Lay Down Your Sword

“Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels.” (Matthew 26:53)

This week we once again focus on Jesus’ arrest in the garden.  He has cleaned up his friend Peter’s mess, because Peter thought his flesh could take care of a difficult situation.  Then Jesus had some words to say to Peter.  He wanted Peter to learn he did not have to handle difficulties in his flesh but could trust in the power of heaven.  And what power that is.  This week I want us to consider the full impact of what Jesus is saying about angels.  We will answer three questions.  First, what is a legion of angels?  Second, just how many angels would there be in twelve legions of angels?  And third, just how powerful would this many angels be?

The word legion is a military term.  In fact, legion was a word taken from the Roman military.  It denoted a group of at least 6,000 Roman soldiers.  Hence, a legion of angels would be comprised of 6,000 angelic beings.  We find this term in Mark 5:9 to describe the demon-possessed man of the Gadarenes, who we are told had a legion of demons he was possessed with.  Think about that for a moment.

Second, Jesus said he could easily summon from his Father twelve legions of these angels.  If we do the math correctly, twelve legions of six thousand angels each would involve a minimum of seventy-two thousand angels.  Now remember, we have discovered that between 300 to 600 soldiers had been sent to arrest Christ.  That would make the odds somewhere between 120 to 240 angels to one soldier.

That brings us to our third question – Just how powerful would this many angels be? If you have never studied the description of angels in the bible, I encourage you to do so. Isaiah 37:36 records how a single angel obliterated 185,000 men in one night.  That alone tells us that merely one legion of 6,000 angels would be enough to destroy over one billion men.  The number of angels Jesus was talking about that night in the garden would have had the capacity to destroy well over thirteen billion men.  Mind boggling when you consider that today the entire world population is just over 7.8 billion people. 

Jesus didn’t need Peter’s little sword that night in the Garden.  Jesus knew one call to the Father and every soldier on that mountain side would have been wiped out.  Yet not one hair on the head of one soldier was harmed.  And even the only one who was harmed was completely healed by Christ.

Here’s the point we need to get.  Peter wanted to try to take care of a difficult situation with human means.  Is that not what we try to do?  Are we not all Peters?  Never forget that whatever difficulty we face these next few weeks as we approach Resurrection Sunday, Jesus Christ has the power and capacity to intervene on our behalf.  Pray and ask him to deliver you from whatever trials you face by all the power he has at his disposal.  And…..lay down your sword, you really don’t need it. 

                                                          Darlene