Word of Salvation – Vol.53 No.10 – March 2008
72000 Unemployed Angels
A GOOD FRIDAY Sermon by Rev John De Hoog
on Matthew 26:47-56
Scripture Reading: Matthew 26:31-46
Suggested Singing: BoW 301; 308; 321
Brothers and Sisters in Christ.
There are moments in history that can be identified as turning points. 27 January 1944 is one such moment. In June 1941, having conquered much of Europe, Hitler set his sights on Russia. It was to be a fatal mistake. German forces quickly surrounded Russia’s second city, Leningrad (which is now known once again as St Petersburg), but the city simply would not succumb. For 900 days Leningrad was besieged, but finally on 27 January 1944 the siege was ended and the German forces were broken. Hundreds of thousands of Leningrad’s citizens had died, but it was the beginning of the end for Hitler. They had died of starvation, exposure, disease and enemy action, but in the end they had won. It was a moment that changed history.
In our text in Matthew 26, another turning point in history is about to occur. Here in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is about to embark on the greatest battle in the history of the universe. This battle will not be fought with swords and spears, or tanks and guns, or any of the weapons of this world. It is not so trivial a battle that it can be decided by such earthly forces! It is a battle that will result in the death of Jesus, but his death will finally bring about the greatest victory of all. Jesus goes into this battle by his own faithful and obedient choice. Jesus knows exactly what is going to happen, and he faces the coming betrayal with perfect courage. Jesus is not a victim. Even in this story of his betrayal and arrest, isn’t it plain that he is in authority?
Jesus’ death was by his own choice. He need not have come to Jerusalem for this Passover feast. Having come to Jerusalem, he could have come quietly and left unobtrusively. He need not have deliberately provoked the authorities by riding into Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey in fulfilment of that prophecy in Zechariah. He need not have made a scene by cleansing the temple of the traders and money-changers. He need not have provoked the authorities by telling parables about the end of God’s patience with Israel as an unfruitful vineyard.
Even here in the Garden, he could have slipped away quietly in the night. He had plenty of friends in Jerusalem who could have secretly smuggled him out of the city and sent him to some place of refuge. Indeed, he could have called down twelve legions of angels (that’s 72,000 angels!) to simply blast his enemies with the might of God. But he calmly and deliberately chooses the path that will lead to his death. He died not as a victim of men who were victorious over him. He died because he chose to die.
In that context, Jesus will not allow Peter to spoil it all by doing something stupid. Verse 50 – “Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him. With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.” This story is recounted in all four of the gospels. John tells us that the disciple who drew his sword was Peter. He also tells us that the name of the high priest’s servant was Malchus. Luke tells us that Jesus reached out and touched the man’s ear and healed him. No doubt Peter wanted to cut the man’s head in half, but he dodged and Peter only got his ear.
We secretly admire Peter just a little, don’t we! Here he is, willing to take on the whole mob by himself to protect his beloved Master. That would have taken fantastic courage! Or is it just foolhardy hotheaded-ness that gets the better of him? Peter’s courage melts away when Jesus forbids him and heals the damage he has done to Malchus’ ear. Jesus faces his coming suffering with calm dignity; and for all his bluster, Peter cannot stay with Jesus, he scatters with the other disciples. Jesus has forbidden Peter from taking violent action; he is at a loss as to what else to do.
Notice that Jesus gives Peter three reasons why drawing the sword is not the way ahead.
Verse 52 – “‘Put your sword back in its place,’ Jesus said to him, ‘for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think that I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?'”
Jesus gives Peter three reasons for shoving his sword back into its scabbard.
1. There is a spiritual battle that cannot be fought using the weapons of the world.
2. Don’t ever think that God is not in charge.
3. Realise that the Scriptures will be fulfilled.
First, there is a spiritual battle that cannot be fought using the weapons of the world. Jesus says to Peter, “Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.”
Jesus says, “All who draw the sword will die by the sword.” This saying has the form of a proverb – a pithy statement of wisdom. And like all proverbs, it is not an absolute rule; there will always be situations where it does not apply. For example, there is a legitimate use of the sword, by a legitimate government, as we read about it in Romans 13. But certainly this proverb makes a lot of sense in Peter’s immediate circumstances, doesn’t it?! Verse 47 tells us that Judas had arrived with “a large crowd, armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people.” What can Peter, with one sword, do against such a mob? Certainly in the immediate circumstance, Peter better heed this proverb. If he takes up the sword now, in this situation, he will certainly be killed himself. All who draw the sword will die by the sword.
But there is a deeper lesson here! There is a spiritual battle that cannot be fought using the weapons of the world. It’s a lesson that the church has failed to learn so often in its history.
If you read a little bit of European history, you will read about the Religious Wars of the seventeenth century. In the period just after the Reformation, Europe sank into bitter, bloody wars between Protestants and Catholics, and between Calvinists and Lutherans, and between Christians and Jews.
The Wars of Religion involved Spain, The Netherlands, France and the German states. Denmark and Sweden were also drawn into the battle. In Germany, neither Protestant nor Catholic could claim a majority of the population, and war dragged on. In thirty years the population of 21 million was reduced to 13.5 million. In cities like Augsburg and Marburg, over half the population perished. All fighting for God! Killing people because they were Catholic or because they were Protestant!
Church history is littered with examples of the way in which Jesus’ words in this verse have been ignored. Jesus is not advocating pacifism, but he is saying at the very least that God’s purposes of salvation and the gospel cannot be advanced by the point of a sword.
“Religion cannot be forced. It should be defended, not by killing, but by dying” (Matthew Henry). That’s exactly what Jesus is doing here, isn’t it?! Jesus is preparing to die. Peter is getting in the way of Jesus’ purposes. He does not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.
We are not tempted today to take a sword and kill our Catholic neighbours, are we? We live in a very different world. But we are not exempt from exactly the same temptation in principle.
There is a spiritual battle that cannot be fought using the weapons of the world. It must rather be fought using the Word of God, and it must be fought as we follow Jesus and give up our lives in service of others. It must be fought by dying rather than fighting. That may mean sometimes, for some Christians, even giving up physical life itself.
The Word of God, and sacrificial service. That’s how to do God’s work. Taking up your cross daily, and following Christ. Dying rather than fighting. Turning the other cheek. Choosing to be wronged rather than standing on our rights. Loving our enemies rather than hating them. Dying rather than fighting.
What does it mean in practical daily life to die rather than fight? There are many possible examples. But let’s take just one. How do you confess sin?
When we apologise to others, it is just so very easy to fight rather than die. It’s so very easy to justify yourself rather than truly confess. To truly confess, we must avoid If, But and Maybe.
“I’m sorry IF I’ve done something to upset you.”
“I shouldn’t have lost my temper, BUT I was tired.”
“MAYBE I could have tried harder.”
Would any of these sentences be appropriate confessions of sin to God? No? Then neither are they appropriate, truly-meant apologies to others. They involve still fighting, not truly dying to self.
As you look at Jesus Christ, voluntarily going to his death, remember his call to die to yourself for him. Remember his call to take up your cross and follow him. Sometimes we have to die rather than fight.
[Pause]The second important principle in Jesus’ words here: Don’t ever think that God is not in charge. [Repeat]
Verse 53 – “Do you think that I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” I have called this sermon “72000 unemployed angels”. A legion was 6000 men. Twelve legions of angels is 72000 angels. Perhaps there was a legion each – one for Jesus and one for each of the remaining eleven disciples! Peter, all your bluster and the drawing of your sword is utterly and totally unnecessary. Don’t imagine that God my Father is somehow standing by watching helplessly, wringing his hands and wondering how things will turn out, perhaps cheering as Peter draws his sword. No Peter, don’t ever think that God is not in charge.
Jesus will not use the methods of the world to fight the battle he is facing. He will not use earthly means to avoid his destiny. But now, even more strongly, neither will he use supernatural means to avoid his God-given task. Spiritual help was available, supernatural help was available, 72000 angels were available! But even such spiritual help would not be the way of God, even using supernatural help at this moment would be the way of men. Jesus had great power at his disposal, but he emptied himself and gave it up and voluntarily submitted to the suffering that God had prepared for him.
Jesus submitted himself in this way, he tells us himself, to give up his life as a ransom for many. Peter must not imagine that God has lost control of the situation, and now it is up to him to step in and make up for God’s deficit. No, the death of Jesus Christ is God’s purpose, and Jesus, the Son of God, is obeying that purpose. In the arrest of Jesus, God’s purpose has not been arrested. This is God’s purpose. Don’t ever think that God is not in charge.
Just think how it turned out. The angry mob who had taken up the sword against Jesus, experienced the truth of Jesus’ saying that “all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” Only forty years later, these sword-wielding Jews saw the utter destruction of their city Jerusalem at the hands of the Romans, and saw the death of a million of their countrymen. But the man who refused to fight, the man who is God, Jesus Christ, who really did die but who then rose again from the dead, he at the same time was building his church and knowing the victory of new life, eternal life, in the lives of thousands of people as they were eternally transformed into new people by the power of the Holy Spirit.
No matter how deeply troubled and how dire our circumstances might become, don’t ever think that God is not in charge.
First, there is a spiritual battle that cannot be fought using the weapons of the world. Be prepared to die to yourself. Second, don’t ever think that God is not in charge. And third, realise that the Scriptures will be fulfilled.
Jesus says to Peter in verse 54, “But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” Jesus says to the mob in verse 56, “But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.” If Jesus had somehow given superhuman power to Peter so that he could by himself handle the mob, like Samson had done to the Philistines centuries before, or if he had called upon the twelve legions of angels that were ready to help him, if he had used the power available to him, then the Scriptures would not have been fulfilled. But Jesus had come to fulfil the prophecies about him.
Think of the Scriptures that were fulfilled only in this short incident. The fact that Judas, one of his twelve disciples, turns traitor, fulfils Psalm 41:9, “Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.” The fact that a large crowd, an angry mob, comes against him fulfils Psalm 3:1, “O Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me!” The fact that he is arrested as a criminal fulfils Isaiah 53:12, “He was numbered with the transgressors.” The fact that the disciples fled the scene fulfils Zechariah 13:7, “Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered,” a fulfilment that Jesus himself predicts in verse 31 of this passage. How else but by this very means could Isaiah 53:7-8 be fulfilled? “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away.” We could go on giving examples of how Jesus fulfils Scripture by choosing this way.
[Pause]Here is a powerful way to live: Be prepared sometimes to die instead of fight, for there is a battle that can only be won by dying to yourself. Remember that God is in charge. And realise that the Scriptures will be fulfilled. Scripture tells us that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead, that he is seated at the right hand of God the Father, and that he will return one day. Scripture tells us that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Scripture tells us that one day we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Scripture tells us that all God’s people will be utterly vindicated on that day, but that all God’s enemies will go into eternal punishment.
How can we be confident and sure of what Scripture tells us? Jesus Christ has fulfilled the Scriptures. He did so supremely in taking this way to the cross. What a great blessing it is that Peter’s sword-wielding was unsuccessful!
Jesus our Lord shows us what it means to take up our cross daily and follow him. It means to die rather than fight – to die to yourself in service rather than to fight for your rights. It means to trust that God is in charge no matter what. And it means to live on the firm foundation that the Scriptures will be fulfilled and that all God’s promises can be trusted.
Amen.