That’s a long story. Jesus was born into the bloodiest century of ancient Israel’s history. Violent resistance movements pushed Rome to the limits time and time again. Messianic figures arose and led revolts, hoping and praying that God would intervene and restore Israel as a sovereign state.

One of Rome’s most effective deterrents to revolution was the cross. When Jesus was a toddler, 2,000 Jewish rebels were crucified in Judea. And during the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70, the Roman governor Varus crucified 500 a day, limited only by the supply of crossbeams and space in the city.

Peter and his fellow disciples shared the national dream of a free Israel (Acts 1:6). Jesus persistently taught them that He was not that kind of messiah. But illusions die hard.

To make matters worse, on the night of His arrest, Jesus told His disciples to sell their shirts and buy weapons. They immediately produced two swords without losing a shirt.

Jesus said that would do. This was strictly for symbolic value, to fulfil Isaiah’s prophecy that He would be numbered with the transgressors (Luke 22:35-38). But Jesus didn’t explain that. And Peter didn’t get it.

So when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, Peter drew his sword and lopped off an ear. If he meant to kill, he missed. He had a better aim with fishhooks. Jesus told him to put away his sword. There would be no fighting tonight. No miraculous intervention. And no State of Israel. Not yet.

This marked the death of a dream for Peter and the other apostles. That dream died because it was too small. The kingdom of Jesus is a revolution, yes, but not against Rome.

Peter couldn’t see that yet. He was willing to fight for Jesus and die for the national cause. But he was not in the least prepared to share the shame and fate of a failed messiah.

When he saw that Jesus would surrender rather than bring in the Kingdom – either with two swords or 12 legions of angels – Peter blended in with the shadows.

PrayerWatch

Illusions die hard. Those who dream the wrong dream end up fighting the wrong fight with the wrong weapons.
 
While Jesus heads for the Cross, Peter reaches for the sword. His miscalculation plagues us all. He thinks he can bring in the Kingdom with two swords. We think we can bring in the Kingdom with hype, hashtags, and hotshots. 

• Declare: Lord Jesus, Your Kingdom is not of this world. But it is a revolution, nonetheless. Not against Herod. Nor against Caesar. Nor against the PAP. But against the rule of Satan. For this purpose was the Son of God manifest, that He might destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8).
   
• Recalibrate. Are you dreaming the wrong dream? Fighting the wrong fight? Seeking the Kingdom by self-branding, image-crafting, niche-positioning?
   
  What weapons are you wielding? How many ears have you sliced off to secure your place in the pecking order?
   
  Lay down your carnal weapons. Take up your cross. Follow Jesus. Pause and pray: Lord Jesus, forgive me for seeking to build my own kingdom in Your name.
   
  Deliver me from pride, selfish ambition, and die-hard illusions. Give me a pure and holy ambition, not to be served but to serve. Not to be great but to make others great. Not to make a name for myself, but to magnify Your name by giving and losing my life for You, for Your Gospel, and for others (Mark 8:35).
   
• Abide. 1 John 2:5-6 says that whoever abides in Christ must also walk in the same way He walked. In other words, we cannot claim to live in Him unless we behave like Him (John Stott).
   
  A fundamental flaw in Christian living today is that we identify with the Risen Christ but fail to identify with the rejected Christ. This is the essence of triumphalism. We want the crown without the cross.
   
  Pray: Lord Jesus, have mercy on us. Forgive our human folly. Forgive our reluctance to suffer with you. We renounce the spirit of triumphalism. Open our hearts and minds to the folly of the Cross. The power of weakness. The path of downward mobility, which is the only way up in Your Kingdom. The privilege of being ridiculed and despised for doing what is right and pleasing to our Father in heaven.
   
  We embrace this as our only model of discipleship, ministry, and mission in this present evil age.
   
• Pray the Word: You have chosen the foolish to shame the wise, the weak to shame the strong, the lowly and despised to reduce to nothing the things that are. May no one boast in Your presence (1 Corinthians 1:27-29).
   
  That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death (Philippians 3:10).

Read the devotional from Day 21, July 21: Caught napping here.