Of Swords and Fighting

Imagine the scene… Jesus Christ at night in the garden of Gethsemane juxtapositioned between two groups of highly agitated men armed with swords. On one side his own followers who have already stated that they are willing to die for him or follow him to prison.

On the other side are the soldiers of the Jewish authority also equipped with swords and clubs ready to take Jesus by force if necessary.

Judas, apparently in an attempt to appear innocent, identifies Jesus with a pre-arranged signal… a kiss. Jesus foils Judas’ attempt at secret betrayal by revealing Judas’ true intent to everyone observing. Then he asks the armed soldiers who they are looking for and upon receiving their answer unashamedly and without fear identifies himself as “Jesus of Nazareth”… So much for the need for betrayal.

The soldiers seize Jesus. Peter and the disciples are ready to fight asking, “Shall we attack with our swords?” Two armed highly agitated groups of men ready to start fighting each other… A fire ready to erupt just waiting for a spark. And then Peter not waiting for Jesus’ answer draws his sword and strikes and draws first blood. Aha… the spark.

Quickly Jesus turns to his disciples to diffuse the situation and tells them “no more of this”. He heals the man who was struck and then turns his attention to his captors and chides them for their methods of arresting him secretly and their threat of force with “swords and clubs”. Jesus, the master of every situation, calms both groups down.

Jesus goes with his captors peacefully and his disciples scatter upon the four winds. Moments before this scene Jesus had been praying privately in great sorrow and anguish that God would spare him the torture that he had to go through. God sent an Angel to strengthen Jesus and even though Jesus’ disciples offered him a way out by fighting for him Jesus knew the course he had to follow.

I admire the disciples for being willing to “fight to the death” for Jesus. What they didn’t know was that they would “serve to the death” for Jesus the Christ. I also admire Jesus for paying the full price in giving up his life. Can we give anything less in return?