by EE Greyson
And He [Jesus] said to them, “When I sent you out without money belt and bag and sandals, you did not lack anything, did you?” They said, “No, nothing.” And He said to them, “But now, whoever has a money belt is to take it along, likewise also a bag, and whoever has no sword is to sell his coat and buy one. “For I tell you that this which is written must be fulfilled in Me, ‘AND HE WAS NUMBERED WITH TRANSGRESSORS’; for that which refers to Me has its fulfillment.” They said, “Lord, look, here are two swords.” And He said to them, “It is enough.”
— Luke 22:35-38 NASB95
The Greatest Weapon of All
When Christians think of spiritual warfare, they are too much addicted to fleshly warfare and what they see in books and films. When Jesus talked about His impending crucifixion, He also talked about swords. But why did He mention His being numbered among the transgressors (who will be crucified) when asking about swords? Did he think two swords would be enough to defend Him against His enemies or ours?
No, he was talking about a different kind of weapon. One that was greater than not only two swords, but all the swords in all the world. For there is a weapon that is greater than any weapon formed by men or demons.
The great weapon is that of the cross. It destroyed the works of Satan, made God’s sworn enemies His allies and beloved children. It can melt the heart of hardened men, and can win over the most stalwart and implacable enemy.
Satan Did Not Understand It
Jesus said that if He would be lifted up, He would draw all men to Himself. And so, as He said, He has drawn out men from every nation on earth. His sword, His cross, was not for killing but for regenerating, giving eternal life to those dead from birth. This is a weapon that works in reverse. Rather than killing it makes alive. All it cost to wield was for the Son of God, from eternity God Himself, to be lifted up so He could be crucified, hanging between heaven and earth, in darkness for three hours in the middle of the day. He was forsaken of the Father, but only because we had forsaken our God, our Creator and Sustainer. Now death works backward until it is swallowed up in life, for Death is the last enemy to be vanquished.
It was no surprise, for Christ told His disciples many times that he would die, even on the eve before His death and moments before His betrayal that He would be numbered with the transgressors. All the back to the very garden where we betrayed God as a whole race, God promised that this day would come and that the curse which came upon all Creation would be broken by the seed of the woman.
So, why did Satan, who is the most shrewd of all God’s creatures, who was present for all of these prophesies, and who tried to dissuade Christ from fulfilling His ministry, why did he enter into Judas so as to betray Christ? And why did He motivate the religious leaders to condemn Him? Why did the prince of the power of the air, enter into the lungs of the people crying out together as one “Crucify Him!?” Why did he blind the judge who would preside over his trial, who knew He was a king, and a righteous and innocent man; why did this man who strove to free him, cast aside jurisprudence lost in the abyss so dark as not to know that Truth stood before him, and condemned Him to the death most painful reserved for murderers?
Clearly if Satan had known, really known the result, he would not have entered in at every place and filled our race with blindness and rage. Satan’s rage. Satan’s blindness! Our enemy doesn’t understand loving sacrifice. He is shrewd but He is also the chief cynic of all creation. Surely he reasoned that Christ, who is God Almighty, would not submit to such an injustice. Surely He who was purity itself would not deign to be covered within and without by our filth. No, there had to a trick, a plan, maybe even a defeat. But not a sacrifice and certainly not a victory.
We Did Not Understand the Cross Borne By Undeserved Love
From the moment we are born it’s all about us. If we want food and drink we demand it. If we want applause and single-minded attention, we require it. If we don’t like the rules, we bend it. If we don’t like competition, we strangle it. If we don’t want inconvenience, we kill it. When we are young we are demanding and obvious. When we grow up we become shrewd, narrow and murderous like our father, Satan. For he is the father of lies and of murderers. We lie to each other and to ourselves. We flatter, we cajole, we entice and seduce; and if that doesn’t work, then we whisper so others will do our bidding. Satan’s tongue has it’s match in our own. By it we burn down cities and bring forth terrifying conflagrations. Our tongue is set on fire by hell itself.
Suffer an injustice? Not us, even if it comes at the cost of grievous injustice toward others. Suffer an insult? Not us, even if we have to avenge ourselves on the transgressor and all they love. We will have no king but King Me! We admit no ruler, and no good thing to others unless we have it too, and have it more. May 8 billion lives be snuffed out until we have what we deserve. We are first, last, and all things in between. We are gods who admit no other gods.
And then He who IS God comes, not in might and power. Not in splendor and majesty. But in a stable, and to a poor couple. He holds no court among the mighty. Shepherds are His worshippers. His followers are not the powerful. They are fishermen. They are hated tax collectors. They are prostitutes and sinners. They are the the lame, the crippled, the blind, and the mute.
When our Creator came we did not recognize Him because we thought He was just like us. We expected a super man, not a poor, oppressed, and weak one. We thought Him an enemy but He is the best of friends. We expected a judge, not a condemned man. A vengeful man, not a forgiving man. A man as full of Himself as we are of ourselves, not a man who emptied Himself of all glory, all recognition and any justice to which He was due.
His family thought Him mad, His disciples thought Him mistaken, and the world thought Him a hapless fool. They thought He was finished. But it was our due punishment that was finished. It was our rebellion against God that was buried when He who is God was buried in a tomb.
His disciples did not understand the cross. He was finished and so were they. They could not understand love so deep and so sacrificial. They professed loyalty to Him until He was condemned and then they all left Him. And we would have been no better.
We thought God came to be our master, but in His servanthood He has mastered our heart. In His love he has vanquished our hatred. He has turned our servitude into joyful shouts, and greatest freedom.
No army could conquer us, but by His cross we are conquered. No story could convince us but we are convinced. No concession could win us, but we are won. Not by what we could take, but by what He could give.
Hardened Men Did Not Understand
Trained killers beat, humiliated, flogged, and crucified the One who was their Maker. They did not know He was anything but a common criminal and hated enemy. They thought so little of their charge that they gambled for His clothing and despoiled His body with nails and a spear.
There are few men tougher than a Roman soldier and even fewer than a centurion, a leader of 100 trained killers. They thought Jesus of Nazareth was an outlet for their miserable service. His betrayer valued Him at 30 pieces of silver, the cost of a slave. These men valued only His tattered clothing. What they could not divide, they gambled for.
Why would a god be on a cross? Or in a place like Judea? Or a hated Jew? They had seen every kind of death; valiant, heroic, stalwart, senseless, mad, cowardly, and whimpering. Those who cursed their executioners and those who begged them for their lives.
But they had never seen one forgive from a cross. Nor die without consideration of their own lives, but in consideration of their family, friends, and even sworn enemies. So unlike death was the death of this man that they remarked He must be the Son of God, on a cross, dead.
His Cross is Our Cross, His Weapon Our Weapon
I have written to you in terms of warfare because those are the terms that the Bible uses and they are the reality that we live. We are at war with the dark, unseen, merciless forces, the spiritual forces. They can not receive mercy. They can’t and won’t ever receive mercy from either us or God. Nor will they show us any. Every weakness they will exploit. They know their eternal doom. They can not sleep nor think of anything they desire more than that we be drawn into their doom with them. They are simply beyond reform, redemption, or reconciliation. They only live, if you can call it that, to captivate, consume, murder and destroy.
Likewise the world system which they protect and extend can never be reformed, at least not fully. It must be, and will be conquered. They who are with us are greater than they who are with them. At times, it will advance, even appear to finally overcome and conquer the forces of Christ. That too was predicted long ago and just as Christ has come the first time, so too shall our enemy’s victories and our defeats. This has happened many times in the past, and it will happen in a unique and shocking way in the future. All will seem lost, and we seem abandoned from on high.
Here there is no neutrality, there is only our side and their side. But that’s where the analogy breaks down and we must note it. While an infernal enemy and his minions in heaven and on earth lurk, the ones on earth can be won over rather than simply conquered. Such were all of us at one time, the slaves and solders for the other side.
But in our helplessness and enslavement, at the right time, Christ died upon His cross for we sinners. Our slavery, if we knew it to be slavery, was even pleasant in many ways to us. And like the Jews who were slaves in Egypt, we too wanted to go back rather than follow our Savior through the desert to a true promised land.
We can not save the world. We couldn’t even save ourselves. Nor can we do so now. Our weakness is God’s strength, our foolishness God’s wisdom. But we too can bear the cross and bear it every day. The cross is our sword, our weapon, our victory.
This is a sword that you do not wield, but it wields you. And it was the very same one that Christ spoke to His disciples about as they walked to the garden of His betrayal, the garden of Gethsemane leading to another place, Golgotha the place where He, numbered with two other transgressors, would be crucified.
We bear our cross not to the death, but until death. We bear it not for ourselves; Christ did that for us. No, we bear it when we resist the devil, his minions, and their system. We bear it when we love those who hate us and misunderstand us or falsely and knowingly accuse us, warp our intentions, and use our kindness and love against us. Still, with our eyes on Jesus, who bore His cross at the hands of His enemies, we forgive, we love, we bless those who mistreat us.
They will not understand, and so neither can they defend themselves against it. They have no shield that can withstand gracious overflowing love from an enemy. The more they mistreat us, the more they will fall. Will we fall in the process? Maybe. Even now many of our fellow brothers-in-arms, who are brothers in His arms, are tortured and killed. They loved both their God and their enemies till death. They crowned their witness in their own blood. When Christ did that, even a hardened Roman centurion fell. He could not but confess that the Son of God had just died.
We don’t do these things to gain honor, or victory, or to make a name for ourselves. We do it as Christ did it, to draw all men to our Savior. We do it because our King did that for us and we were set free from our enemy’s camp. He did it so we can end our warfare against God and be in everlasting peace with Him. We are no longer rebels. We were won over. And even more, we were made glorious in His sight, and beloved children by His sacrifice. Now we are in the glorious camp where love of God and neighbor will grow from now until eternity is no more… which is never. Forever we will draw nearer to our God and to each other.
All around us the war rages. The enemy captures the hearts and minds of our loved ones, our friends, and our flesh and blood enemies. Everyday the enemy drags into hell those around us. The Devil’s service is not pleasant, his promises are not real or enduring, his end will be their end.
Will you not join the battle? Will you not save those who are perishing and hold them back from the slaughter? Will you not seek to glorify the one who took your humiliation and wore it as His crown?
If you would do that, you only have to do ONE thing. Pick up your cross. Today. Tomorrow. Until you go to meet Him or He comes to meet you. Let it wield you and no enemy can stand, but many may become your friend and brother.
