Difficult Texts: Take up your...sword? Pt. 2
An Examination of the Context of Luke 22:35-38
In our last look at this passage we asked if Jesus was encouraging self-defense by telling his disciples to take up swords, and if he is then what about his earlier message of “love your enemies”?
Let’s look more in-depth at this saying of Jesus and see if we can make sense of it. It would be helpful if you have the text of Luke before you as we went through this—don’t just take my word for it!
First, let’s start with some context. Where is this passage in the overall story of Luke’s Gospel? Most scholars agree that Luke’s Gospel is divided into two halves (1:5-9:50; 9:51-24:53) with smaller subsections making up these two larger sections. The second major half of Luke’s Gospel is 9:51-24:53 which focuses on Jesus travelling to Jerusalem where he will suffer, die, and be resurrected. The first narrative subsection of the Jerusalem narrative is the “Travel narrative” (9:51-19:28) which focuses on Jesus’ teaching and ministry as he travels to Jerusalem with his disciples. An important theme of the “Travel Narrative” is Jesus’ teaching on “the way of discipleship” in his Kingdom. The second narrative subsection of the Jerusalem narrative is Jesus in Jerusalem (19:29-23:53). In this subsection Jesus will teach in the Jerusalem Temple (20:1-21:38) and suffer and die through crucifixion (22:1-23:56). Our passage—Luke 22:35-38—is right in the middle of this last subsection.
If we zoom in and look at the immediate context around our passage we will discover some interesting details. The verses in question find themselves within Jesus’ Last Supper with his Disciples (Luke 22:1-38). At the end of the Passover meal and after instituting the Lord’s Super (Lk. 22:19-20), there are four small sayings or teachings of Jesus before leaving the meal and Jesus’ arrest and trial (Luke 22:39-23:25). These could be outlined as followed: (1) Jesus Foretells His Betrayal—Luke 22:21-23; (2) The Precedence and Role of the Disciples—Luke 22:24-30; (3) Prediction of Peter’s Denial—Luke 22:31-34; (4) The Two Swords—Luke 22:35-38. What is especially interesting and may be helpful for understanding this passage is that each of these teachings has (A) Jesus’ disciples misunderstanding his statement or (B) a misunderstanding that must be corrected by Jesus’ statements. So we have (A) 22:23; (B) 22:24, (A/B) 22:33-34. Our saying about the two swords is the fourth and the last—as well as being unique to Luke’s Gospel—and if this pattern continues then it might be that our passage could be designated an (A) with 22:38 being the correction of the misunderstanding. If this is true, then the very structure of these four sayings may point us forward in answering one of our interpretive questions.
Let me know what you think: What was new, interesting or surprising for you in today’s post? Do you think that Luke is intentionally structuring these fours passages to around a saying with misunderstanding or a correction of a misunderstanding? Why or why not?