BUY A SWORD?
This is a hard saying in the sense that is is difficult to reconcile it with Jesus' general teaching on violence: violence was not the course for his followers to take. It is widely held that this saying was not meant to be taken literally, but if not, how was it meant to be taken?
It occurs in Luke's Gospel only. Luke reports it as part of a conversation between Jesus and his disciples at the Last Supper. Jesus reminds them of an earlier occasion when he sent them out on a missionary tour and told them not to take a purse (for money) or bag (for provisions) or sandals. Presumably, they could expect their needs to be supplied by well-disposed people along their route (Lk 10:4-7) But now things were going to be different: people would be reluctant to show them hospitality, for they might get into trouble for doing so. On that earlier occasion, as the disciples now agreed, they had lacked nothing. "But now," said Jesus, "if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag"--they would have to fend for themselves. More than that, "if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one." If that is surprising, more surprising still is the reason he gives for this change of policy: "It is written: 'And he was numbered with the transgressors'; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me."
It is doubtful if the disciples followed his reasoning here, but they thought they had got the point about the sword. No need to worry about that: "See, Lord," they said, "here are two swords." To which he replied, "That is enough" or, perhaps, "Enough of this."
Luke certainly does not intend his readers to understand the words literally. He goes on to tell how, a few hours later, when Jesus was arrested, one of the disciples let fly with a sword--probably one of the two which they had produced at the supper table--and cut off an ear of the high priest's slave. But Jesus said, "No more of this!" and healed the man's ear with a touch (Lk 22:49-51)
So what did he mean by his reference to selling one's cloak to buy a sword? He himself was about to be condemned as a criminal, "numbered with the transgressors," to use language applied to the Servant of the Lord in Isaiah 53:12. Those who until now had been his associates would find themselves treated as outlaws; they could no longer count on the charity of sympathetic fellow Israelites. Purse and bag would now be necessary. Josephus tells us that when Essenes went on a journey they had no need to take supplies with them, for they knew that their needs would be met by fellow members of their order; they did, however, carry arms to protect themselves against bandits.
But Jesus does not envisage bandits as the kind of people against whom his disciples would require protection; they themselves would be lumped together with bandits by the authorities, and they might as well act the part properly and carry arms, as bandits did. Taking him literally, the disciples revealed that they had anticipated his advice: they already had two swords. This incidentally shows how far they were from resembling a band of Zealot insurgents: such a band would have been much more adequately equipped. And the words with which Jesus concluded the conversation did not mean that two swords would be enough; they would have been ludicrously insufficient against the band that came to arrest him, armed with swords and clubs. He meant "Enough of this!"--they had misunderstood his sad irony, and it was time to drop the subject. T. W. Manson rendered the words "Well, well." In contrast to the days when they had shared their Master's popularity, "they are now surrounded by enemies so ruthless that the possession of two swords will not help the situation. . . .
"This text has nothing to say directly on the question whether armed resistance to injustice and evil is ever justifiable. It is simply a vivid pictorial way of describing the complete change which has come about in the temper and attitude of the Jesish people since the days of the disciples' mission. The disciples understood the saying literally and so missed the point; but that is no reason why we should follow their example."
