‘Prince of Peace’ Series: Dying by the Sword

While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived; with him was a large crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, ‘The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him.’ At once he came up to Jesus and said, ‘Greetings, Rabbi!’ and kissed him. Jesus said to him, ‘Friend, do what you are here to do.’ Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and arrested him. Suddenly, one of those with Jesus put his hand on his sword, drew it, and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear.

Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.

Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled, which say it must happen in this way?’ At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, ‘Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a bandit? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not arrest me. But all this has taken place, so that the scriptures of the prophets may be fulfilled.’ Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.

Matthew 26:47-56

Much of these reflections were meant to be published in the weeks following Covenant School's mass shooting in Nashville last March. However, diagnosing and reckoning with our country's infatuation with violence, both at home and abroad, has proven difficult to speak about precisely and briefly. Such has also been the case when I’ve reflected upon last month’s assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump and the subsequent murder of one of his rally attendees. But perhaps there's never enough time to perfectly encapsulate the tensions, complications, and ironies of a culture which worships the very weapons responsible for its own destruction. 

I'd like to add my voice to the chorus of folks who have condemned the political violence carried out last month. However, if I'm honest, there is something hypocritical to me about folks decrying the actions of a twenty-year-old assassin and not also the violent culture that produced him. If it is true that we become what we behold, what kind of culture produces the likes of Thomas Matthew Crooks as well as every other American mass shooter that has terrorized our schools, our Sunday School classes, our synagogues, our movie theaters, our concerts, and lives? 

Americans are only four percent of the world's population, but we own 46 percent of all guns in the world. We are the only country in the world that has more guns than civilians. We have the highest incarceration rate in the world, with nearly two million people incarcerated. The U.S. security market revenue is expected to reach a staggering $6.9 billion this year. There were 656 mass shootings (four or more deaths) in 2023, and starting in 2020, firearms became the leading cause of death among children. And while it is true that Mr. Trump and his Republican colleagues have weaponized apocalyptic and demonizing language that encourages political violence (i.e. the January 6th insurrection), I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the one million dead from George W. Bush's wars, the Obama administration’s ten-time increase in drone strikes, and the nearly 40,000 Palestinians who are dead in Gaza due to President Biden's continued weapons deals with the Israeli Government. And yet, with the audacity of one building a house on quicksand, we proudly proclaim our mantra as the "land of the free and home of the brave" — free enough to slaughter and be slaughtered and brave enough to pretend "living in reality" is somehow supposed to mean always living in fear.

But why should a hillbilly care? According to national pundits and dominant culture, aren't we simply just a group of uneducated, gun-loving nuts? I mean we don’t need to act as if Appalachia is the pacifist capital of the world, but much of my own experience with firearms, and with those that use them often, has almost exclusively pointed to their effectiveness for hunting and eating game, not protecting myself from my neighbors. One thing my home and this region have taught me is that while fear may be profitable it doesn't do very much to help build and sustain a community, not to mention creating the conditions for that community's flourishing and abundance. And with so much profit-making fear to go around these days, I'm left wondering why it seems that our country doesn't have enough money to provide Appalachians better healthcare, better pay for our teachers and nurses, more broadband internet, cleaner water, and more environmental protections for our beautiful land and mountains. 

Maybe there aren't good answers to such musings, but perhaps a good place to start is recognizing how much of taxpayers’ money is spent on endless wars and national “defense.” The United States spends more on defense than the next nine countries combined. I’m of the belief that budgets are moral documents, and it sure does seem to me that our political and economic leaders are way more interested in funding programs that injure, diminish, and even destroy life rather than cultivating, preserving, and protecting life. If we rightly judge the rotten fruit bore from the tree of American imperialism, we might just see that the biggest threat to peace and justice in this country is not actually abortion, immigration, LGBTQ rights, or even a rival country like Russia or China. On the contrary, the biggest threat to our nation’s future is our collective acceptance of an American militarism pillaging the worldover to preserve American greed while our domestic infrastructure crumbles. I hope you won't shoot the messenger, but our battle cries of "Don't tread on me" haven't quite been taken seriously by the government for which they were intended.

If you've made it this far, you might be wondering when I'm going to discuss the Second Amendment, and the truth is: I'm not. Much of my concern for our country has so little to do with what is permissible under the law and everything to do with how Christ calls us to follow him. Far too many Christians have defined themselves by the Second Amendment and foregone their obligation to follow the Second Greatest Command: to love our neighbors as ourselves. I'll leave it to you to determine whether the two are compatible or not, but it seems to me that Jesus solely embodies the latter principle when faced with the violence of his own betrayal, arrest, and death.

"Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword." Jesus' words rang in my ears last March following the Covenant School shooting just as they did in the moments following the failed assassination attempt of Mr. Trump. Perhaps it is ironic or tragic or both that it seems the outcome of only one of these scenarios would threaten civil war. Nevertheless, Jesus is no stranger to polarization and wounded ears, and we'd do well to heed his warning in a political climate likened to a powder keg. As we see in the passage, Jesus' own context is a militarized one as well. The peaceful rabbi's message of love and justice is rewarded with swords, clubs, and disgruntled civilians enraged that their commitment to war as the status quo had been threatened by the Prince of Peace. This is always how empires have operated, including our own. Greed is their god, and violence is their currency. Yet, Jesus responds not with self-defense or some rallying call to his base to prepare for war but with the wisdom of love: if we live by the sword, we will die by the sword.

Friends, we are dying by the sword. We are dying by the sword because our lives are given to, ordered around, and dictated by the demands of the sword. We've believed the lie of kill or be killed. We have become so desensitized to death and decay that we've become incapable of seeing the fact that our politics, our economy, and even our churches are requiring us to sacrifice our sons, our daughters, our parents, our neighbors, and our land to appease the gods of war and greed. Numbness to such evil inevitably leads to a culture that must devalue and ultimately dispose of human life, from infants to the elderly. Whether we choose to admit it or not, to be an American means, perhaps more than anything else, to live by the sword. Slaughtering the least of these and keeping the spoils of our endless wars, from the genocide of Native Americans to those in Gaza, seems to be the one and only thing that can unite both parties of this country. As a result, our democracy finds itself on the brink of death by the sword 248 years after its inception.

To make it as plain as I can, this post has very little to do with an assassination attempt or the arguments of gun ownership, although there are plenty of good theological rationales for why Christians should reject both. However, I have to admit my disappointment in hearing far too many Christians on social media and otherwise react to that tragic moment last month with righteous indignation and a hunger for revenge. So much so that it made me wonder about the possibility that the American church's crisis may not be a steady numerical decline but rather infidelity and idolatry. If Mr. Trump's fist in the air and his rallying cry to "fight, fight, fight" was moving enough for Christians to ready themselves for war, then perhaps the image of the bloodied, defenseless Christ hanging naked from the cross crying, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do," has lost its power and relevance in most of our pulpits and pews. If so, may God have mercy on us. 

He shall judge between the nations and shall arbitrate for many peoples;

they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Isaiah 2:4