Luke 22:47-51
This month we’ve looked at the healing miracles of Jesus. We’ve seen Him make the blind see, heal a paralytic, and cleanse a man of leprosy. Today we end our study of His healing miracles with a look at what is likely His last miracle before His crucifixion.
When Judas led the enemies of Jesus to arrest Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter drew his sword and cut off a man’s ear. Why did Peter do this (Luke 22:33-38)?
When they were eating, Jesus told Peter he would betray Jesus. Peter said he wouldn’t do any such thing. Then Jesus informed His disciples that they would have to defend themselves in the future. He tells them to buy swords. Apparently they already had two swords and Jesus cut off the conversation when they mentioned it. So, we can see why Peter may have been quick to draw his sword.
Jesus healed the man’s ear. What does this miracle teach us?
Jesus is showing He cares about the little things in our lives.
This injury isn’t life threatening and is pretty minor compared to the other miracles we’ve looked at. By healing this man’s ear, He shows us He cares about little things. We can bring the little things to Him in prayer because He cares. The night before He would die to save the world, He healed a man’s ear.Jesus is modeling compassion for our enemies.
This man worked for the priests who wanted Jesus dead and had the authority to do it with a little help from the Romans. Luke 6:27-28 shows us what Jesus thought about how we should treat our enemies. He says to love them, bless them, and pray for them. It can be difficult to treat our opponents with love and respect, but that is what we’re called to do. With election season coming,Jesus is emphasizing His kingdom is not built on violence or coercion.
Jesus doesn’t want violence done in His name. He doesn’t want to coerce anyone into being a Christian. No one should be forced in any way to profess a belief in Christ. Christ’s nature is not violent. His kingdom’s nature is not violent. The Crusades sometimes push away people from Christianity because they can’t get behind a religion with such a violent history. Christians have certainly made mistakes and gone astray at times. Don’t let the imperfect people who follow Christ blind you from the perfect Savior of the world and His nature that is love.
The other three miracles we looked at all had an element of faith from the one receiving the healing. Not this one. This time Jesus just healed the man. What could have gone his head that night as he led Jesus to His death after being the recipient of such a miracle? He had to know something was different about this Jesus? Did he wonder if he was doing the right thing? We’ll likely never know. But what we do know is that Jesus cares even about the little things and He treats His enemies with respect instead of violence. We also know He is the savior of the world.