Put Down Your Sword!

“Jesus said, ‘Put your sword back where it belongs. All who use words are destroyed by swords.’” Matthew 26:53 (The Message)

What happens when we are face to face with an impossible situation? The values we hold dear are being threatened? I don’t mind agreeing with the folks who say that Christian values aren’t honored. But I do struggle with suggesting they were honored better at some other time in our history. Just a brief reminder of the past will show an amazing dichotomy between expressed commitment to Christian values and actions that didn’t add up. It doesn’t take long before the list which includes stealing Native American homelands, importing Africans as slaves and killing people accused (often falsely) as witches, to wonder what it means when we say our founders meant us to be a “Christian nation”.

This isn’t to speak against anything we hold special, but the “special” should never become “sacred”. Love of country should never rise to the same level as our devotion to Christ. The only “sacredness” we should love and embrace is the sacredness of Jesus Himself. No nation, not even any denomiNATION, deserves the title of “sacred”.

In the garden, Jesus sweat drops of blood, cried out the Father, desiring the cup of suffering for us be taken away! Until the actual time on the cross, there has been no other moment in Jesus’ life where the depth of His compassion has been observed!

Like us, though, the disciples sleep through it all. We preachers shouldn’t feel too bad when our people nap. At once, disturbing that sacred scene, the clumping of army boots! Jesus is threatened! Jesus is going to be “taken away”. Jesus is going to be made “illegal” by the current government. Anyone expressing loyalty to Him is going to be held suspect by the nation. (I know, that's how some of us feel).

But, what are we to do? We feel like doing what Peter does! Oh, perhaps not literally. None of us would be crass enough to actually physically wound someone. But, in my time of following Jesus, I have observed some of His followers hurt other people’s reputations, all in the name of “keeping Christ in…well…something we feel He SHOULD be in.” And so we angrily call politicians names, storm council or school board meetings with our righteous demands that somebody please put Jesus back!

I have seen dear men and women who have been hacked up by our tongue’s own swords…and we think we are doing Jesus’ bidding. Just like Peter did. Who asked Him to do that? Who conscripted him? Who drafted him? Not only does Jesus say, “This is not our way” He goes ahead and heals the man’s ear.

I wonder who we truly follow, as Christians. Shall we deeply consider the way Christ Himself leads? Shall we remember that there are “real” people who we accuse of doing Satan’s bidding? Think about it. To “lay down” the sword means to follow the Crucified One. To “take up” the sword is to follow the crucifying ones!

Truth has to do not only with “what” we believe, but in the character in which we express that truth. Jesus could have called any number of heavenly recruits. The same is true, now, by the way. It never unnerved me to hear praying might be “illegal” in schools; at least not “school-sponsored” prayer. That is the arena of the church. In all truth, I really don’t want the public school teaching my kids about Christ. They are likely to get it all wrong.

As a nation, as we have moved away from a “state religion”, it has become counter-cultural to follow Jesus. I believe that is as it should be. Christ never meant for His kingdom to carry the power of the sword. He calls Peter, as well as other His followers, to stop playing with national strength as if it is the same as Kingdom power.

Jesus took the moment to suggest all who take up the sword, all who us power as their weapon of choice, will die by that same device.

Jesus chose another route, the road that led directly through the fire of suffering straight to the cross. This is God’s way, and always has been. This is the strong statement that peace matters! The bold statement that God’s ways are different than man’s! It is the strong reminder that God can take care of Himself! Our obedience does not change! Love God first; love others as ourselves. Even if they are trying to take Jesus away.