No, not at all. It's only a contradiction if you take it out of context - which, it will not surprise you, is something Christians do all the time.
35 Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?” “Nothing,” they answered. 36 He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. 37 It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors’; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.” 38 The disciples said, “See, Lord, here are two swords.” “That’s enough!” he replied.
- Luke 22, documentation of the Last Supper before the arrest of Jesus
Now, it should be pretty obvious (unfortunately to the point where Luke feels it goes without saying) that two swords is NOT enough to defend 12 people from Roman martial law. It makes no sense. It's not going to happen. It'd be difficult for well-trained soldiers, which the disciples weren't, to make their escape with only two swords between twelve.
But the key to this is Luke 22:37 - they are fulfilling a prophesy, and the prophesy is that they are to be numbered with the transgressors. The swords are there to implicate themselves. The purpose of having the sword is to give the Romans a bullshit excuse - that everyone knows will be bullshit - to cut to the chase and start the kangaroo court. That, of course, very much IS Jesus' m/o of turning the other cheek.
If you believe in such things, of course.
Caption this Meme
