God and Guns

This popped up in my feed today:

From multiple places on Pinterest.  Original author unknown.

Let's take a look at this argument.

First, it conflates the idea of a gun with a sword.  People could still very well buy a sword if they were trying to "literally" follow the Word of God.  The interpretation seems to be that God is okay with us arming ourselves, ergo we should be able to arming ourselves with anything.

That's not quite what the Scripture says.  As always, context is everything.

“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.”

Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.”

Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?”

“Nothing,” they answered.

He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.  It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors’; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.”

The disciples said, “See, Lord, here are two swords.”

“That’s enough!” he replied. (Luke 22:31-38)

This comes at one of the most famous moments in the story of Jesus' arrest, when Jesus tells Peter that Peter will disown Him.  The very next thing Jesus does is to mention how He sent them out to witness, and said, "When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?"  This reflects other times when Christ had said that His followers would not need to worry about the future, about what they ate or drank, or what they wore.  Here, He's asking them to confirm that that's exactly the experience they had, to show them that faith in Him is exactly what He has said it would be all along.

Then He turns around and says, "but now..."

This isn't a nullification of His command not to worry.  Instead, He's telling them they SHOULD worry about those things.  Why?  There can be only one reason - because they are no longer His followers.  That is, they have all turned their backs on Him, like Peter would do.

That's why, when the disciples show Him their swords, He says "That's enough!" - not because they need swords, or even that they need two swords among all of them, but because they aren't getting it.  Those swords aren't protection, they're an indictment of the faith of His followers, and as such, are quite enough.

Need more proof of this?  Look what happens in the very next scene.  Christ leaves the house and goes to pray on the Mount of Olives, and Judas brought men to arrest Jesus, and one of the disciples cuts off a man's ear.  For a more thorough account of that, read my post: Swords