Bad Theology
Text for today: Luke 22 xxxv-li
Shortly before His arrest, Jesus asks the apostles whether they lacked anything when He sent them into the world without so much as a change of clothing. When they answer that they lacked nothing, Jesus responds that He is changing the terms of the contract and anyone who has no sword should now sell his garment and buy one. The apostles have two swords between them which, as Jesus predicts, prove sufficient to cut off a man's ear when He is arrested.
Jesus states that the swords are required in order that Scripture may be fulfilled and He may be numbered among the transgressors. However, Jesus had been "numbered among the transgressors" ever since He blasphemed the Jewish faith and stirred up a riot at the Temple; there was no need for any new measures to fulfil the prophecy, since the transgressions for which He was arrested and executed had nothing to do with the possession of swords. Presumably, therefore, His words were intended at least partly as a deception to confuse His notoriously dim-witted and simple-minded followers for the purpose of preserving the holy mysteries.
When the Temple police arrive, one of the disciples attacks the high priest's servant, cutting off his ear. Jesus immediately rebukes the disciple and heals the injury. Since Jesus never healed anyone without an ulterior motive, His order for the weapons was no doubt motivated in the immediate term by His anticipation of this opportunity to demonstrate His power.
Symbolically, the cutting of the ear calls to mind the repeated injunction, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." By indirectly destroying and then personally restoring the hearing apparatus of a Temple functionary, Jesus indicates the need for those Jews who comprised the early Church to hear His message with new ears. By calling for weapons and thereby implicitly licensing His disciple's violence, then hypocritically rebuking the violence when it occurs, Jesus anticipates the moral rigour of His church when it joined forces with the Roman Empire; and by stating that two swords are enough, He ruefully anticipates His church's endless quarrels and schisms, which began with the factional squabbles between Paul and the original apostles and have continued ever since.
The Saviour's choice of words when ordering the weapons is particularly telling, and remarkably brazen in its contemptuous acknowledgement of His kingdom's moral emptiness. There can be few more naked emperors than a church with two swords and no garment.
Shortly before His arrest, Jesus asks the apostles whether they lacked anything when He sent them into the world without so much as a change of clothing. When they answer that they lacked nothing, Jesus responds that He is changing the terms of the contract and anyone who has no sword should now sell his garment and buy one. The apostles have two swords between them which, as Jesus predicts, prove sufficient to cut off a man's ear when He is arrested.
Jesus states that the swords are required in order that Scripture may be fulfilled and He may be numbered among the transgressors. However, Jesus had been "numbered among the transgressors" ever since He blasphemed the Jewish faith and stirred up a riot at the Temple; there was no need for any new measures to fulfil the prophecy, since the transgressions for which He was arrested and executed had nothing to do with the possession of swords. Presumably, therefore, His words were intended at least partly as a deception to confuse His notoriously dim-witted and simple-minded followers for the purpose of preserving the holy mysteries.
When the Temple police arrive, one of the disciples attacks the high priest's servant, cutting off his ear. Jesus immediately rebukes the disciple and heals the injury. Since Jesus never healed anyone without an ulterior motive, His order for the weapons was no doubt motivated in the immediate term by His anticipation of this opportunity to demonstrate His power.
Symbolically, the cutting of the ear calls to mind the repeated injunction, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." By indirectly destroying and then personally restoring the hearing apparatus of a Temple functionary, Jesus indicates the need for those Jews who comprised the early Church to hear His message with new ears. By calling for weapons and thereby implicitly licensing His disciple's violence, then hypocritically rebuking the violence when it occurs, Jesus anticipates the moral rigour of His church when it joined forces with the Roman Empire; and by stating that two swords are enough, He ruefully anticipates His church's endless quarrels and schisms, which began with the factional squabbles between Paul and the original apostles and have continued ever since.
The Saviour's choice of words when ordering the weapons is particularly telling, and remarkably brazen in its contemptuous acknowledgement of His kingdom's moral emptiness. There can be few more naked emperors than a church with two swords and no garment.
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