Superior Force

We know that it’s essential to have the overwhelming superior force when taking an enemy position. To take out a section, you need a platoon, to take out a platoon, a Company and so on; a ratio of 3:1. In an ideal world it makes total sense to employ these tactics. Add to that, air superiority and mortar or even artillery support and you’ve got total confidence going forward.

I was thinking about this in regard to the mob that came to arrest Jesus prior to His execution. As the story goes:

The traitor, Judas had come with the temple guards and a mob armed with swords and clubs. This is striking because Jesus had done nothing but good to everyone He met; He had demonstrated the absolute good character of God to them.

“[But] Jesus answered and said to them, “Have you come out, as against a robber, with swords and clubs to take Me?”

Mark 14:48

No doubt the mob who came to arrest Jesus thought they had the superior force as they came armed ‘with swords and clubs’ to carry out their mission to arrest Him. In John’s account of the same story (see John chapter 18), we see demonstrated that they actually had no power over Him at all. Displaying His raw power, Jesus, just by speaking His true name, ‘I am,’ the mob ‘drew back and fell to the ground.’ The very words of His name spoken made them all fall back. You have to ask, who had the real power here—who had the superior force!

“Who is it you want?”
“Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied.
“I am he,” Jesus said … When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.

John 18:4-6

Everything about this arrest was underhand; His betrayal with a kiss by Judas, the crowd coming at night, His arrest like a common robber, even though Jesus was totally innocent. They couldn’t take him in the open, because they could not catch him doing any wrong. Even so, He would be betrayed to death and hung on a cross like a common thief: a travesty and an injustice.

One mark of true power is that you have nothing to prove. All the while Jesus went quietly about the business of healing the sick, raising the dead and sharing His message—quietly, that is, except for His judgment over the religious hypocrites.

In Matthew’s account of this story, we get a clear picture of the overwhelming odds in Jesus favour:

“Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”

Matthew 26:53

That’s a lot of Superior Force. And this is the most remarkable thing about this story: the only way Jesus was ever going to the Cross to die, was willingly. Surprising, by anyone’s estimation; having all the power, but surrendering it all. He gave it up it for the sake of His mission.

And here is His mission:

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

John 3:16

Only someone with Superior Force and a clear Mission Objective could pull off the greatest taking-of-a-position that ever happened, for now, having been taken, he later rose from the dead, and in so doing, defeated death, taking back its power from the enemy’s hands. But that’s for another story…

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