Luke 22:35–38

Luke 22:35 — The Memory of Providential Mission Jesus opens with an anamnetic question, drawing the disciples back to the earlier missionary commissioning recorded in Luke 10:4 (the Seventy) and 9:3 (the Twelve), where they were sent without purse (ballantion), bag (pēran), or sandals. The rhetorical question — "Did you lack anything?" — expects the answer "Nothing." This is not nostalgia; it is a deliberate theological contrast. During the Galilean mission, Israel was a relative place of welcome, the harvest was plentiful, and the disciples experienced the Father's direct provision in the hospitality of receptive households. That season of transparent, unencumbered sending is now being formally closed. Jesus invites them to recall its graces before announcing that another kind of journey is beginning.

Luke 22:36 — The Reversal and the Sword The adversative alla nyn — "but now" — is one of the most rhetorically loaded pivots in the Gospel. Everything that follows is governed by the imminence of the Passion. The purse and bag, previously forbidden, are now to be taken up. The cloak (himation), the basic outer garment without which a man was considered nearly naked, is to be sold to acquire a sword (machaira). This escalating extremity — sell even your last garment — signals hyperbole in service of urgency. Most exegetes in the Catholic tradition, from Origen onwards, have recognized that Jesus cannot literally intend His disciples to arm themselves for combat: He rebukes sword-use within the hour (Luke 22:51) and He commands Peter to sheathe his blade in Matthew 26:52. The "sword" language, in the context of Luke's literary and theological project, is best understood as metaphorical preparation for hostility, persecution, and spiritual conflict. The disciples will now operate in a world that does not receive them; they must be resourceful, self-reliant, and prepared for opposition. The sword evokes readiness, not violence.

Luke 22:37 — The Hermeneutical Key: Isaiah 53:12 This verse is the theological heart of the entire passage. Jesus explicitly identifies the coming events — His arrest, trial, and crucifixion — as the fulfillment of Isaiah 53:12: "He was counted among the transgressors." The word teleō ("must be fulfilled/completed") carries the weight of divine necessity: this is not tragedy but teleology. By citing Isaiah 53 directly, Jesus is announcing that the Suffering Servant poem, which prophesied a vicarious, atoning death borne in solidarity with sinners, finds its consummation in Him. The phrase "counted with transgressors" anticipates the literal fulfillment: He will be crucified between two criminals (Luke 23:33) and arrested as though a violent rebel (Luke 22:52). The sword-imagery of verse 36 thus takes on ironic significance — He who tells them to acquire a sword will Himself be handed over as a criminal bearing one.

Luke 22:38 — "Here Are Two Swords": Misunderstanding as Narrative Device The disciples' response — producing two literal swords and presenting them as sufficient — is a Lukan irony of the highest order. They have entirely missed the metaphorical register of Jesus's speech. Their reply (idou, machairai hōde dyo) echoes the literalism of Nicodemus asking about re-entering the womb (John 3:4) or the disciples worrying about having no bread (Mark 8:16). Jesus's reply, Hikanon estin — "It is enough" — is widely debated. Many Fathers read it as a dismissal of the entire discussion: "Enough of this," not "Two swords will suffice." St. Ambrose, St. Cyril of Alexandria, and St. Thomas Aquinas all favor this reading. The abruptness signals that Jesus is ending a conversation that has gone in the wrong direction, not approving an armory. The two swords are tragically inadequate for what is coming — and Jesus knows it.

Catholic tradition brings two distinctive contributions to this passage. First, it provides the fullest reading of the Isaiah 53:12 citation within a theology of vicarious, satisfactory atonement. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that "Jesus atoned for our faults and made satisfaction for our sins to the Father" (CCC 615), and this verse is one of the rare moments in the Synoptics where Jesus Himself explicitly frames His death in Isaian Servant terms. The Church Fathers seized upon it: St. Irenaeus (Adversus Haereses IV, 33) saw the Suffering Servant as the recapitulating Second Adam, and St. Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trypho 89) argued strenuously that Isaiah 53 could only be fulfilled in Christ crucified. The deliberate citation here by Jesus constitutes an act of self-interpretation: He is not a victim of history but the agent of a pre-ordained redemptive economy. Second, Catholic just-war and non-violence theology has wrestled with these verses seriously. The Catechism's treatment of legitimate defense (CCC 2263–2265) has sometimes been read in light of this passage, but the weight of patristic and scholastic commentary — especially St. Thomas Aquinas (ST II-II, q. 40) and the interpretation of Hikanon estin as dismissal — cautions against using Luke 22:36 as a prooftext for sword-bearing. Pope John Paul II's Evangelium Vitae (§40) situates Christian response to threat within a framework of defense of innocent life, but never at the expense of Christ's deeper logic of redemptive vulnerability.

This passage confronts the contemporary Catholic with a counter-cultural question: what does it mean to be prepared without being armed, to be prudent without being anxious? Jesus does not tell His disciples to hide or despair — He tells them to be resourceful and clear-eyed about the world they now inhabit. For Catholics living in societies where Christian witness is increasingly marginalized, mocked, or legally constrained, the shift from the "Galilean spring" to the "hour of darkness" (Luke 22:53) is painfully recognizable. The practical application is twofold. First, do not be naively unprepared: Jesus endorses prudential provision and honest assessment of hostility. Spiritual formation, knowledge of the faith, and community solidarity are the "purse and bag" of our age. Second, do not mistake tactical readiness for the mission itself. The disciples waved their two swords and thought they were ready — they were not. The Christian's ultimate preparation is not worldly equipment but interior conformity to the Suffering Servant, who went unarmed into the hands of those who counted Him a transgressor.