The promise…

Of the Spirit (part 15) 

Jesus knew that after he was gone his disciples were in for a rough ride. Without his constant presence they would flounder, as did Peter denying he even knew Jesus. So right after telling Peter that he’d deny knowing him three times, Jesus asked his disciples in Luke 22:35, “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?” 

In their experience they could happily answer “Nothing” to Jesus’ question, because he’d always supplied what they needed for the job he’d given them to do. 

But that was about to change, because in verse 36, Jesus says, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.” His immediate reason for the sword was Isaiah’s prophecy of him being “numbered among the transgressors” (verse 37), and by his disciples carrying swords it would make him look like he was a transgressor, calling upon his followers to fight and resist. 

But he was also preparing his disciples for the time when he would no longer be with them to provide for them personally. So his suggestion that they purchase swords could tie in with that too, because left to fend for themselves without his constant presence they would need the comfort of another powerful source. And having a sword strapped to their waist pictured that. It’s like carrying a gun. Feeling its weight is like a comfort. Well, that’s exactly what the disciples would need, a constant and powerful comforter. 

But it wouldn’t be any physical weapon or any other human means, which Jesus made clear by healing the high priest’s servant’s ear that Peter had slashed off with his sword (verses 49-51). “No more of that,” Jesus said in verse 51, sealing forever any need for his disciples to resort to weapons or fighting. Which again would be tough for them to do, because resistance by violence comes so naturally to us humans.

But as Jesus told his disciples in John 14:27, “I do not give to you as the world gives.” And in John 15:19, “You do not belong to the world. I have chosen you out of the world.” So he’d provide his disciples with a non-worldly, non-violent power instead…(more on this tomorrow)