Matthew 26:47-56

Matthew 26:47-56 
English Standard Version (ESV)

  When you are threatened, you inevitably reach for the first available thing you have -- it's a reaction based out of fear.  The temptation here for the disciples is to revert to violence -- to try and fight off the Romans using the tools of the Romans, the sword and the spear. 
  Jesus, however, is always teaching.  He knows he doesn't have to use the weapons of the world to defeat the Romans -- he has the ability to call down legions of angels to crush the Roman army if he wants, but that's not his goal.  Jesus didn't come to score a military victory.  Jesus didn't come to set back any Roman conquests by a few years.  He came to show us another way to live, to invite us into God's Kingdom, where sword and spear are unnecessary, where fear does not reign, where violence is not the way to win anything.
  Jesus invites us into another way, and he calls us to live this way in the here and now, not just to wait until heaven to start living like this.  He points to heaven with his every word and action, and here, when the temptation is to opt for violence, he instead chooses the way of peace. 
  When we are threatened, may we remember this example and opt for the way of peace.  May we keep our vision fixed upon the Kingdom that has no end, the one that cannot and shall not be threatened by the sword.  May we put our whole trust in Jesus and embody the gracious selflessness that he lived every day and every way.