ACC ~ John 18 v11

WHERE DID THE SWORDS COME FROM?

CHRYSOSTOM: But where did the swords come from? They came from the supper and from the table. It was likely also there should be swords because of the lamb and that the disciples, hearing that certain people were coming out against Jesus, took the swords for defense. They meant to fight on behalf of their Master—but this they thought on their own. This is why Peter also is rebuked for using it—and with a severe threat. For he was resisting the servant who came, warmly indeed, yet Peter was not defending himself but his Master. Christ, however, allowed no harm to ensue. For he healed him and demonstrated a great miracle. It was enough to indicate at once both his forbearance and his power and the affection and meekness of his disciple. For then Peter acted from affection, now with dutifulness. For when he heard “Put up your sword into its sheath,” he immediately obeyed and never does this again [i.e., take up the sword]. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 84.1. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 10:502**.

JUDEA WAS DANGEROUS

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Someone may now, perhaps, raise the question and ask himself: Why did Peter carry a sword? We reply that the duty of repelling the assaults of evildoers, according to the Law, brought the need of a sword. For if one of the disciples had chosen to strike the innocent with a sword, how could the same issue have been tried? It is likely, too, that the holy disciples, as they were hurrying at midnight from their place of rest and expected to find woods and gardens in their way, were suspicious of the attacks of wild beasts. Judea had many of these. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.12. [1]

[1] LF 48:575**.

REPLACE SWORD OF VIOLENCE WITH SWORD OF SPIRIT

ORIGEN: Jesus at once speaks to him who had used the sword and cut off the servant’s right ear. He does not, however, say “withdraw your sword” but “return the sword into its place.” There is therefore some place for the sword from which it may be taken by one who does not want to perish, especially by the sword. For Jesus wants his disciples to be peaceful so that, laying aside this warlike sword, they may take another peaceful sword that Scripture calls “the sword of the Spirit.” COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 102. [1]

[1] AEG 6:7*; GCS 38 2 (11):221.

JESUS DECLARES HIS INTENT

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: The [sword] is not necessary, he says. I must suffer my passion because the Father wants this for the redemption of the whole of the human race. Therefore the words “am I not to drink the cup” must accurately be read in a declarative sense, that is, it is necessary that I drink it. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 7.18.11. [1]

[1] CSCO 4 3:325.

CAN WE ALSO DRINK THE CUP?

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Alone, therefore, the Lord “drank the cup,” for the purification of the people who plotted against him and disbelieved him. The apostles also imitated this so that they might be … perfected, suffering for the churches that they founded. So then, also those … who tread in the footsteps of the apostles ought to be sinless and, out of love to the Lord, they should also love their brother. In this way, if the occasion calls for it, “they may drink the cup,” enduring afflictions for the church without stumbling. Those who witness in their life by deed and at the tribunal by word (whether entertaining hope or imagining fear) are better than those who confess salvation by their mouth alone. But if one ascends also to love, he is a really blessed and true martyr who makes a confession perfectly both to the commandments and to God. He demonstrates his love for the Lord, acknowledging him as a brother and giving himself up wholly for God, giving himself up with love and without struggle as one who is asked to return a deposit. STROMATEIS 4.9. [1]

“DRINK THE CUP” MEANS DISCHARGE THE MINISTRY

DIONYSIUS OF ALEXANDRIA: Now, to drink the cup was to discharge the ministry and the whole divine plan of trial with fortitude. It meant to follow and fulfill the Father’s determination and to surmount any apprehension. And the exclamation “Why have you forsaken me?” fits in with the requests he had previously made. In other words, Why is it that death has been with me all along up until now, but I have not yet borne the cup? This I judge to have been the Savior’s meaning in this concise utterance. FRAGMENT 2. [2]

[1] ANF 2:422**.

[2] ANF 6:115**.

WAS JESUS AFRAID TO SUFFER?

HILARY OF POITIERS: Could fear induce him to pray for the removal of what, in his zeal for the divine plan, he was hurrying to fulfill? To say he shrank from the suffering he desired is not consistent. You allow that he suffered willingly. Would it not be more reverent to confess that you had misunderstood this passage than to rush with blasphemous and headlong folly to the assertion that he prayed to escape suffering, although you allow that he suffered willingly? And yet, I suppose, you will arm yourself also for your godless contention with these words of the Lord, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” [1] Perhaps you think that after the disgrace of the cross, the favor of his Father’s help departed from him, and this is why he cried out that he was left alone in his weakness. But if you regard the contempt, the weakness, the cross of Christ as a disgrace, you should remember his words, “Truly I say unto you, from now on you shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven.” [2] ON THE TRINITY 10.30-31. [3]

[1] Mt 27:46; Mk 15:34.

[2] Mt 26:64; cf 16:27.

[3] NPNF 2:9:189-90*; CCL 62A:484-85.

SAVING THE WORLD HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE PLAN

LEO THE GREAT: It is not to be thought that the Lord Jesus wished to escape the passion and the death, the sacraments of which he had already committed to his disciples’ keeping. This is obvious, seeing that he himself forbids Peter, when he was burning with devoted faith and love, to use the sword. He says, “The cup that the Father has given me, shall I not drink it?” The Lord also most certainly says, according to John’s Gospel, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.” [1] Similarly, the apostle Paul says, “Christ loved us and gave himself for us, a victim to God for a sweet-smelling savor.” [2] For the saving of all through the cross of Christ was the common will and the common plan of the Father and the Son. Nor could that by any means be disturbed that before eternal ages had been mercifully determined and unchangeably foreordained. Therefore in assuming true and entire manhood Jesus took the true sensations of the body and the true feelings of the mind. And it does not follow because everything in him was full of sacraments, full of miracles, that therefore he either shed false tears or took food from pretended hunger or feigned slumber. It was in our humility that he was despised, with our grief that he was saddened, with our pain that he was racked on the cross. For his compassion underwent the sufferings of our mortality with the purpose of healing them, and his power encountered them with the purpose of conquering them. And this Isaiah has most plainly prophesied, saying, “He carries our sins and is pained for us, and we thought him to be in pain and in stripes and in affliction. But he was wounded for our sins and was stricken for our offenses, and with his stripes we are healed.” [3] SERMON 58.4. [4]

[1] Jn 3:16.

[2] Eph 5:2.

[3] Is 53:4-5 LXX.

[4] CCL 138A:345-47; NPNF 2 12:170**.

DO NOT NEEDLESSLY SURRENDER TO PERSECUTORS

PETER OF ALEXANDRIA: Those Christians who deliver themselves up to persecution forget that the Savior taught us to pray not to enter into temptation. They forget his many retreats from those who sought to plot against him … and how when the time of his passion was at hand he did not give himself up but waited until they came upon him with swords and spears. CANONICAL EPISTLE 9. [1]

[1] ANCL 14:304**.