Unsettling Advent 2025, Day 7
“Jesus said to Peter, ‘Put your sword back into its place, for all who take the sword will die by the sword.’” (Matthew 26:52)
Hope is fragile. It can drift, distort, or quietly lean toward whatever promises to steady our fears. And in every age, God’s people have been tempted to anchor their hope in the kingdoms of this world, the ones that promise safety, belonging, and purpose by means of worldly power … the sword. But Advent reminds us that the Spirit keeps calling us back to a very different kind of power: the self-giving love of Jesus, revealed vividly on the cross.
Advent invites us to discern the difference between the way of the sword and the way of the cross. The Messiah did not arrive with armies or decrees. He arrived in weakness, tucked into the margins. His humble incarnation makes no sense to those who believe the world is transformed by force. The zealots wanted a revolt. Rome demanded allegiance. The religious leaders wanted a messiah who would protect their influence. They all hoped God might finally give them worldly power to use the world’s methods to accomplish God’s mission.
But the child in the manger is the King of Kings who teaches us otherwise. His Kingdom does not advance through coercion, domination, or political power brokers. This is the false hope of religious nationalism, the belief that if we can seize enough worldly power, expel enough outsiders, or impose enough rules, we can generate a righteous people. But coerced conformity is not righteousness. It’s worldly power dressed up in religious garb.
The cross unveils the true hope of Advent. Jesus absorbs the world’s violence into his own body, refusing to use it for personal gain. He breaks the cycle not by swinging the sword of empire but by refusing to let the sword define him at all. And then he rises with the light and life that no nationalist movement can engineer.
So this Advent, we hold a simple question close: Where am I trusting the sword to do what only the cross can accomplish? Where have I expected political power to secure what only Jesus can give?
Advent invites us to loosen our grip, to walk in the humble way of the crucified and risen king.
Come, Lord Jesus. Teach us to hope in you alone.
Caleb Campbell is lead pastor of Desert Springs Bible Church in Phoenix, Arizona, and the author of “Disarming Leviathan: Loving Your Christian Nationalist Neighbor.”