There is no doubt that Jesus told us in Mark 12;31, “to love your neighbor as yourself”. He also told us, in Luke 22;36, “sell your cloak and buy a sword”. When two out of twelve disciples showed that they were already armed, He said in Luke 22;38, “That’s enough.”
The above passages provide a major dilemma, particularly for Christians of liberal tendencies. How do we apply His words, His command, to our present time, when Christianity, and Judaism, are under armed, vicious assault all over the world? Lots of us look at the Middle East, where unarmed Christians have been largely exterminated. We see the same thing happening to unarmed Christians and Jews in Europe. Only the easily deceived or grossly bribed don’t understand that the same groups and peoples killing Christians and Jews in the Middle East want it to be happening here and all over the world.
Today, we are in the same position in which earlier Christians found themselves when Jesus spoke those two seemingly contradictory sentences. We can begin to reconcile their seeming contradictions by realizing that we can’t love our neighbors if we let them kill us.
If 2/12s, or 1/6th of the Christians are armed, we are fulfilling the command He gave us in Luke. If He wasn’t counting Judas, and Judas certainly didn’t count for much, then 2/11s of Christian believers should be armed and ready.
Are we to only defend ourselves from direct attacks? Or, to be properly obedient, should we launch preemptive strikes against enemies who’ve announced their intentions to kill us?
Both questions have the same answer: Sometimes, yes. Sometimes, no. The Programmer programmed and downloaded The Creation Program. He also programmed The Schedule, His timetable that regulates the timing of what happens in The Creation Program. The Schedule provides times for war. It also schedules times for peace. If we ask, He’ll let us know what we should do.
Do We Actually Need to Buy an Actual Sword?
Even the most literal of Catholic Fundamentalists would not say “Jesus wants me to buy myself an actual sword. So, I’m going to get myself a cavalry saber rather than a Scottish claymore.” Jesus seems to have been telling the believing and obedient believers of all ages that they should own the standard infantry weapon of the time.
In our time, it does not seem unreasonable to interpret His command to “buy a sword” to mean that some of us should purchase an M-16. Or, a standard Infantry sidearm like a 1911 Colt or a 9mm Beretta.
Probably, we should pick up some ammo, as well.
