Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text:
(Matthew 26:50b-56)
Then
all the disciples left him and fled.
Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the
meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our
Redeemer. Amen.
In Genesis 49, just as the patriarch Jacob is
about to die, he gathers all his children together to give each of them a
blessing.
About the two brothers Simeon and Levi he
says: Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are their swords…Cursed
be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel!
This passage is a particular reference to
that time when their sister Dinah was captured and raped by Shechem, the son of
Hamor, the Hivite. This young woman Dinah was defiled and disgraced, and Simeon
and Levi wanted to defend her. So the sons of Jacob pretended to make an
agreement with Shechem that he and all his men be circumcised according to
God’s law, and then he could have her as his wife. So Shechem did what they
said, but then Simeon and Levi, we read, took their swords and came
against the city while it felt secure and killed all the males. They killed
Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house
and went away. The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city,
because they had defiled their sister. They took their flocks and their herds,
their donkeys, and whatever was in the field.
So Jacob says: Simeon and Levi are
brothers; weapons of violence are their swords… Cursed be their anger, for it
is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel!
Later on, in the book of Exodus, we read
about someone else who is born into this hot-headed family. Now a man from
the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived
and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three
months. When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of
bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and
placed it among the reeds by the river bank. This child is none
other than Moses. Moses was from the family or the tribe of Levi, this fierce
family, this angry family. And as soon as Moses had grown up the first thing we
read about him is this: One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out
to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a
Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he
struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
So Moses fled to Midian. We read in Acts
chapter 7, that Moses stayed there 40 years before the Lord appeared to him in
the burning bush and sent him back to lead the people Israel out of Egypt.
Isn’t it amazing, how despite this violence,
despite this hot-headedness, God still uses Moses, and calls him for a great
purpose? God even calls the entire tribe of Levi to be the priests in the
tabernacle and later in the temple.
In the same way, we see an eruption of
violence in our reading tonight: And behold, one of those who were with
Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high
priest and cut off his ear.
In the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke,
this particular disciple isn’t named, but in John, we are told that it was
Peter who did this.
In so many different parts of the bible, we
see people with all different types of character. And in both Moses and Peter,
we see a certain anger that flares up here and there: Moses kills the Egyptian
man, he smashes the first tablets of the 10 commandments. Peter also here
lashes out against the servant of the high priest and cuts of his ear.
It is probably likely that Peter was trying to
do a lot more damage than he actually managed to do, like split his head open
or cut it off.
But all throughout the gospels, we see a
certain character in the person of Peter. He is described so vividly by the
evangelists, that sometimes it almost feels as though we have met him
personally. Many people say that Peter is one of their favourite people in the
New Testament.
There’s always something about Peter that’s a
little bit over the top. All of us know people like this: they’re never
lukewarm, they’re only either hot or cold, they’ve either got their switch
turned up on high or it’s off.
And so, when Jesus walks on the water, we see
Peter say to him, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the
water. We see great faith in Peter, but also when he falls, the fall is
great. One moment, Jesus says to Peter, You are Peter, and on this rock I
will build my church, and the next moment, only a few verses later when
Peter rebukes Jesus for prophesying about his death, Jesus says to him, Get
behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me.
And so, here, at the time of Jesus’
suffering, we see Peter dedicate himself to Jesus in such a bold and daring
way. He says: Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall
away! Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you! Lord, I am ready
to go with you both to prison and to death.
And like all brave men, Peter is a man who
doesn’t forget his words quickly, and is not about to let Jesus down.
So when he sees the soldiers come up and
seize Jesus, Peter is ready to lead the charge, and pulls out his sword. Maybe
he thought he was doing a great act of faith. All of the gospels tell us that
the group that came with Judas was no little group: this was a great crowd. We
don’t know exactly how many people were there, but it is enough for us to know
that the disciples were well and truly outnumbered.
And so Peter taking the lead, draws out his
sword and cuts of a man’s ear – and not just any man’s ear, but the high
priest’s servant. In the gospel of John, we are even told his name: Malchus.
And in the gospel of Luke, we are even told that Jesus touched his ear and
healed him.
We know that Peter would have known the Old
Testament very well, with passages about scrawny boy David defeating the tall
muscle-man of a hulk Goliath, and Gideon’s defeat of Midian with just 300 men.
Peter probably thought he was part of the next glorious victory in the history
of God’s people. If David and Gideon could win their victories, so could Peter.
So let’s go! With Jesus on our side, we can easily defeat these people.
Jesus has other ideas. He says: Put
your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the
sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send
me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be
fulfilled, that it must be so?
Here’s the problem. Who has commanded Peter
to attack? No-one. In fact, the fifth commandment says, “You shall not murder.”
Peter isn’t a soldier. It isn’t his vocation
and calling to use the sword. His calling is simply to preach the gospel. There
are certain people in our society who are called to use weapons, like soldiers
who have to defend our country in war. But not individual citizens. Later on in
his first letter, St Peter would write: Be subject for the Lord’s sake to
every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to
governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do
good. St Paul writes in Romans 13: Let every person be subject to the
governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those
that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the
authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur
judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you
have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will
receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do
wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant
of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.
You can see that God appoints people in our
society who are permitted to use physical force: soldiers, police, and such
like. But Peter is not permitted as a private citizen to use his sword, except
perhaps for gutting fish.
People who are against religion often
criticise it for starting wars. Some religions might start wars, but
Christianity cannot be used as pretext for war, as is seen by the words of
Jesus in our reading tonight. He says: Put your sword back into its place.
For those who take the sword will perish by the sword. If you use the
sword, it will be your fault when you are punished for it.
But wars do not exist between religions. Wars
are carried out between nations. There have been many nations which have been
primarily of one religion, but that does not mean that Christianity starts
wars. Hitler didn’t invade Poland because of religion, the Japanese didn’t
invade Pearl Harbour because of religion, the Hutus didn’t kill the Tutsis
because of religion, Korea wasn’t about religion, Vietnam wasn’t about
religion, neither was the Faulklands war, neither did the conflicts in recent
years in Iraq, Kuwait, Pakistan and Afghanistan about religion. And if anyone
wants to assert that any of these wars were started on religious pretexts, they
are drawing pretty long bows. Of course, in the last year, the terrible
conflict started by ISIS in Iraq and Syria has been religious, but this is not
the religion that Jesus teaches. I have often heard people say about WWII that
both sides thought that God was on their side. But Christianity is always
compromised when people talk like this – it weakens the Gospel, and turns it
into some sort of lucky charm. In 1 Samuel the Israelites tried to do this when
they wrongly took the Ark of the Covenant into battle – and they lost the war.
Ask the people of Papua New Guinea (and other
countries) what changed when Christianity first came to their shores: they
stopped fighting. Remember when Jesus was born, the angel said: Peace on
earth. If Jesus Christ is taken out of nations, there will be much more war
than there has ever been before. And when the atrocities of World War I and
World War II are no longer in the living memories of the people of Europe,
Japan, America and Australia, then there will probably be even more wars and
even worse ones. But they won’t be about religion: they will happen between
nations and they will take place between nations alone.
In the meantime, Jesus says to the citizens
of his kingdom: Put your sword back into its place. There’s
no room for your private vendettas, your petty revenge, and there is certainly
no room for revolution. If Christians want to change things, it can only be
done by prayer and through the preaching of the gospel. Those are the weapons
that God has given to you: the word of God is the sword of the Holy Spirit –
use that.
And so, Jesus here shows that he too is going
to put himself under the governing authorities, even if they are doing the
wrong thing, even if they are corrupt. He submits to this yoke and bears it,
because it is sent by God and it is God’s will that Jesus bear the sin of the
world.
And so Jesus shows to his disciples that he
goes to his death willingly. He says: Do you think that I cannot appeal
to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?
Jesus holds back his own disciples from
fighting, but he also holds back all the powers of heaven, the heavenly
armies from fighting too. The angels are restrained, held back. Every Sunday we
call God “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts”. He is the Lord
of Sabaoth, in Hebrew, which means hosts. He is in charge of
armies, his armies of angels and archangels. And he is also holy – wonderful,
glorious, and dangerous. And it is a dangerous thing here that we see happen,
when God doesn’t send his angels to fight on Jesus Christ’s behalf.
Jesus has every right to call on them, but he
doesn’t. He is arrested willingly. We saw in our text last week that at the
word “I am” the soldiers fell to the ground. But he still submits to their
corruption, he bears all of this for our sake, because he wants us to be
forgiven: he wants Peter to be forgiven and all his of disciples, and all
Christians throughout history.
But then, Jesus points out the hypocrisy of
the crowd. He says: Have you come out as against a robber, with swords
and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you
did not seize me. But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the
prophets might be fulfilled.
The conspiracy against Jesus doesn’t happen
in public. It happens in the middle of the night, behind closed doors, in
secret places. Those who listen to Jesus, and hear him out, cannot fault him. To
slander and arrest the God who made you can only ever be done with a bad
conscience. It isn’t the sort of thing that can be done in broad daylight. It
is always done in darkness, behind closed doors. And so Jesus says to the crowd
that it’s not by chance that you can arrest me, but it’s by God’s permission.
We read in Luke’s gospel that he says: This is your hour, and the power of
darkness.
Jesus is completely innocent. There is no
charge brought against him that is worthy of his crucifixion. And if Jesus were
to be arrested in broad daylight, it would have been obvious to everyone that
he had said and done nothing wrong. So they come in the middle of the night
with swords and clubs.
And so, with the disciples disarmed, and the
crowd ready to arrest Jesus, we read: Then all the disciples left him
and fled.
All the disciples. Not a single one was left.
Jesus was alone now, and he would go to die for the sins of the whole world by
himself.
In the Gospel of Mark, we read about an extra
detail. It says: And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen
cloth about his body. And they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran
away naked.
This passage shows us a couple of things.
Part of the reason why the disciples ran away is because the soldiers probably
had no intention of listening to Jesus’ words to let the disciples go free.
They probably intended to arrest all of the disciples of Jesus with him. We
read about this young man that they seized him.
Now why is this particular event mentioned?
Some say that this young man may in actual fact be the evangelist Mark himself,
who wrote this in his gospel to tell all the readers that he was there, as a
kind of signature.
But no-one except Jesus was willing to be
taken captive, and no-one except Jesus was capable of dying for the sins of the
world.
In the meantime, examine yourself. Who do you
identify with in the passage? Well, if you think you are Jesus, repent, because
then you are a false prophet. So if you are not Jesus, then you are a person
for whom Jesus is going to die. You are either running away from him or you are
taking him captive and making every attempt to get rid of him. Either you are
pushing him down or running away. This is what it means to be a sinner. You
can’t have any other option. If you don’t want to be a sinner, and a sinner of
such a kind as we find in our reading, then you are not with Jesus. Because
Jesus wants to die like a sinner. Jesus isn’t a sinner, but he takes on our sin
and feels it. He carries our griefs and bears our sorrow. St Paul says: He
who knew no sin became sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of
God.
Jesus wants to take on your sin and to be a
sinner – and he willingly goes to be punished with all God’s might, just as if
he were a sinner.
So run to him, stand under his cross and let
his blood drop down upon you, let his prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane be
your strength, and be a sinner with him. He has died for those who run away
from him, and he has died for those who go out to arrest him with swords and
clubs.
In his suffering, in his death, in his
burial, Jesus is made into a sinner – in our baptism, we are made into true
saints, because we are covered with his blood, and we are forgiven by him.
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the
world, have mercy on us. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all
understanding keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
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