, it is clear from the context that they were facing one of the most direction-changing temptations they had ever faced.

God had promised to deliver them from the hands of their oppressors and bring them into a land filled with abundance, all at His own initiative. What He asked of His people simply was their implicit trust that He could handle anything that might threaten them. By starting out with the dispensing of the world's greatest military machine focused on taking revenge on them for escaping the power of their slave-masters, God had proven Himself more than capable of protecting them and providing for all of their needs. But what He needed most but could not force from them was their cooperation with His plans and methods to save them. He longed for them to trust Him in every area of their lives, to rejoice in His passionate love over them and to rest in His loving care and protection. But they rejected His ways and refused to enter into His rest (see Hebrews 3 and 4).

We all know the sad history of their repeated choices all throughout their years in the desert. About the only consistency they practiced was to complain over and over again, to doubt the goodness of God, the power of God, the kindness of God and to complain about and rebel against anyone who did believe and trust in Him. They retained a slave mentality and the mindset of Egypt where force, fear, intimidation and all the other principles of Satan's counterfeit system had been honed to professional levels. All they could bring themselves to believe in was reliance on force to take care of themselves, for they felt that in the end no one else could really be trusted to look out for their interests.

With that kind of mentality, when presented with the choice of whether to bury the dead soldiers along with all their weapons or to scavenge all they could get from the rotting corpses on the beach, they chose the latter and armed themselves to the teeth in preparation for defending themselves from any future threats instead of trusting in the God who had just single-handedly saved them from the greatest threat of force the world had to offer in their day. They greedily snapped up the swords and shields and spears of their enemies and then put their confidence in their own abilities to defend themselves instead of believing the words of God promising them supernatural entrance into the promised land.

Along with the disciples who felt they had to defend themselves when push came to shove, Christians today still are addicted to notions that God expects His children to arm themselves with weapons of the enemy to defend themselves and their families if things get too threatening. How many scenarios have I heard where people try to justify their ownership of guns, making up typical stories where they become the hero by shooting an intruder or someone threatening to rape their daughter. All the while in real life these scenarios almost never work out the way imagined. The intended defenders more often than not become the victims, but worse yet the reputation of God is repeatedly damaged as those claiming to believe in His love refuse to live and love the way Jesus lived but instead take up the sword like Peter demonstrated so uselessly.

One may argue in circles trying to get around why Jesus did not resort to force in this story, but such attempts usually only betray a heart that is not yet converted just as Peter was not yet converted. Peter was very confident that he was the most loyal disciple of Jesus, that he would fight side by side all the way to death if necessary to defend his best Friend. But the problem was that Peter had not yet embraced the real truth about the nature of the kingdom that Jesus had brought to this earth. Peter was not interested in loving enemies instead of attacking them, and like the Israelites of his own ancestry, when given the chance he chose to turn to violence and trust in weapons as his option of choice when under duress instead of allowing God to reveal His true character in contrast to the weapons and techniques of His enemies.

What I find very compelling in this passage that is in stark contrast to this record of Peter relying on force and weaponry to protect himself and his allies, the methods and attitude of Jesus under the very same circumstances was so opposite. A careful examination of the context reveals compelling insights.

So Jesus, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and said to them, "Whom do you seek?" (John 18:4)

This phrase is directly linked back to just a few hours before when John clearly says in chapter 13 that Jesus was fully aware of everything taking place around Him both in the material world and in the supernatural realms. Yet having full knowledge of all the dangers, intrigue, plots and cluelessness of even His own disciples as well as His own enormous superiority, in this context He chose to serve most humbly each of His disciples by washing their dirty feet. Thus Jesus demonstrated the infinite humility of the most powerful God of the universe who only longed for them to see His true goodness and kindness rather than focusing on all that was going wrong. By serving with greatest humility the very disciple who was becoming his worst enemy, Jesus exposed to the extreme the real truth about what it means to be a follower of the ways of God.

It says here again that Jesus was still fully aware of all that was transpiring around Him, yet knowing all of this as well as knowing all the supernatural resources He had to potentially defend Himself, He consciously chose to submit to all the evil that would come not only on Him but potentially on any who might choose to identify themselves with Him as loyal followers.

Lest we miss the significance of this story, let me point out here that the passage as translated in English tends to smooth over something highly significant. In verse 5, verse 6 and in verse 8, Jesus actually uses a name that all the Jews recognized as the most sacred name of the Almighty God of the universe to identify Himself as the one they had come to arrest – the great I AM! In most translations of the Bible it is difficult to see this because it is linked to some other word like He, as in, I am He. But that last word is not in the original text which strongly implies that He simply said, I AM.

This helps to explain why after the second time He identified Himself as the I AM of all history and creation, the evil mob led by Judas who had come to accomplish their evil plans for Him, fell powerless to the ground. No human had suddenly knocked them over, and Peter had not even started his attempts at violence. The sheer truth of who Jesus really was became the overwhelming force that caused the powers of darkness to fall back involuntarily in the presence of infinite power and truth. But even then, Jesus only allowed this to happen momentarily, not for the purpose of defending Himself but to make it explicitly clear the true identity of the One they were about to violate, abuse, shame and finally crucify. They could never plead ignorance that they did not know what they were doing or who they were up against. It became crystal clear in that event to everyone involved that they were fighting against God Himself and so they were without any excuse for their continued rebellion against His love for them.

In the middle of all this commotion and increasing danger, Jesus insisted on the full freedom of all involved to make their own choices as to who's side they would choose to be on. Judas and the mob along with the Roman soldiers chose to pursue their intentions to carry out the diabolical plans of the demons and enemies of Jesus. But Jesus wanted to make sure His other disciples knew that they had a choice to either stay identified with Him or could choose to turn and run away. He did not command anyone but made it very clear that He would protect their right to choose for themselves what they wanted to do in this time of crisis. As for Himself, He conveyed to His accusers that He was completely vulnerable and harmless and they could do anything they might want to do with Him even though He has just revealed that He had access to infinitely more resources and power than they could even begin to imagine. During this time it is also recorded that Jesus told them that if He chose to, He could commission legions of powerful angels to come to His defense if that was the way the kingdom of heaven operated. But the whole purpose for this hour was to expose the stark contrast between the methods and beliefs of the counterfeit system invented by Satan to the ways of heaven that were so different from the ways of this world.

We are still faced with this same divisive truth today. What are we going to believe about God and the nature of His kingdom? Are we going to continue to parrot lies of the enemy that God will not allow His plans to be defeated but will resort to force when He desires? That issue was settled completely at the cross of Jesus. Yet Christians today have been duped into believing that the cross of Christ proved the very opposite, that God was exacting punishment upon His Son through the violence of His enemies to vent God's wrath against sinners. How diabolical Satan's insinuations are and how massively effective they have become in deceiving nearly the whole world yet again.

Increasingly we are going to be faced with these very same confrontations forcing us to reveal what we really believe about God and how our beliefs will work out in our actions and reactions under pressure. Jesus gave us a brilliantly clear revelation of the actual truth about how God will act under violence and threats; Peter gave us an alternative demonstration of another option and belief about the ways of God. Likewise, everyone else in that story revealed their own versions of how to act when faced with a crisis. How will we react when forced to choose what we actually believe about the use of violence?

If there ever was a time when God would have resorted to violence to protect Himself, it would have been when God Himself in the vulnerable person of His Son Jesus Christ was threatened, abused, tortured and finally murdered in a most inhumane and unjust way. But tragically most people prefer the lies of Satan in assuming that next time God shows up that somehow He is going to suddenly change roles and this time reek vengeance, retribution and violence against all who have rejected His salvation or hurt His chosen people. But contrary to all the vivid descriptions of such thinking defended by Scripture proof texts, a careful examination of of God's Word using Jesus as the sole reliable filter through which we interpret all the rest of Scripture renders a very different picture of God.

Jesus explicitly told Peter that those who resort to relying on force will themselves meet the same methods used back against them. Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword." (Matthew 26:52) This principle is one that Jesus spoke of previously when He put is this way:

Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. (Matthew 7:1-2)

And He was saying to them, "Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides." (Mark 4:24)

When we resort to the weapons of the enemy to defend either ourselves or even the cause of God, we have moved away from the kingdom of heaven principles and have infected ourselves with the virus of reliance on power, fear and other counterfeit methods of the enemy. In this war it is highly dangerous to ever take up the methods or weapons of the adversary, for those things are all contaminated with infectious diseases that will lead us into the paths of death and ruin our testimony on God's behalf.

Only the ways of God as revealed explicitly in the life and teachings of Jesus are safe to rely on to further the advancement of God's purposes. Only in taking up our cross, denying ourselves and following in the ways of Jesus can we remain secure in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Although choosing that path may result in personal harm to ourselves and those around us, we must continue to remember that the priorities of heaven are very different than our intuitive priorities and we have to trust our Commander who has all the keys necessary to deliver everyone who implicitly trusts in Him, even from the bondage of death itself.

Contrary to popular assumptions, our battle does not revolve around whether or not we get hurt, whether or not we live or die or whether we can successfully protect our families or friends from getting hurt. The big problem with our thinking is that we have made out the war between good and evil to be a struggle revolving around our own personal performance or comfort. By failing to see that the battle is actually over God's reputation and instead, making it out to be all about ourselves, we have been deceived by all sorts of false assumptions about how the kingdom of heaven operates or is advanced. This battle is not about us or our sins or perfection but is about whether God can be trusted or not. Peter had to learn that lesson along with all the other disciples. But when they finally grasped the real truth about Jesus later on, they became irrepressible in their passion to follow the example of their beloved Friend and Savior who had shown them the stunning truth about what God is really like.

I want that kind of full conversion myself. I want to have these truths soak in more permanently into my own psyche, to embrace them deeper in my own heart so that my reactions under threats will look more like the gentleness and glory of Jesus instead of reflecting the typical reactions of self-defense that are so natural for me now. I want far greater faith in the protection of God whether or not that protection includes my physical well-being or not. I want to be so connected at the heart level to the heart of God as revealed in Jesus Christ that He can begin to demonstrate through me what was seen in the kindness, compassion, forgiveness and love revealed in this story of Jesus.