Aug 31 2019 Mark 14: 43-52

Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a bandit. Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not arrest me.

Judas has returned to the place where Jesus and his disciples are praying, accompanied by crowd with clubs and swords. This crowd is comprised of all the leaders of the time – political, religious, and social. They all come with clubs and swords. Think about that. It’s a startling image, and I can’t quite imagine who that would be in my world now. But it’s the leaders of world where Jesus lived. And they have had enough.

They’ve had more than enough. What would it be like to be so threatened that the political and religious leaders come armed? And Jesus rightly points out that he’s been peacefully preaching and teaching in their temples – he’s not a violent threat they need to meet with clubs. And yet they do.

Clearly, they perceived Jesus as such a threat that their response was warranted. They didn’t come to overreact, or intentionally over-arm. No, they genuinely thought they were meeting a real threat with the appropriate response – clubs and swords.

It seems that threats to ideology and core beliefs, even if they’re verbal threats, can be perceived as warranting a violent response. Jesus had demonstrated no violent tendencies, and yet the crowd’s response was violent. What Jesus was preaching and teaching was threatening to more than their bodies; he was threatening their concept of all they believed, all who they were.

And Jesus’ response was to incredulously remind them that he’d genuinely come in peace, taught in peace. Their imminent violence was unmatched. 

This morning, I’m thinking about how easy it is for us to respond to an affront by escalating the conflict by escalating my response. We respond with clubs and swords to the peaceful teacher, because we feel threatened. We respond with sarcasm or cold shoulders to perceived slights.

Conflict will always happen. People disagree. But today, I want to meet that disagreement without the escalated clubs and swords.