Exhortation: John 18:4-14

from GOSPEL ILLUSTRATIONS by Joseph MacDonnell, S.J.which is a reissue of Jerome Nadal's 153 images of the life of Christ.

The Sword and the Cup

John 18:4-14; Acts 2:22-32

We struggle against those things we don’t understand. We seek some sort of comfort in finding reasons for life’s uncertainties. In the face of trials that come our way, we seek answers. Why does the world suffer? Why does evil exist, and pain, and disease, and distress? Why me? We gain little answer, though we may find comfort amid life’s uncertainty, pain, and burdens. This comfort lies in the story of God’s participation in our sufferings.

After centuries of silence, the Gospel of Judas is coming back to light, making the news earlier this summer. This Gnostic gospel would cast Judas in a better light, as one aiding Jesus’ escape from a physical body. The Gnostics believed the physical was evil and only the spiritual was good. They resolved issues of good and evil by determining that release from the physical world through special knowledge was the only means to attain release. While looking more compassionately on Judas may be helpful, this Gnostic message hardly adds meaning to the text we read in John. Jesus’ betrayal into the hands of the Jewish authorities did not go beyond God’s control. Jesus’ arrest did not force upon him what he was unwilling to accept. His words make his acceptance of the events clear.

This night in the garden was not the first attempt by the authorities to arrest or accuse Jesus. This was simply the first instance in which Jesus accepted the appropriateness of their timing. Jesus had even been speaking to the disciples for some time of the necessity of his impending death, though they could not accept this reality. Jesus knew what awaited him. It was the disciples who had trouble accepting what lay in store. Jesus had warned the disciples. He had told them of his impending betrayal. He had spoken of their desertion. He had also called them to regroup after the events of the night were over.

Peter gives us perhaps the best example of denial. When Jesus first announced that he would be handed over to the authorities and killed, Peter had rebuked him, denying any need for the Messiah to suffer death. Now in the Garden, Peter once again reacts in denial to the path Jesus had pictured. As Jesus is to be arrested, Peter chooses to raise his sword in Jesus’ defense, though none is needed. While Jesus had accepted the path set out before him, Peter was still in denial. This arrest just did not fit within his frame of reference.

Peter’s perspective on Jesus’ messianic role did not entail death and suffering. Here in the garden, Peter was still struggling against God’s plan for Jesus. He was still struggling against God’s plan for his own life. Like as not, Peter was feeling somewhat betrayed. He had recognized in Jesus the long awaited Messiah, yet from the first moment that he had declared Jesus to be the Christ, he had struggled against Jesus’ insistence upon rejection, suffering, and death.

Peter had cast his lot in Jesus’ hands, picturing visions of glory, privilege, and authority. Sure, Jesus had spoken of service, humility, loving one’s enemies, and delivering grace to the needy, but deep down, Peter still had his eyes on those earlier illusions of greatness. Until the moment in the garden, it was possible to pretend there was no conflict between Jesus’ message and Peter’s concept of Messiah. He could rationalize and explain away Jesus’ words anticipating death as long as this inglorious future was somewhere removed from the present. Now in the garden, however, the full sense of betrayal arose as a concrete enemy to battle from within.

Peter’s response was more "fight or flight" repsonse than rational. What would one blade or two accomplish against a detachment of armed soldiers? Jesus’ words to the detachment had been sufficient to make them fall back to the ground. Jesus was not concerned with being carried away by the soldiers. It was the disciples who feared Jesus’ arrest. This was the moment of truth regarding the necessity of Jesus’ death and understanding of God’s will. Peter’s struggle against the soldiers had more to do with his own conflict with accepting the validity of God’s plan. He was struggling with finally letting go of his own vision of life in exchange for the life in Jesus’ description of the true manner of living that a child of the Father should exhibit.

Peter likely did not understand what he was doing, nor why. His reactions were likely more instinctive than thoughtful. It is Jesus’ words, however, that clarify the meaning behind Peter’s struggle. “Put away your sword. Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”

Peter’s struggle was not really against the soldiers, but against a future he did not desire. He struggled against accepting God’s will as superior to his own. He struggled with allowing God to call the shots and finally giving up on his illusions of messianic grandeur. He struggled with issues of fully submitting to God’s will. He did not want to give up on his own ideas of how God should do things. He wanted the fulfillment of the messianic kingdom he had heard of since childhood. He would not let it slip away without a fight!

Putting away his sword, Peter let go of more than we might recognize. He let go of his dreams. He let go of his determination to control the future. He let go of ambition for wielding power over others. He was still struggling to make sense of it all. He did not yet understand why Jesus should die, but he would submit his life and will to God’s.

Understanding was a while in coming. It did not come in the moment of crisis. It was not called for at that time. Sure, Peter wanted to understand, but understanding was not the order of the moment. What was needed was submission, commitment, and acceptance. The why came incompletely and in stages. Understanding grew out of the experience of learning to trust God’s design above his own.

Peter eventually understood Jesus’ death, at least in part. It was in reflection back upon the event of death in the light of resurrection that it all began to fall together. On the other side of that traumatic night, Peter was able to understand the larger reality of God’s plan. After the fact, he could recognize that death allowed Jesus to become Lord over death as well as life. Herein was a greater vindication of the gospel message of salvation, forgiveness, grace, and mercy.

It was not until after Peter accepted the cup of God’s provision that he found its full worth. Only when he released his life fully into God’s hands did he begin to see the gospel’s greater value. It was then that his life was transformed into the servant his Master had called him to become. Letting go of his desire to understand, comprehension was born in submission to the commandments of Christ Jesus.

The first step in understanding is submission. On the other hand, at the point of true submission the reasons just don’t matter as much. Now we understand in part, but it is only in submission that we can gain a glimpse of what God is accomplishing. Will we join Peter is laying aside our own swords to accept whatever God might have in store? Can we trust that the cup God provides will be sufficient?

May we keep these questions in mind as we prepare to partake of those most precious emblems of our faith.