Of course it was Peter. If the Gospel writers would have left out in their account of Jesus’ arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane the detail that it was Peter who cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant, it it possible that your initial reaction would have been, “That sounds like something Peter might do”?
Peter wielded his weapon because he loved Jesus. He wanted Jesus to know that he was serious when he said that he would give up his life for him. Peter was full of what he believed to be a righteous zeal, but that zeal turned out to be misguided.
You and I love Jesus too. We become upset, even angry, when our Savior’s name is dragged through the mud. And when we see how his Word is ignored and ridiculed in our world, we want to do something about it. We want to protect Jesus. We want to defend Jesus. Those are good and godly impulses, but we need to be careful that we don’t go too far, that we ourselves don’t do something that goes against God’s Word, that we don’t become guilty of having . . . Hands of Misguided Zeal.