Tag Archives: Reza Aslan

“Sell Your Cloak & Buy a Sword!” Was Jesus an Armed Revolutionary? (Part 2 of 2)

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Jesus Revolt

SELL YOUR CLOAK, BUY A SWORD – LUKE 22

He said to them, “But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. 37 For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about me has its fulfillment.” 38 And they said, “Look, Lord, here are two swords.” And he said to them, “It is enough.” (Luke 22:36-38)

 

(Picking up right where we left off in PART ONE…)

Similar to Matthew 10:34, when we look at the second “sword” passage in isolation it appears Jesus is in favor of using weapons. Yet, upon digging deeper, it appears highly unlikely. Luke’s Gospel includes the same peaceful teachings as we find in Matthew’s Gospel in the Sermon on the Mount, so what are we to make of Jesus telling his disciples to get swords?  

As Luke’s Gospel draws near to the grand climax – Jesus’ arrest, crucifixion, and resurrection – Jesus addresses his disciples, making reference to when he sent them out earlier (the same event connected to the first sword passage in Matthew 10). He says to his disciples,

“When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?” They said, “Nothing.” He said to them, “But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. (Luke 22:35–36)

Then, Jesus makes reference to his impending execution, which fulfills scripture no less:

For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about me has its fulfillment.” (Luke 22:37)

After, we’re told:

And they [the disciples] said, “Look, Lord, here are two swords.” And he said to them, “It is enough.” (Luke 22:38)

First, we have to once again take into account all of Jesus’ other teachings about loving enemies and turning cheeks. Nowhere do we see Jesus encourage any sort of armed uprising or violence towards anyone. Let’s also keep in mind, no writer of the New Testament nor did any of the early church fathers, all of whom were obviously closer to Jesus than we are, ever understood Jesus’ teachings as anything but nonviolent and aggressively peaceful.

Secondly, if Jesus were telling his disciples to buy swords for an armed revolt, would two swords be enough? Maybe if your “armed revolt” was robbing a first century 7-11. So, no, two swords are certainly not enough to take on the mighty Roman Empire.

But this verse has often been used in another way, one less fantastical than Reza Aslan’s creative writing project Zealot. Jesus isn’t telling the disciples to revolt (with – I just have to say it again – two swords), but he’s telling them to defend themselves. This passage is often used by Christians as evidence that Jesus was OK with using violence for self-defense.

This is much more plausible, but this still isn’t the main point Jesus is making here. Jesus’ enemies are about to make their big move; Jesus will soon be arrested and executed. Things are about to get intense. The followers of Jesus are about to enter into a new period of hardship and opposition. Could Jesus be telling them to get swords to defend themselves? It’s possible. But, on the other hand, if Jesus were telling them to get swords to defend themselves – once again – would only two swords be enough for twelve men?

Like in Matthew 10:34, it seems Jesus doesn’t expect to be taken completely literally. He’s communicating to his disciples that hardship and hostility are coming. But I don’t think his disciples get his point. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus’ disciples constantly misunderstand him, especially when it comes to his mission.

They know he’s the Messiah, and they’re expecting him to start a revolution and drive out the Romans, but Jesus keeps telling them: My mission is to die to fulfill scripture. And in this passage, the disciples totally overlook his reference to his coming death and instead zoom in on his mention of swords (not unlike us today). Even if Jesus is suggesting swords for self-defense, it’s not the thing he wants his disciples to focus on. (Moreover, even if Jesus is telling his disciples to get swords for self-defense, it certainly doesn’t suggest armed revolt.)

What makes more sense?

               Jesus: Things are about to get intense; you may want to buy a sword. I’m about to be arrested and executed to fulfill scripture.

               Disciples: Hey, we have two swords!

               Jesus: That’s enough swords. Sounds like the twelve of you are ready for battle.

OR

               Jesus: Things are about to get intense; you may want to buy a sword. I’m about to be arrested and executed to fulfill scripture.

               Disciples: Hey, we have two swords!

               Jesus: Enough about swords. You’re still not getting it.

Written in a time where scholars clearly valued bluntness over tactfulness, John Calvin calls the disciples “stupid” for thinking Jesus was telling them to take up arms [1]. If you have any doubt about this nonviolent understanding of this passage, you only have to keep reading in Luke’s Gospel – and not even very far.

Only several verses later, Jesus is arrested on the Mount of Olives and his disciples literally ask him, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” Then, one of his disciples, Peter, cuts off the right ear of the high priest’s bondservant. Jesus’ response? “No more of this!” Matthew includes in his Gospel that Jesus tells Peter, “Put your sword back into its place.” Then, Jesus famously says, “For all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matthew 26:52).

No, I don’t think Jesus was the first century Jewish Che Guevara.

*This is an excerpt from my upcoming, vastly revised and expanded edition of Who Jesus Ain’t.

Read PART ONE: “I Have Not Come to Bring Peace, But a Sword!” Was Jesus an Armed Revolutionary? (Part 1 of 2)

[1] John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries (Complete), trans. John King, Accordance electronic ed. (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1847), paragraph 71192.

“I Have Not Come to Bring Peace, But a Sword!” Was Jesus an Armed Revolutionary? (Part 1 of 2)

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34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. (Matthew 10:34)

Che Jesus

JESUS, THE ARMED REVOLUTIONARY?

Jesus has always been considered a teacher of peace and nonviolence. Yet, the intensely saucy Reza Aslan (a man who ate human brains on TV and, ironically, shares his last name with the Christ figure in C.S. Lewis’ Narnia novels), doesn’t think Jesus was such a peaceful guy. His whole 2013 book Zealot – which was largely ignored by Christian apologists and scholars due to its weak thesis, but widely read by those who don’t know better – is built on the idea that Jesus was crucified because he was promoting armed revolution against the Romans. (And Reza isn’t the only one to attempt to repaint Jesus in this way; I’ve witnessed angry internet atheists do their best to comb the Gospels to find a reason to condemn Jesus as anything but the traditional understanding.)

Those like Reza undoubtedly bring up two times Jesus mentions swords in the Gospels (Matthew 10:34 & Luke 22:36-38) to prove that Jesus wasn’t a peaceful man (and conveniently ignore everything else he says). Reza in Zealot calls the idea of Jesus being a peaceful man a “complete fabrication.” As we’ll see, the Jesus of Zealot is the fabrication.

 

CONTEXT IS KING

Hey, remember that thing called context? It means reading all the stuff around a passage to understand what the passage means. For instance, let’s imagine that someone told you Jesus claimed to be a door. Your friend says, “I kid you not, Jesus thinks he’s a door! He literally believes he’s a door! What a nut! Why does anyone listen to this guy?” Well, Jesus did call himself a door (John 10:9-16). But when you read the passage in context, you see Jesus wasn’t being literal; he was being metaphorical. Context is important. Not just important, but essential. Context is king! And if we want to understand what Jesus means by calling himself a door, we need to understand the context.

What guys like Reza do is grab an isolated quote from Jesus and ignore the context. They ignore the context not just of the big picture of the Gospels, the New Testament, and the Bible, but even the context of the tiny section of scripture it appears in, as you’ll see. So, let’s look at these verses about swords.

 

NOT PEACE, BUT A SWORD – MATTHEW 10

Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. (Matthew 10:34)

Well, there you have it. Jesus must’ve been armed to the teeth and ready to go Rambo on anyone in his way, right? Oh wait: context! What’s the context? In Matthew 10, Jesus is about to send his disciples throughout the land to proclaim the Kingdom of God. He even gives them a way to prove the authority he has given them. How? Through a display of power with weapons? No, through a display of power through healing the sick, raising the dead, and casting out demons.

The sword comment comes towards the end of his instructions, after he explains to his disciples that persecution will come against them. He says, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” He warns that they will be arrested, interrogated, beaten, and hated. Does he tell them to respond with violence? No, he tells them to flee if they have to. But he also tells them not to be fearful because God is with them. He tells them not to fear “those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” So far, none of this sounds much like war-mongering.

Now, understanding the context brings things much more into clear focus when he says,

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. (Matthew 10:34–36)

The parallel passage in Luke’s Gospel helps us understand his meaning:

Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. (Luke 12:51)

So, in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says he came to bring a sword. In Luke’s Gospel, he says he came to bring division. Before continuing, why the different wording between the two Gospels? Easy. There’s two possibilities.

First, Jesus gave this teaching several times and he worded it differently at different times. There’s nothing odd about that. He couldn’t just make a Youtube video, so Jesus traveled around and would’ve taught the same things again and again, and like all teachers who teach the same lesson again and again, he would phrase things differently for different audiences.

The second explanation is that one Gospel writer is giving a direct quote and the other is giving a paraphrase. Despite your modern, English Bible using quotation marks, quotation marks didn’t exist back then in the ancient manuscripts in the original Greek. So, when we read Jesus’ words in the Gospels, we can’t know for sure if it’s a word-for-word quote or a paraphrase or summary. Again, nothing odd here. For example, preachers often paraphrase passages from the Bible while teaching, and the New Testament writers themselves often paraphrase the Old Testament rather than give a word-for-word quote.

That behind us, it’s clear from the context (including taking into account all of Jesus’ teachings) that Jesus isn’t speaking of a literal sword, but a metaphorical one. The sword represents division. Yes, he’s a peaceful man, but his teachings will cause division, even within families. Just before this, when speaking about the persecution his disciples will face, he says, “ Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death.” Jesus’ ministry even brought division within his own family (Matthew 13:53-58; John 7:3-5).  

Not everyone will be a part of the Kingdom of God, and though Jesus’ mission is nonviolent, the response to Jesus’ ministry won’t always be, and though he preaches peace, his teachings will cause turmoil. He teaches elsewhere that the world will give his followers trouble and grief (John 14:27, 16:33). They should expect it. If the world hates you, he says, know that it hated me first (John 15:18-27).

*This is an excerpt from my upcoming, vastly revised and expanded edition of Who Jesus Ain’t.

NEXT: Sell Your Cloak, Buy a Sword! Luke 22:36-38.