Whack An Ear for God

June 3, 2009

While Jesus was still speaking, suddenly a crowd came, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him; but Jesus said to him, ‘Judas, is it with a kiss that you are betraying the Son of Man?’ When those who were around him saw what was coming, they asked, ‘Lord, should we strike with the sword?’ Then one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus said, ‘No more of this!’ And he touched his ear and healed him. Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple police, and the elders who had come for him, ‘Have you come out with swords and clubs as if I were a bandit? When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness!’
The Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus from Luke 22:47-52

I was reeling and unsteady. There had been too many painful words spoken at me. Too many losses had begun to pile up. Doors closed. Friendships ended. Confusion, misunderstandings, and misdirected hostility seemed to rule the day. All because I had gone to a few of the people I loved the most and said, “Because I love you I need you to know something about me. I’m gay.” In an instant it seemed everything and everyone around me changed. People I adored and loved reacted in ways I could never have anticipated. I was blindsided by the anger. I was devastated by the looks of disappointment and disgust. I was chilled to the bone by the coldness that swept threw the closest of relationships.

And then through happenstance or the most loving gesture of a most loving God (I vote for the later), I stumbled over this familiar passage on the arrest and betrayal of Jesus that showed me everything I needed to find my way back to steady, solid ground.

In the crowd that approached Jesus was the high priest’s slave. While the others in the crowd were there of their own accord, and no doubt relishing being so close to silencing this crazy prophet once and for all, the slave was there for one reason. He was a slave. He was there because he had been ordered to be there. This one man in the crowd was innocent. He had no power. He meant no harm. He was merely following the command of his master.

And to the edge of the crowd were Jesus’ followers. They probably didn’t even notice the slave standing at the side of his master. Instead they recognized among the approaching crowd religious leaders who had repeatedly taken an adversarial position to Jesus’ teachings and miracles throughout his ministry. They saw the soldiers with swords at the ready. They remembered Jesus’ words from only hours earlier that he would soon be betrayed, suffer and die. When all that had been said by Jesus echoing in their minds and with the imminent confrontation with numbers larger than they possessed, their basic instinct to protect the One they loved kicked in. Driven by fear of the uncertainty of the situation and by love for Jesus, one of his followers grabbed a sword and in a defensive move swung it wildly in the direction of the crowd where it connected with perhaps the most least threatening and innocent of all those gathered, a slave.

Jesus responds by saying “Enough of this!” and then reaching to the edge of the crowd where the slave stands screaming in pain, Jesus places his hand on the bloody remnants that had once been his right ear and heals him. Jesus didn’t reach down and pick up the severed ear from the dust and attach it back in place. That would have been impressive enough but no, Jesus touched the place where there was nothing more than a gaping wound and from that nothingness he brought forth wholeness. An old ear wasn’t repaired. A new ear was formed.

Only Luke includes this last healing touch of Jesus which isn’t all that surprising really since Luke’s vision of Jesus was as the Great Physician, the One who heals those who have been wounded, even by the well-intended mistakes of his own followers. And that’s really what it was. The unnamed disciple had meant well. It was love for his Master and a passion to protect him at all cost that had caused him to swing the sword and whack an ear. He wasn’t motivated by hate but by love for Jesus. And yet, even though his motives were well-meaning and his action meant to do a good thing rather than to cause harm, it resulted in a devastating injury to an innocent man; a wound that had Jesus not healed would have negatively impacted every day of the slave’s life from that moment on. As a slave with one ear he would have been viewed of less value and perhaps would have been relegated to even more menial, degrading tasks than when he was once a slave deemed good enough to accompany his master in public.  While pain must have held the loudest voice in his head immediately following the blow of the sword, it’s not hard to imagine that in those first seconds the slave saw his uncertain future and feared for his life.

I realized in my closer reading of this passage that in my life I’ve been both the innocent slave and the unnamed disciple.

I am the innocent slave. I came out and swords starting swinging in my direction by people I loved and respected. Good people. Loving people. People of faith who loved God, followed Christ, and were genuinely committed to the church and to other believers. People who at every other time in my life and in every other occasion had displayed nothing but love, loyalty, and kindness toward me. I’d never seen them do a hateful thing or speak a harmful word and so when they picked up swords and started swinging, it made no sense until I came back to this passage and saw each of them as the unnamed disciple; a disciple who loving Jesus beyond measure and fearing that everything he had come to know in his life since following Jesus was about to be taken from him, swung out at the perceived threat and in doing so wounded the slave who was no threat to the One he loved or to his way of life. Recognizing that swords are often swung in our direction from well-intended people does nothing to justify the aggressive action of the sword-swinger nor does it require that we stand still while our ears are hacked off, but compassion and understanding go along away in dulling the edge of the sword and softening our hearts to seeing the unnamed follower behind the sword as our brother and not our enemy.

I am the unnamed disciple, and the words Jesus speaks to me are “Enough of this!” Even knowing the personal violence that lay ahead for him, Jesus continues to advocate the way of peace. The way of peace is the way of the kingdom of God. Jesus will be taken. Heavy chains will be secured on his arms and legs. A crown of thorns will be placed on his head. A leather whip with multiple cords will dig deep in his flesh, and in the end he’ll be nailed and hung to a cross to suffer and die. “But remember my words, no violence!” These same followers of Jesus will suffer their own violence in the days that follow Jesus’ ascension. They will be mocked and ridiculed. Some will be persecuted. Others will be imprisoned. And a few will be killed for living true to their faith and calling. “But remember my words, no violence!” Though my intentions might be well-meaning, my indignation righteous, my anger at injustice justified, if anything I might do or anything I say holds potential to harm to another human life in body or in spirit, then Jesus speaks to me, “Drop the sword. The way of God’s kingdom is peace.” At times the sword seems to make more sense than the way of peace but the Kingdom of God has never been all that concerned with making sense to human understanding yet to those who seek spiritual understanding it makes all the sense in the world…and in the kingdom.

Today I’m trying to do the best I can to not pick up the sword and follow the way of peace but even when I fail, as I have and as I will, there remains the comfort and assurance that because Grace has no limit, there’s no mistake I will ever make that’s beyond the reach of Jesus to redeem and restore to wholeness.

You have lost nothing and will lose nothing that is beyond God’s ability to restore to you. You have lost no voice in ministry, no loved ones, no dignity, no human worth, no assurance of your faith, that God can’t redeem. The power of the sword for destruction is nothing compared to the healing power of the One who reaches out to you. God makes all things new. God brings life from death. God brings healing from injury. God restores, redeems, and makes whole.

And from everything I’ve experienced in my life and witnessed in others, the new ear God has for you is even better than the old one laying mangled in the dust.

And he touched his ear and healed him.

Whatever needs healing in you, may God’s healing touch come to you today. This is my prayer for you.

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Posted in Devotionals