Musings by Tim Keel

“’Put your sword back in its place,’ Jesus said to him, ‘for all who live by the sword will die by the sword.'” ~Matthew 26:52

Thinking about this passage and wondering whether or not it could really be as simple as this?

People who live “by the sword” will “die by the sword.”

It seems fair to extrapolate “gun” for “sword” and “society” for “all.”

It also seems to match the current context of gun-control debates since Jesus speaks these words in the context of Peter taking up a weapon and attacking a soldier in order to defend Jesus against those who will unjustly murder him.

If we do so, we read the following:

“‘Put your guns back in their place,’ Jesus said to them, ‘for a society that lives by their guns will die by their guns.'”

Read that way, I think to myself, “Yep, this sounds like our society.”

And then it makes me wonder,

(if wonder could be said to describe all the emotions I feel every time a new group of people is killed by violence and all the old arguments are trotted out those who believe guns are so important to their “way of life”)

given the simplicity of what Jesus says here, and the gravity and certainty of his pronouncement:

why do you want to live by your guns if you are one of his followers?

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Tim Keel is Pastor of Jacob’s Well Church in Kansas City, MO.