What did Jesus say about weapons?

Such is man — yea, the very best of men! Self-confident, when he ought to be self-distrusting — sleeping, when he ought to be watching; and, we may add, fighting, when he ought to be submitting. "Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus." How incongruous, how utterly out of place, was a sword in company with the meek and lowly Sufferer! "Then said Jesus to Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which My Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?" Peter was entirely out of the current of his Master's spirit. He had not a thought in common with Him in reference to His path of suffering. He would fain defend Him with carnal weapons, forgetting that His kingdom was not of this world.

As the Lord is taken by the crowd, one of His disciples (John tells us it was Peter-- Jn.10:10) used his sword to cut off the ear of the high priest's servant. But this did not issue in a fight, for the Lord Jesus, in perfect control of the circumstances, gives the royal command to put up the sword, adding that by taking the sword one is exposing himself to perishing with the sword. His faithful mercy in restoring the ear is not mentioned here, for His authority is more emphasized in Matthew, rather than His grace as in Luke (ch.22:51).

Now the bed-rock principle for the Lord's kingdom is SELF-SACRIFICING LOVE (Matt. 18). Note well the record of the Lord's arrest in the garden in Matthew's Gospel, the Gospel of the King. Peter believed that the hour had come in which to strike a blow for the Lord, but he was rebuked for having thoughts so contrary to the spirit of his Master. Jesus said, "Put up again thy sword into his place: for all who take the sword shall perish by the sword (chap. 26:52). That saying was not addressed to the world in general, nor did it refer to nations quarrelling one with another, it was addressed to the thought in the hearts of His disciples, that His kingdom was to be established by the sword. Others of the Lord's people have had the same thought since that memorable night, and have perished by the sword as the Lord said they would, Zwingle of Switzerland being an example.

At this juncture Peter, naturally of a forward disposition, drew a sword, and cut off the right ear of a servant of the high priest, whose name, we learn, was Malchus. Natural feeling, and a true love for his Master, prompted him to this act. But natural feeling is not always a safe guide. In this case it was not. God's work is not to be propagated now by the sword; and the Lord's kingdom being not "from hence," as He subsequently told Pilate, He did not require His servants to fight for it (36). Of old God's cause was furthered by the sword. The earthly people were concerned in that. Now there was the heavenly calling, and the kingdom of the heavens was not to be advanced by carnal weapons. Besides, what was taking place in the Lord's arrest was the carrying out of the Divine purpose. So, rebuking the zeal of His disciple, Christ added, "The cup which My Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?" The soldiers, with the chief captain and the Jewish officers, now surrounding Him, bound Him, and led Him away first to Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest. The Lord had thus surrendered Himself.

Some have thought to excuse military service on the ground of what God allowed, and even commanded, in Old Testament times. Such persons, therefore, put forward the old at the expense of the new Testament, and in their souls consequently lose the power of both. Others, again, have sought to prove that a soldier is not responsible for his acts when he obeys his commanding officer. God will judge every one justly; but any Christian who weighs the words of the Lord Jesus can surely not hesitate for a moment as to what is his Lord’s mind upon the matter. “My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews.” (John 18:36.) Never was there a more worthy, a more just cause to fight for than at that moment; but the Lord refuses it entirely on the ground of strangership to this world. If a Christian fights now it is to uphold the glory of the world that crucified his Lord; and it is a virtual denial of that word which tells us that our citizenship is in heaven. (Phil. 3:20.)

Changed Circumstances. — Consequent on the Lord's death the whole company would experience a change. The world's hatred, from which hitherto they had been screened, they would then prove. When sent out on their mission of preaching during the Lord's life He had cared for them, and men, we may conclude (9:4; 10:7-8), ministered to them. They had lacked nothing, though they had taken nothing with them. Henceforth, with the world against them, they would, as it were, have to provide for themselves: "He that has a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip [or, wallet]; and he that has no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one" (ver. 36). Did He intend them to take His word about a sword literally? They apparently thought that, as they said, "Lord, behold, here are two swords." His reply was sufficient to correct their misapprehension. What could two swords avail against the armed force that might be sent against them? And when Peter did use the sword in defence of his Master, the Lord's reproof recorded by Matthew (26:52), and fittingly in his gospel, as it indicated a dispensational change in dealing with opponents — that reproof, we say, was to set at rest for ever the idea of propagating the kingdom of God now by such weapons. "All they that take the sword, shall perish with the sword." And in a future time this same principle will hold good (Rev. 13:10). Great then indeed would be the change. Meanwhile Scripture had to be fulfilled. He was to be numbered with transgressors, for that which concerned Him had an end. Fulfilled it all would be.

(2) They take Him unresisting. But Peter is again to illustrate how far even a loyal heart may be from the mind of Christ. In speaking of the hostile attitude of the world in which He is leaving them, the Lord had enjoined one that had no sword to sell even his garment and buy one (Luke 22:36). Peter, taking this literally, as we may suppose, no sooner finds his beloved Master thus assailed than his weapon is out, and he smites a servant of the high priest and cuts off his ear. But he has belittled and misrepresented Him whom he would serve, who must be fallen low indeed to need His disciple's sword to extricate Him from such hands as these. If He yield, it is to God, not man; He yields, ― to take the cup from the Father's hand: and what should the sword do here? Were not heaven's legions dependent on His will? and would not the Father, if He had willed it, give Him, not twelve frail disciples, but more than twelve legions of angels?

204 The Lord receives it with the calmness of One who, now in the path of obedience, had perfectly bowed to His Father's will. "Friend, wherefore art thou come?" For indeed, when He warned His disciples, He might have gone away, for it was dark, but for that He had not come. He could have had twelve legions of angels; but how then should the scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be? It was now, having gone through all with His Father as to His path, a settled thing, not His feeling about it, but the divine path itself. It must be: scripture, the true revealed mind of God, had pointed out that path. What a testimony to scripture and its authority! In that greatest and lonely hour, that stands out from all and has none like it, it sufficed. How then should the scripture be fulfilled that thus it must be? It was by that the Lord conquered in the wilderness, by that He was as to authority determined in this moment in which He gave up all to glorify God and atone for our sins. It is to be remarked here that there is no healing of the servant which we know was wrought; another subject is set forth by the Spirit here, the obedient and submissive victim. He was going as a lamb to the slaughter. This was His place. He ever perfectly obedient, He was learning obedience by the things that He suffered; and that path is ours: human violence and human weapons in the Christian will meet with human weapons and stronger ones in the world; submission to God's will and the cross, is the path marked out for God's glory, as the world is - a wondrous lesson but a blessed one.

If we do well, suffer for it, and take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. This Jesus was now doing, and in the most perfect sense. He could have had His legions of angels and used no violence; but He came to obey and suffer, and do so to the full, accomplishing the work given Him to do, not to contend or escape. But here too, as with the disciples, yea, even with Judas, He has His word for the multitudes. He had sat daily with them in the temple, and they laid no hands upon Him; now they came out against Him as against a thief. There is tenderness and compassion in these words toward them; and the sense that the truth was, His hour was come as to Himself. He had been quietly with them in the temple, and they hanging indeed on His lips, and they had laid no hands on Him. But so it was to be: He was to lay down His life for the sheep, for all the glorious purposes of atonement. They were led by others, but would not have been, were they not away from God. Compassion on ignorance there might be, but this time was to signal Satan's power and Jesus' submission. He is conscious of the difference; He expresses calmly, as to His disciples, His sense of the state of things, and notices it in grace, and bows to it.

When the crowd of men with swords and staves laid hold on and seized Him, Peter (too hasty to await the answer to the appeal, Lord, shall we smite with sword?) drew his, and smote the high priest's bondman, and took off his ear. This the Lord rebuked: "Return thy sword to its place; for all that take the sword shall perish by the sword. Or thinkest thou, that I cannot now call on my Father, and he will furnish me more than twelve legions of angels? How then should the scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be?"

When one of His disciples drew his sword and smote off the ear of the bondman of the High Priest, Jesus said to him, "Return thy sword to its place; for all who take the sword shall perish by the sword. Or thinkest thou that I cannot now call upon my Father, and He will furnish Me more than twelve legions of angels?" (Matt. 26:52).