In Luke 22, Satan makes a flamboyant entrance into Judas. Whether or not there was consent is debatable. Judas continues the motif with an over-the-top kiss that initiates a narrative we might hear in a Liturgy of the Passion. A flurry of activity at the Mount of Olives as Jesus and the apostles/disciples are confronted by chief priests, officers of the temple police, elders, and others. A question was asked and a choice was made.
49 When those who were around him saw what was coming, they asked, “Lord, should we strike with the sword?” 50 Then one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. 51 But Jesus said, “No more of this!” And he touched his ear and healed him. (NRSVUE)
Many a Sunday sermon points to Jesus’ reaction as a call to love our enemies. However, the person enslaved by the high priest, identified as Malchus in the Gospel of John, is not the enemy. To degrade the message of this passage into such a simple exhortation misses the layers of injustice that Jesus illuminates and responds to.
A choice was made by an oppressed person (unnamed in Luke, Peter in John) to strike another oppressed person. These disciples asked Jesus for permission/direction to enact violence and before a response was given, a person with little power (if at all) loses a piece of their body. It wasn’t an elder that was attacked, or a chief priest, or an officer. People with privilege and power remain safe in the narrative. The one who committed the act chose the lesser crime of destroying “property”.
Yet, it is only Judas that is generally considered as infiltrated by Satan. In the struggle toward liberation, is it possible we can offer evil consent to use us as agents of injustice?
—
The narrative of chapter 22 begins with the anticipation of Passover. A celebration of the Hebrew people’s freedom from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 11–13). Jerusalem would have been buzzing with energy while the chief priests and scribes were looking for a way to have Jesus killed. Judas, one of Jesus’ trusted companions, happens to be one of the tools evil can use to accomplish the goal.
On the day of Passover, Jesus sits with his friends and constitutes what we now call communion. At the meal, Jesus proclaims that one who will betray him sits at the table. None of the apostles accept the accusation and then proceed to debate which one among them is the greatest. Jesus illuminates that Satan has planned to sift all the apostles like wheat.
After dinner, Jesus goes out to the Mount of Olives and models how to pray. It is amid his instruction and chastisement of the disciples’ lack of discipline that Judas enters with the mob that will escort Jesus away. The people who have accompanied Christ at the temple are now participating in his demise. The violence ensues. Though Jesus is in danger, he heals the enslaved person whose ear has been cut off. After Jesus is taken away, Peter dismisses three inquiries that he is associated with the defendant. The cock crows, as predicted. Jesus is accused of having authority, being outed against his will as the Son of God, and the chapter ends.
Despite Jesus’ prayers, evil is succeeding.
In the history of the Christian church, there has been persecution towards members of the LGBTQIA2S+ community. Those of us who are members of such a community can and do replicate the harmful behaviors we claim to be against. Not only are we capable of causing harm, we do it to other marginalized groups.
Just like the disciple who cut off the ear of the enslaved, we enact acts of racism, sexism, ableism… fill in the ____ism. When Jesus tells us that the one who will betray him sits at the table, we reject the accusation. We police each other’s words, showing how learned and righteous we are, being greater than those around us, leaning into the colonial tactics of elitist superiority that have been used to harm us and those around us. And Jesus sat down at the table and broke bread with his friends anyway. Knowing what they would do, how they would let him down.
28 “You are the ones who have stood by me faithfully in trials. 29 Just as God has given me dominion, so I give it to you. 30 In my reign, you will eat and drink at my table, and you’ll sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Inclusive Bible)
Despite Jesus’ prayers, evil is succeeding, and yet, it doesn’t stop Jesus from choosing to call people into community, into leadership, into being part of the solution. Luke 22 gives us an image of Jesus who is steadfast in his faith, convictions, and in the grace he offers. He experiences and expresses fear without letting that fear control his actions.
Jesus is met with great violence. It is inexcusable. The violence bestowed on the slave is inexcusable.
There is, perhaps, a discrepancy in the text. In verses 35–38 Jesus exhorts the apostles to be ready by grabbing their bag and possessing a sword. The group acknowledge they already have two swords, and Jesus proclaims, “it is enough.” However, when the sword is used, Jesus condemns the action. It is possible that Jesus’ command for preparedness for violence means something else. He doesn’t specify who the sword will be used against. Of note is that the disciples ask Jesus if it’s time to use the sword (v. 49), to which there is no documented reply. The sword is used anyway, implying that the disciples weren’t being led by Jesus, but instead by their own understanding of righteousness and necessary action- an unrealized parallel to Jesus’ prayer (v. 42) when he asked God to be released from the violence ahead but would honor God’s will. Here the violence is observed, without God’s consent, and so God’s will is ignored.
The Greek πειρασμός (peirasmos; translated trial, temptation) appears three times in the text. First in relation to Jesus’ own experience (v. 28), in which he commends the disciples for accompanying him through his trials. Then twice more in his desire that the disciples not be led into temptation (v. 40, 46). The disciples are tempted into violence and succumb to it. Nonetheless, Jesus accompanies them in their trial, and he cleans up their mess by healing the injured party. He may have asked them to have the sword at the ready, but apparently having the sword doesn’t give one permission to use it.
Jesus models for the disciples (and us) a way of operating in the world that questions, not just the status quo, but who is the enemy. For people who know only the experience of occupation and injustice, it is understandable that mirroring the same system of violence is the language that comes most naturally. To discern what is God’s will in moments of crisis, especially when adversity affects a community, is difficult and important work.
The question raised in verse 49 is tantamount to our work as Christians. If we ask for God’s will, we better be patient enough for a reply. Otherwise, we risk repeating harms we claim to be against. A slave was harmed; they were never the enemy. The chapter begins with evil making a flamboyant entrance into one of Jesus’ friends. No one is immune from being infiltrated by evil, and Jesus tells us to be at the ready.
Rev. Christópher (Ófe) Abreu Rosario (he/him) is a queer second-generation Dominican-New Yorker. He currently serves as the pastor for Elmhurst Presbyterian Church (Chicago Presbytery) and sits on the board for More Light Presbyterians. Previously, he served Bethany Presbyterian Church in Tacoma, WA. He loves engaging the stories of the Bible through different viewpoints that lift up the lived realities of all people.
Unbound Social