The very word you used - apologetics - translates as giving a defense. Therefore, you ARE defending Him, as I am, with whatever feeble power we muster. In your obedience, you fight battles on His behalf - "giving an answer" is an attempt to win souls. In the battle for souls, we have been deputized. Fighting on His behalf is defending Him, as I see it.
Throwing myself between Jesus and His tormentors, as suggested in the hypothetical, would actually be an attempt to thwart God’s plan of salvation.
So Peter was trying to thwart God's plan? Or was it a desire born of a sincere love of Christ?
Roman Catholics arguing and articulating their views about the Eucharist would fall into the category of “giving an answer,” in my opinion. Pointless raging as though Myers could actually cause some sort of material harm does not.
But aren't they inextricably linked? If Catholics are right, and Christ Himself is in the Eucharist, isn't that most precious thing you could ever receive in the world? If you had that gift in your possession, wouldn't you share it with those who recognized its value, and not those who sought to belittle you and/or it? Pearls before swine and all that. If we don't do the "pointless raging," as you call it, I would see us as hypocrites, silently admitting either 1) the Body and Blood is not a precious as we claim, or 2) it really isn't His Body and Blood. I'm not comfortable with either of those positions.
The defense in apologetics is a defense of our faith, not a defense of God. The battle for souls is an offensive one - the infinite God allows us to serve Him through it out of gracious love, not because He is in any need of finite human beings to defend him from the pitiful assaults of other finite human beings.
"So Peter was trying to thwart God's plan? Or was it a desire born of a sincere love of Christ?"
Peter's actions WERE motivated by sincere love. But he did not know everything we know now.
"If we don't do the "pointless raging," as you call it, I would see us as hypocrites, silently admitting either 1) the Body and Blood is not a precious as we claim, or 2) it really isn't His Body and Blood. I'm not comfortable with either of those positions."
I see your reactions as evidence that you inadvertently focus on the mechanics of the ritual at the expense of its meaning. You value the Eucharist because you believe the bread to be the literal body of Christ broken in sacrifice for your sins...but in acting as though this vulgar individual could actually accomplish something by desecrating the bread, you disrespect the sovereignty of the all-powerful God who you believe causes that bread to become his body. I believe we've said everything there is to say to each other on this matter, so I wish you a good evening and God bless.