The kiss and the sword

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

THE KISS AND THE SWORD

Luke 22:47-51

47 While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him,   48 but Jesus asked him, "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?"  49 When Jesus' followers saw what was going to happen, they said, "Lord, should we strike with our swords?" 50 And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. 51 But Jesus answered, "No more of this!" And he touched the man's ear and healed him.

NIV

Words that must have struck the very core of Judas were used here by Jesus. When we look at each of these words we can see a whole teaching of the truth. First Judas the betrayer. Are you violating all your obligations of fidelity? Judas was one of the twelve and Jesus makes sure he calls this to the attention of Judas, but we have to remember that Satan is using him. Satan has succeeded in tempting Judas to do this. The Scripture words it as Satan had entered Judas, whether that was literally or figuratively, he was being under the influence of Satan. He had forsaken his devotion to Jesus. If this could happen to Judas, we would be wise to keep up our guard against such temptations that come our way. Jesus also called himself the Son of Man, letting Judas know without a doubt that he was betraying the Messiah, the hope of Israel and in fact all the nations. But the worse thing was he was doing it with a kiss, a sign of affection. What could be any worse than to be that deceitful, to betray with a sign of affection? It is one thing to openly oppose the Lord, to even violently oppose God, protesting against him and all that he represents, but to betray him using a sign of affection is simply being deceitful. This is what we should be on guard against. We certainly love the Lord, we profess our love, our affection for Jesus when we gather to worship together. We show our affection to Jesus when we read and study the scriptures. We demonstrate our love for the Lord when we serve him in some way within the body of Christ. But all the while, we do all which would be considered signs of affection, could we also betray him in some manner? We would think not so, as Jesus says we cannot serve two masters. Of course he meant God and money, but it could be applied to God and Satan. We cannot love both Jesus and the devil. We will love one and despise the other. But how did Satan get Judas to serve his purpose, if Judas was once a man who loved Jesus. Perhaps Judas was always a bit deceitful anyway and Satan was able to tip him over the edge. Satan used his weakness to get him. We must be continuously aware of our weaknesses and watch we are not tempted to be deceitful in our love toward Jesus. We can also learn from the violent actions of some or one of the disciples using a sword against one of the men coming to arrest Jesus, that violence in our defending our faith is not the way Jesus would have us behave. If we become argumentative to the extent of anger when we are speaking with unbelievers, or even believers who simply do not know the truth yet, we might hear those words of Jesus, “No more of this”. Yes he spoke the truth, but he did it with love, motivated out of love for them. This should be our motivation whenever we speak about the gospel to anyone. When we become violent, or perhaps we could use the word overly passionate about the Lord in our discussion, it could be perceived as violence against those who we are speaking with. Let us remain a demonstration of the love of Jesus without any form of violence or betrayal.