He said to them, "But now, let him who has a purse take it, and likewise a bag. And let him who has no sword sell his mantle and buy one. For I tell you that this scripture must be fulfilled in me, 'And he was reckoned with transgressors'; for what is written about me has its fulfilment." And they said, "Look, Lord, here are two swords." And he said to them, "It is enough." (Luke 22:36-38)
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| "St. Peter Cuts Off Slave's Ear" by Duccio (c. 1300) |
I often find it easy to identify with Peter and the other Apostles when they are slow to catch on to what their Master is saying. In the passage above, from Luke’s account of the Last Supper, there’s an almost comical quality to their too literal understanding of Christ’s sword imagery. I picture Jesus shaking his head, with just a hint of a wry smile, as he says “It is enough.” And yet this is a very serious moment, the Lord’s last instructions to his closest associates before he goes out to meet a horrifying death. And later that same evening, Peter uses one of those two swords to mutilate a man in the gang that has come to arrest Jesus; nobody smiles at that.
In the passage below from John’s Gospel, one of the readings at this evening’s Mass of the Lord’s Supper, we see something very similar . . .
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