Here's one of the strangest recorded conversations between Jesus and his disciples: "Then Jesus asked them, 'When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?' 'Nothing,' they answered. He said to them, 'But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one...' The disciples said, 'See, Lord here are two swords.' 'That is enough,' he replied" (Luke 22:35-38). TWO SWORDS! ENOUGH! FOR WHAT? The context indicates Jesus said this shortly before what Matthew described as "a large crowd armed with swords and clubs" showed up in Gethsemene with Judas to arrest Jesus--an event that Jesus had clearly warned his followers was about to take place. Then, when one of his disciples drew one of those swords and took a swipe at one in the armed crowd cutting off an ear, Jesus sternly told the preemptive striker to put that sword away uttering those now famous words, "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword" (Matthew 26:32). Here's how I see all this. Jesus told his followers that they were about to have a confrontation with the Roman military and some really upset religious leaders who were bent on killing him. Tongue in cheek he said they should arm themselves. Yup. Two swords ought to do it, two swords against the super power of the day armed to the hilt with swords and clubs? What a joke! Considered in light of everything else Jesus had said about peacemaking and loving one's enemies, it should have been obvious to his disciples he had no intention that they resort to violence. Luke's account of these events quotes Jesus saying to the preemptive striker among his followers, "NO MORE OF THIS!" (Luke 21:51), clearly demonstrating Jesus' opposition to such preemptive violence. Will we ever learn the lesson? Preemptive armed aggression against one's foes only promotes more violence and is not to be the behavior of anyone identifying themselves as a follower of Jesus. I wish world leaders today would get this through their "stay the course" heads. NO MORE OF THIS!