Surreal day on the job...more of the same on the way.

[Dr H]

Did you not know on Jesus' last moments as a free man he wanted to goto the garden of gethsemane to pray, and he knew he would be confronted or maybe killed along the way. so he told his disciples to arm themselves.

That is certainly an interesting interpretation.

In fact, Jesus tells them to buy swords, but makes no mention of them marching armed to Gethsemane.  Indeed, with His very next breath He says "For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me".  What is written will not be accomplished if His disciples fight off those coming to take Him to His pre-ordained destiny.   And just an hour later, when one of them does brandish a weapon, Jesus admonishes him to "Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword."

Most interpretations take the earlier injunction to 'sell their garments and buy a sword' as a metaphor for the perils the disciples would face going forward, once Jesus was gone, and not as a call to a Christian arms race.

Jesus had it with in him to single handedly disarm all of them, and he infact did so with a single word that dropped the gaurds to their knees. Despite this his disciples did infact bring swords/mechanical means to defend themselves. Why? because not every situation needs the supernatural intervention of God.

That doesn't make sense.

I mean, sure, if Jesus is taking a siesta, or God has gone fishing for the weekend, then maybe the disciples need to look out for themselves for a while.

But He is right there with them.  If God has supernatural powers that can accomplish such miracles, why not  use them all the time?  Is there some supernatural energy source that gets depleted, if He uses it too much?   If Jesus drops all the swords with a word, or walks on water, does he have to high-tail it to some heavenly power battery to recharge, like Green Lantern and his power ring?