Congregational Question: Why did Jesus encourage his disciples to take up swords? (Luke 22:36)

This is indeed one of the seemingly out of place texts in the Gospels. It is mentioned only in Luke, which considering Luke’s penchant toward describing Jesus in more tender and peaceful terms than the other Gospels, makes it even more puzzling. The text seems to refer back to the disciples being sent out on their mission (Luke 10.4 and 9.3) with minimal equipment in order to be welcomed by the local communities rather than coming across as a threatening element. Even in this text, where Jesus tells his followers to take up swords, there are limitations; in this case two swords are enough (v.38). There are two explanations for Jesus call to take up swords and Jesus’ sanctioning of violence is not one of them.

One part of an explanation would be the fulfillment of scripture, where it is mentioned in Isaiah 53:12 that the messiah would be numbered with the transgressors. The disciples taking up swords, even if it was only two, would be viewed by the state as armed resistance. The other part of the explanation is that there are also some hints that some within the early Christian movements were at times viewed as lawless insurgents (Acts 5:36-37) and it may be that at the time of Jesus trial, armed resistance was mentioned which would further the need of the early followers to explain what seems to be a very out of character response on the part of Jesus’ followers.

The temptation is to take a short verse such as this and build it up as justification for some sort of action. All too often in the course of human history, the followers of Jesus have been able to justify violence in the name of the Prince of Peace. The case is little different today. At the basis of Jesus teaching is the message of non-violence and viewing one another as brothers and sisters. Our calling as one nation under God is to find non-violent means of resolving conflict. Out tendency, as with any other nation, is to justify our desire for power and control by naming others in this world as axis of evil or empire of Satan. It is this misuse of scripture that justifies and indeed even fuels planes that fly into skyscrapers filled with innocent civilians and fuels the response that leaves the bodies of tens of thousands of innocent civilians in its wake.
It is time for the followers of the three monotheistic religions of Judaism, Islam and Christianity to rise up and stop the misuse of their scriptures for the justification of aggression and start advancing the principals of peace and brotherhood so inherent throughout their scriptures. That calling starts with you and I.