Lay Down Your Swords
“Lay down your swords. He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.” These words haunt me. They resonate in my spirit day by day, in the night hours before sleep, they are my companions. I cannot avoid them, nor do I wish to. These words challenge me; they search my heart, my motivations, my innermost life.
These were the last words Yeshua spoke to his closest disciples before his death on the cross. The last words of a dying person are often a legacy for future generations. His words, spoken as he approached death, are prescriptive for those who hear them. They resound in the hearts of those who believe in him. His words are true.
All the words of Jesus are important. His last words resonate throughout history. They are words of commission and warning for all his disciples, past and present. We know who Jesus is by his words and his actions. Isaiah speaks of Him, saying that neither violence nor deceit had any place in him. His life was characterized by His Father’s love for “the world”, for all humanity. Yeshua never defended himself. He either spoke truth, often to power, or remained silent when others would have fought to be heard and defend themselves.
His last words, “Lay down your swords,” are a command to abandon violence and a warning that if we do not, we will die by the very thing we thought would save us. From remote times, swords have been a symbol of violence.
We live in a world immersed in uprisings, conflicts, and wars. Humanity is weaponized as it has never been. The sounds of war deafen our skies. The rhetoric of war assaults our ears, minds, and hearts as the only way to achieve and retain sovereignty in our lands. It is a time of power that seeks to dominate and suppress dissent. These times are the days of Noah. Violence has again filled the earth.
Our faith has an escatological character that invites us to actively live our lives in the reality of the “already here“ Kingdom of God. Life as we know it will pass away, and the Kingdom of God that is already here, inaugurated at the birth of Yesuua, will be fully revealed. Whilst this Kingdom is already here, it is also “not yet” complete. We, however, are harbingers of the anticipated, peaceful kingdom that will come on earth as it is in heaven. We live in a time that daily approaches the end of this age. The scriptures speak of future peace when “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks” (Isaiah 2:4; cf. Mic.h 4:3).
Death has been conquered. Yeshua triumphed over death by enduring it for all humanity. For this reason, we are no longer in bondage to death or its fear. Yeshua named those who seek peace as “children of God.” There will be no swords in the fullness of this Kingdom. By laying down our swords, we demonstrate the reality that death is not the end of our lives, and it does not have the final word.
