The Way of the Sword

When Jesus is arrested in the garden, he already knows exactly what is coming—and he surrenders anyway. Working through John 18, Dominic Jackson traces the arrest of Jesus and holds up two contrasting ways of moving through the world. Jesus humbles himself while others seek power. Jesus protects while others attack. Jesus gives his life while the world chooses death. At the center of it all is a choice the crowd is forced to make between two prisoners—a political revolutionary ready to destroy Rome's enemies by the sword, and a nonviolent rabbi who heals the ear of the soldier sent to arrest him. Dominic asks which of the two most of us would honestly choose, and what that reveals about where we actually place our hope.