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Religion

2010-08-01 13:01:00

Why did Jesus say to buy a sword?

Answer: It seems that he is saying something different than he said in any of the other Gospels. This is one of the more difficult texts in the Gospels for us to understand. Many commentators (e.g. the great Presbyterian scholar William Barclay) ignore that episode in Luke 22, as if it doesn’t exist, or they don’t understand it. I don’t understand it either. Therefore, I can only speculate what St. Luke intended. It appears only in Luke’s Gospel. In the context, this episode is situated after the Last Supper and Jesus’ prediction of Judas’ betrayal and Peter’s denial, and Jesus’ warning to the Apostles about Satan wanting them. The quotation cited in our question is followed immediately with the narrative of Jesus’ Agony in the garden and his Passion. This episode seems extraneous in that context, as if Luke inserted a kind of zigzag, seeming to reverse some of Jesus’ earlier instructions regarding the mission of the Apostles. First, Jesus reminds the Twelve of their earlier missionary work, when he sent them out “without purse and bag and sandals.” “You didn’t go without anything, did you?” he asks them, and they agree. Now he gives a directive different from that cited in the question: “Whoever has a purse or a bag must take it, and whoever does not have a sword, must sell his cloak and buy one.” The purse is for money; the bag is for provisions; the sword is a long knife or short sword. But note: he wants us to carry swords now? Well, we can’t go buy any just this minute, after sundown on the night of the Passover feast. How many can we scrounge between us? “See, Lord, we have two swords with us.” Jesus says simply: “That is enough.” What does St. Luke think Jesus meant by this directive, a change in his earlier program? If there was no mention of swords, then we might think that Luke is trying to account for the differences between the missionary commands cited above (Luke 9:1-5 and 10:1-16), and the actual practice of the Apostles in Acts, which Luke composed later. But “sell your cloak and buy a sword,” particularly in view of Jesus’ command to “love your enemies” and “sell your possessions and give to the poor,” arouses a problem. Some have suggested that it is a warning about the dangers ahead for Jesus’ followers, the equivalent of “You thought things were bad? You ain’t seen nothing yet.” The disciples take Jesus too literally; “that’s enough” is his exasperated termination of this discussion. A slight variation makes “purse, bag, and sword” symbolic of the kind of spiritual preparation needed to be successful apostles, like the “armor of the Lord” in Ephesians 6:11-17. Another explanation would make Jesus’ words ironic. First, he gets them to admit that his teachings about voluntary poverty and non-violence actually worked: they needed nothing when they were being obedient. Then, he gives them an ironic contradictory command: go and do the opposite of what I told you: a command that, because it was Passover, they could not actually obey. And it turns out that they already have two swords, proving that they have not actually been living by Jesus’ teachings after all. So we might paraphrase Jesus’ last remark as “I give up.” I think Jesus is speaking in a figurative or ironic language. This seems the only way to make sense of the episode, not mentioned in the other Gospels. However, the tradition as it reached Luke included the scene where, as Jesus was being arrested, one of those with him drew a sword and used it to wound the servant of the high priest (Mark 14:47). Why would Peter, one of Jesus’ close associates, be armed, especially in view of his teachings on non-retaliation (Luke 6:27-29) and of his instructions to the apostles to carry not even a staff (Luke 9:3)? Luke inserts this puzzling scene to explain why the disciples had swords: Jesus had ordered them to get some. And why would Jesus command such a thing? Luke tells us: “what has been written must be fulfilled in me, ‘And he was reckoned among the wicked’; and this, I tell you, must come to be fulfilled in me” (Luke 22:37). Here “fulfilled has the sense of “goal” as well as “termination.” The background is what happened to the suffering servant of the Lord in Isaiah 53. Jesus’ quotation is from Isaiah 53:12. Luke’s understanding is that everything written about Jesus must be fulfilled (24:44). Jesus is a prophet (7:16) and so must die a prophet’s death in Jerusalem (13:33). Jesus is a servant (22:27), and so what is written about God’s servant must be completed by his experience. Possibly, this is how Luke makes sense of the sword incident in the garden. But by calling them “wicked,” Luke means not to exonerate the armed apostles, who are “wicked” because they already have swords, evidencing yet again that they have not given up everything to follow Jesus. I mentioned above that I don’t really understand this episode in Luke’s Gospel. I have consulted many commentaries written through the centuries. My efforts seemed to be in vain until last month in our monastery library I found the recently published “Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary.” Their volume Luke by Richard B. Vinson (Macon, Georgia 2008), pages 686-688, provide a satisfactory explanation of our question. I acknowledge that I have used many of his ideas in composing this article. Father Richard James Cleary was born and reared in Wichita. After graduation from Cathedral High School in 1947, he attended the seminary operated by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey in Northwestern Missouri. There he came to appreciate the life of the monks and, having obtained the permission of Bishop Mark Carroll of Wichita, he became a monk of that monastery. After being ordained a priest in 1955, his superiors sent him to get his master’s degree at the University of Ottawa, Canada, then to study in Athens, Greece, and then in Rome, Italy, where he obtained his doctor’s degree in Theology. Finally, he spent a year of study at Harvard University. Later, Fr. Cleary was assigned to teach for many years in Rome. In 1998, he returned to Wichita, where he served in parish ministry at St. Mary’s Cathedral and at Blessed Sacrament parishes. In 2001, his abbot (superior) transferred him to Arkansas, where he served as chaplain of the Benedictine Sisters of Holy Angels Convent in Jonesboro, and helped in the parishes of northeast Arkansas. In March 2010, he was re-assigned to his monastery, Conception Abbey, Conception, Missouri 64433. He can be contacted there at (660) 660-2877 or by email: rjcleary@juno.com