Consider this scene from the last week of Jesus’s mortal life. A multitude had gathered, including Roman soldiers armed with staves and strapped with swords.

Led by officers from the chief priests who had torches in hand, this earnest company was not off to conquer a city. Tonight they were looking for only one man, a man not known to carry a WEAPON, receive MILITARY training, or engage in physical COMBAT at any time in His entire life.

As the soldiers approached, Jesus, in an effort to protect His disciples, stepped forth and said, “Whom seek ye?” They replied, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said, “I am he. … As soon … as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground.” 

To me, that is one of the most stirring lines in all of scripture. Among other things, it tells me straightforwardly that just being in the presence of the Son of God—the great Jehovah of the Old Testament and Good Shepherd of the New, who bears no WEAPONS of any kind—that just hearing the voice of this Refuge from the Storm, this Prince of Peace, is enough to SEND antagonists stumbling into retreat, piling them in a jumble, making the whole group wish they had been assigned kitchen duty that night.