GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 22:37-38
37 “For I tell you, the scripture [that says] ‘And he was counted among the sinners’ must be fulfilled in me. Indeed, what was written about me is being fulfilled.” 38 They said, “Lord, look, here are two swords,” but he replied, “Enough!”
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22:37 Isaiah 53:12
The prophecies about the Messiah, all of them, were and are fulfilled in Jesus. One of the prophecies that must have baffled so many Old Testament believers is this one from Isaiah 53:12, that the Messiah “was counted among the sinners.” One supposes that most believers from those days simply assumed that the Christ would be captured by Gentiles and sentenced to death with other faithful Jews, “counted among the sinners,” but only insofar as being judged to be a “sinner” from the Gentiles’ point of view.
It is to God’s glory and mankind’s shame that the Lord so often turned such thinking on its head. It would not be the Gentiles who proclaimed the Messiah to be “among the sinners,” but the Jews. The Gentiles (indeed, the highest-ranking Gentile in Israel, the Governor himself) would declare Jesus to be an innocent man. Pilate does this three times in all:
“I find no basis for a charge” John 18:38
“I find no basis for a charge” John 19:4
“I find no basis for a charge” John 19:6
But the Jews? They said: “If he were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you” (John 18:30). They shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” (John 19:6). They added to this: “We have a law, and according to that law he must die” (John 19:7), and again, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” (John 19:15). It was the Gentiles who found no sin in him. It was the Jews who condemned him as a criminal.
The disciples of Jesus missed the point. Perhaps they thought that his power to provide for them and to protect them was already at an end, and that they should begin to defend themselves from this moment. When they pointed out that there were two swords, they didn’t say, “We have two swords,” or “Two of us have swords,” nor did they say (as some would insist) “Peter has two swords.” What they said was, “Here are two swords.” It is unlikely that Jesus’ disciples came to the Passover meal in Jerusalem carrying swords. It is far more likely that the owner of the house they were using had a couple of swords in the room hanging on a peg, and that when they left, Peter took or borrowed one (with permission, we can assume).
Jesus’ reaction was brief, and perhaps frustrated. “Enough!” His words are usually translated, “It is enough,” but the adjective can be seen as an exclamation, similar to the adjective used as an exclamation of the Lord in Ezekiel 44:6, “Enough of your detestable practices, O house of Israel!” There was no point in belaboring the discussion with the disciples when their understanding was as clouded as it was, heavy with wine and fatigue. It was time to leave.
Jesus was headed for the Mount of Olives.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: www.wlchapel.org/connect-grow/ministries/adults/daily-devotions/gwfy-archive/2019
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota