Image: Christian Chomiak, unsplash
“Jesus said, ‘Put your sword back where it belongs. All who use swords are destroyed by swords.’” – Matthew 26:52
There is an iconic phrase peppered throughout the Godfather trilogy which sums up the methodology by which the mafia maintained power and control. When Vito Corleone was told that the person standing in his way would not cooperate he would calmly say, “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.” The “offer,” of course, was a choice between compliance and death.
Interestingly, this was the same strategy used by the Romans to maintain power and control over their vast Empire in the First Century. The Caesars introduced a new era of peace, later dubbed Pax Romana by historians. “Roman peace” was achieved by a simple “offer” extended to every people group from every territory that Rome had conquered. It was an offer they couldn’t refuse: Keep the peace or die at the end of a Roman sword.
This strategy was outwardly effective as long as Rome could back it up with military might. However, as soon as the power of the Roman sword waned, the conquered territories began to rebel and return to their former ways.
The lesson of history is that although controlling people through coercion is a temptation for every generation, in the long run, it never works. True conversion is antithetical to coercion.
Jesus understood this truth.
Jesus Rejects the Way of the Sword
When the posse came to arrest Jesus, Peter courageously drew his sword, risking his life to protect Jesus. He swung forcefully, severing the ear of the enemy. Peter was ready to fight and die for Jesus.
Then something unexpected happened. Jesus told Peter to put his sword away. “All who draw the sword will die by the sword,” Jesus said (Matthew 26:52). Peter stood in stunned silence as Jesus chastised him (his most loyal disciple) and then healed the enemy (the one who was trying to kill him). In that moment, from Peter’s perspective, it was Jesus who betrayed him.
Obviously, Peter and Jesus were not on the same page. They wanted the same thing: the triumph of the Kingdom of God with Jesus, the Son of God, sitting on the throne of David. They only differed on how to accomplish that goal.
Matthew gave us a foreshadowing of this basic incongruence between Jesus and Peter.
Earlier, when Peter made the first public confession of Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus commended him and then explained what it meant to be Messiah. He would go to Jerusalem, be crucified, and rise again on the third day. Peter didn’t like that idea. Again, he was at odds with Jesus on exactly how the Messiah would save the world.
Peter desperately wanted Jesus on the throne but the only way he knew to achieve that end was through the power of the sword. He couldn’t imagine any other way.
Getting Egypt Out of the Israelites
Paulo Freire in his classic work, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” observed how the oppressor has a way of getting inside of the oppressed so that when the oppressed finally overthrow the oppressor, they usually replace him with another, often worse, oppressor.
According to Friere, this happens because the oppressor begins to live inside of the oppressed. One rabbi explained this concept when he observed that it took only ten plagues to get the Israelites out of Egypt, but then it took forty years in the wilderness to get Egypt out of the Israelites.
Peter was stuck in the Freire principle. In pulling out his sword Peter was mimicking the ways of Rome. It was all he knew. Rome lived inside of him. The only way to freedom, for Peter, was to act just like the oppressors and make them “an offer they couldn’t refuse.”
Jesus had a different idea.
The Limits of Deterrence
When I was a kid the church folks would give a person a pass on all sorts of unchristian behavior as long as it was committed in the past, before he or she became a Christian. My Dad explained, “We can’t expect people to live like Jesus until they have been transformed by God’s love.”
There was an assumption that God had to perform a transforming work in a person before they could be expected to even comprehend much less follow the ways of Christ. That assumption seems to be dead and gone.
More and more Christians want to use the power of the State (i.e., the Sword) to force everyone (Christian and non-Christian) to live by Biblical principles. They want to codify in the laws of the land all of the moral codes of the Bible (even though they themselves can’t follow them).
They are Vito Corleone making people an offer they can’t refuse: Follow Biblical truths or suffer the consequences. They are Peter drawing his sword.
It is wrongheaded and shortsighted to use the power of the State to force people to appropriate Christian principles of morality and ethics. Why? Because the power of the sword is limited and ultimately, counterproductive. It doesn’t make disciples. It creates bitter people who will reject Christianity as soon as the threat of the sword wanes.
The power of the sword (i.e. the State, or the Law) is in its power to punish bad behavior. As Paul so aptly points out, that power is weak and ineffective in the long term. It is limited because it is not a transforming power, but only a limiting power.
This is not an opinion. It is a proven fact.
For centuries, there have been laws against murder, yet people still commit murder. Every country has laws against stealing, yet people around the world continue to steal. Why is that? Because the Law operates on the principle of deterrence which can limit bad behavior, but can never eradicate it. As Paul pointed out, the power to punish bad behavior alone will never change the heart.
Trusting God’s Transforming Power
The only thing that has a chance of eradicating bad behavior is the transforming power of God’s love. Pointing the sword of the State at the throats of the enemies of the Gospel belies a deep seated lack of faith in the efficacy of God to change lives.
As more and more Christians draw their swords, hoping for a shortcut to a gospel-like transformation of the culture, Jesus stands calmly before them echoing his words to Peter, “Put down your sword. Don’t you believe in me? I’ve got this.”
This insight was written by Dr. Ellis Orozco. Dr. Orozco served in ministry as a pastor for 30 years. He is the founder and CEO of Karooso Ministries and the Public Theologian in Residence at Stark College & Seminary.