Where did Peter get a sword?  How long had he been carrying that around?  He has it with him, that night, there in the garden.  He had a bad feeling: something was going to happen.  He wanted to be prepared.  He brought a sword.

Jesus asked him, along with John and James, to pray, to be alert: this only heightened the tension, the apprehension.  Something was about to happen.  They wanted to be prepared.  They slept.  They felt terrible about it.  They couldn’t give an account of themselves, couldn’t explain their dereliction of duty.  They understood Jesus needed them, and they couldn’t stay awake.

Jesus wasn’t asking them to stand guard.  That’s not what he wanted.  He had not called them three years ago to be armed guards, his bodyguard.  The armed guards were coming for him.  He was still teaching his disciples, even in the midst of his agony there in the garden.  He was teaching them to be alert for the things of God, to pray as he had taught them: “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.”  This was the preparation Jesus had constantly taught them: be alert in prayer; be ready through prayer.  Peter and the others sleep.  Peter has a sword.

If you’re going to carry a sword, there will be an occasion to use it.  Violence, blood.  Peter wasn’t aiming for the ear of the man he struck.  He was aiming for the head.  He meant to kill.  If you go around armed, what are you expecting?  Peter was expecting to kill, that he would have to kill.  I guess he was prepared to kill, for Jesus.  Peter, at least, was going to stand for Jesus, defend Jesus, fight for Jesus.  He cut off a man’s ear, meaning to cut off his head.  And Jesus commands him to stop.

Some of us here may be armed; it’s a dangerous world, with dangerous people.  Our guns may save us from some dangers; they cannot preserve us from the mortal danger.  We will never be able to defend ourselves or others from the mortal danger, with such armaments.

Our true armament for this life, this world, is Jesus Christ, nailed to that cross, bleeding, dying, crying out “Father, forgive, for they don’t know what they are doing.”  Peter wanted to save Jesus from that cross.  He ran away, terrified.  He denied knowing the man, three times.  He was trying to save his life.  Where was his sword, his lethal resolve?  What good had these done him?  Let your sword instead be prayer.  Wield it in the grace and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Malchus, the man whose ear Peter sliced off, went to the garden eager to serve God by arresting Jesus.  He wanted to be one of the first to lay his hands on Jesus, seize the blasphemer.  When Malchus saw the gleam to his side, he swerved, and the pain was indescribable.  Then, the one whom he had come to seize laid his hands upon Malchus.  Jesus touched Malchus, and Malchus, shocked, terrified, prostrate, had a revelation, a revelation of love, a revelation of God’s love.  And Malchus believed.  The others saw what Jesus did.  They saw and did not believe.  They seized Jesus; most of all, they wanted him dead: out of their lives.

I imagine Malchus standing there, looking up, as the man who had touched him, healed him, hung from the cross, bloody, dying, as others shouted taunts, insults; as the soldiers were throwing dice for his clothing.  I imagine Peter in the crowd, too, crushed, dying inside.  Failure!  Utter failure!  Useless, worthless failure!  All he had done had come to nothing, had come to this.  O, day of darkness!

Jesus asked Peter, there in the garden, that sword, dripping blood, still in his hand, “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”  Would you have me not do the will of my Father?  That’s the way of this world.  We’re ready and eager to do almost anything, except the will of our Father in heaven.  Peter was confused, numb.  No.  The teaching—the teaching, teacher, is surely enough.  We are not saved by the teaching.  The healing, healer, is surely enough.  We are not saved by the healing.

The words formed in Peter’s mind, recalled from where?  “By his wounds we are healed.”  By his blood, his life, for our lives, atonement, peace in heaven.  His life the sacrifice for our guilt.  His love the offering for our long, sad record of failure, betrayal.  What our sin earns us all is death.  What we are given, through Jesus Christ upon that cross, is eternal life.  The teaching and the healing are blessings, and we are saved by the blood, by the one who, there on the cross, did the will of his Father in heaven.  See, from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down: Did ever such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown?  He came into this world to save us.  He gave himself for us.  His blood brings us near to the heart of God.

Mary was standing there, numb, weak, one clear thought filling her: God, you have taken everything from me.  And a thought in reply—from where?: to give you everything.  The Lord takes away, and the Lord gives.  Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!