The disciples saw that Jesus was about to be seized, and they wanted to defend Him. Earlier that night they had shown Him "two swords" (Luke 22:38), and Peter had promised, "I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death" (Luke 22:33). Gill says they were asking whether to use "the two swords which they had along with them." He suggests their boldness came from those earlier promises and from indignation at Judas, and that they were trusting Christ's power rather than their own small strength. Asking was right. But Luke records the blow before any answer from Jesus (Luke 22:50).

Before any answer is recorded, "one of them smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear" (Luke 22:50). John names the swordsman as Peter and the servant as Malchus (John 18:10). Jesus said, "Suffer ye thus far," and "he touched his ear, and healed him" (Luke 22:51); the ESV renders His words, "No more of this!" Matthew records Jesus telling Peter, "Put up again thy sword into his place" (Matthew 26:52), and John adds, "the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" (John 18:11). The answer to their question was no.

Carrying a sword on a journey was not unusual, though Barnes notes that "the apostles were not commonly armed." Barnes, on the parallel in Matthew 26:51, explains that when traveling in dangerous times they needed means of "defending themselves against the robbers that infested the country." He also suggests the other Gospel writers may have left Peter's name out because "it might have endangered Peter to have it known," while John, writing later, names him.

Gill reads Jesus' words "Suffer ye thus far" as said either to Peter, to stop and put up his sword, or to the crowd, to bear with this one act and not avenge it, or to both. In any case, the healing that followed was, in Gill's words, a "proof of his willingness to be apprehended."

The disciples reached for the sword, and Jesus answered with healing. Barnes notes that Luke adds that Jesus "touched the ear and healed it, thus showing his benevolence to his foes when they sought his life." Matthew Henry calls it "an illustrious example of his own rule of doing good to those that hate us" (Luke 6:27).

This was not weakness. Jesus had prayed, "not my will, but thine, be done" (Luke 22:42), and He would not let His followers fight to stop the cup His Father had given Him (John 18:11). Later He told Pilate, "if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight" (John 18:36).