The last thing Jesus did as a free man was heal a man who came to arrest him. The soldiers were already there. The torches were already burning. One of Jesus's own friends had just pulled a sword and swung it. Jesus stopped him, reached out, and healed the man his friend had cut.
Where to find it
All four gospels tell this. In John it is chapter 18. Just before it, Judas leads the soldiers into the garden and Jesus steps out and says "I am he." Just after it, they tie him up and take him to Annas, the father-in-law of the high priest. In Luke it is chapter 22. Just before it, Judas kisses Jesus to show the soldiers who he is. Just after it, Peter follows to the high priest's house and says three times that he does not know Jesus.
It is late at night, in a garden called Gethsemane, just outside Jerusalem. A crowd shows up with lanterns and weapons, led there by Judas, one of Jesus's own twelve. One of the disciples is done waiting. He pulls out a sword and swings it at a man in the arresting party. He gets the ear.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke just say "one of them" did it. John gives the names. The man with the sword was Simon Peter, one of Jesus's closest friends. The man he cut was Malchus, a servant of the high priest, the chief priest of the temple.
He turned on his own side
Jesus did not cheer. He did not say "finally." He turned on his own friend, in front of everyone. Matthew gives the words Jesus said to the man with the sword.
Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. (Matthew 26:52)
Put it away. Not "wait for a better time." Away. In John he says it again, just as plain: "Put up thy sword into the sheath" (John 18:11).
And he was not weak. He could have been rescued. Jesus told Peter he could ask his Father and have "more than twelve legions of angels" right then (Matthew 26:53). A legion was a Roman army unit of thousands of soldiers. He had all that power standing by, and he told it to stand down. Later he told Pilate, the Roman governor, why: "my kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight" (John 18:36). His people do not fight for him. Not because they would lose. Because that is not his kingdom.
Then he healed the enemy
Luke tells us what Jesus did next.
And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed him. (Luke 22:51)
He touched the ear his friend just cut. He healed the man who came in the dark to take him away. In Luke's telling, it is the last healing Jesus does before the cross, and he gave it to a man in the crowd that came to arrest him.
Malchus worked for the high priest, the man who wanted Jesus dead. Jesus did not scold him. He did not curse him. He did not leave him bleeding as a lesson. He closed the wound and let him go.
He ended the old way of fighting for God
The old books are full of men who killed in God's name. Moses, Joshua, and the kings fought wars and said God ordered them. People believed that when God's side was in danger, the holy thing to do was to strike.
Peter believed it. He lifted a sword to protect God's own Son.
Jesus said no. He said it in public, in the middle of an arrest, with the weapon already out. Then he undid the damage the sword had done, to the enemy. He did it on purpose and for mercy, to show that killing for God never came from God. People made that rule and said it was God's.
Which side his mercy lands on
Maybe you grew up being handed a sword. Maybe you were taught that loving God meant drawing a hard line and being ready to strike anyone on the other side of it. Or maybe you have been cut by people who were sure they were defending God.
He touched the ear of a man on the other side. It was not a friend's. It was the man everyone would have called the enemy. Jesus healed him anyway. If he healed the man who came to arrest him, his mercy reaches you too.
Here is something for today. Think of one person you see as being on the other side. Do one kind thing for them today, without telling anyone why.