Sifted

On the very night that Jesus was betrayed, He gave Peter this inside information: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat” (Luke 22:31). Peter was actually told in advance that a temptation was coming, that Jesus had prayed for him, that he would fail, yet also that he would repent, and what his assignment was when he did (22:32). Peter strongly argued that he would not fail, in fact, that he was prepared to even die for Jesus (22:33). He insisted he was fully ready for both prison or death. Yet Jesus informed him that he would completely deny Jesus that very night, and not once, but three times.

Satan has Demanded

“There are several things to notice in this interesting aside between Jesus and Peter. One is that Ephesians 6 is not whistling Dixie when it says there is spiritual warfare in high places going on over your soul. This is no poetic drivel. As Francis Schaeffer said in True Spirituality, the supernatural world, though not normally seen, is as real in our lives as the person sitting on the other side of the door from you right now” (Andree Seu). This picture looks very much like the picture we have in the early chapters of the book of Job, where Satan comes before God and makes serious accusations against one of God’s faithful. I like the rendering “demanded” here in the NASV. The word means to “ask”, but knowing Satan’s nature, he is not asking politely. In addition, there is a suggestion that Satan has not merely demanded this once, but is being persistent in his request. As in the book of Job, he makes demands, issues untrue accusations, and throws around slander and wild speculations (Job 1:9-11; 2:4-5). It is easy to get involved in the rest of the book of Job and forget that Satan was dead wrong about everything he said. He wasn’t right about any of his claims. Remember this fact next time he tries to get you to believe something he says about you. He is dead wrong about everything, even when he says it with absolute confidence. Note that Satan believes in “absolutes” and “absolute truth”, yet it is merely the erroneous absolutes of his own invention. Jesus said that Satan does “not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar” (John 8:44). Satan will say anything to make his position look credible. He has no interest in reality or truth, but only in saying whatever will strengthen his position. It could be since Peter was such a leader, that Satan thought if he could destroy Peter, then the whole group of disciples would become ineffective, and even if Jesus was raised from the dead, there would be no cohesive group of followers to proclaim the message of salvation in Christ.

Beware of “Demanding”

The Israelites fell into the trap of “demanding” when they were wandering in the wilderness. Whenever they encountered a trial, they demanded instant relief. Are we resembling them in any way? We are only becoming like Satan when we fall into the trap of thinking that we have the right to “demand” that life meet all our expectations right now.

“To sift you like wheat”

“The word ‘sifting,’ when applied to men, sounds gruesome. It reminds me of the little hand sifter my mother had when I was a kid. This contraption consisted of a metal cylinder with a metal mesh stretched across its circumference toward the bottom of the inside. Just above the mesh, a thin whip turned by an outside crank would noisily scrape the sides of the cylinder and the metal mesh. Mom poured in the flour, and it came out the other end all fluffy in the bowl under the sifter, and a residue of unwanted matter left on the mesh. In other words, sifting involves fragmentation” (Andree Seu). There is a big different between God allowing us to undergo trials and Satan sifting us. God permits trials and suffering because God wants to sift us, but what God is looking for in the end is “wheat”! God is always looking to bring about the best in us (Romans 5:3-5; James 1:2-4,12; 1 Peter 1:6-8). God’s purpose and intentions are always in our best interest, He is seeking to bring about in us a stronger and more spiritual person. Satan has no interest in finding any wheat, he wants only one thing: our destruction. His purpose in sifting us is entirely different. He wants to put us through the meat-grinder. He wants there to be nothing but chaff left – not wheat – only broken sticks. Again, in the book of Job, Satan had no interest in seeing Job refined, rather he wanted Job to be reduced to a fake and a liar – just like he is.

“I have prayed for you”

What a contrast! On the one hand Satan is “demanding” to be allowed to throw Peter into the meat-grinder, and on the other hand, there is Jesus. Not demanding, not making any wild accusations, rather praying for Peter, praying that his faith would not fail in that circumstance. Satan delights in seeing us fail, Jesus takes no delight in such failures. Jesus does not have any hidden agenda, that is, He does not secretly want us to fail, so that we must come running to Him for help and forgiveness. God is forgiving, yet God does not derive any sinister pleasure from having us dependent upon Him for mercy. He wants us to succeed! Remember, in any temptation, Jesus is praying for us as well. Why feel helpless? Tremendous resources are available in such times of testing (1 Corinthians 10:13). When I read this verse, I can therefore endure Satan’s sifting, as long as I know Jesus is rooting for me!

“When once you have turned again”

This first infers that Peter’s faith would fail in this particular testing, but does this mean that the prayer that Jesus offered for Peter was powerless or that Satan’s demand had more influence? The obvious answer is no. In spite of Jesus’ prayer and encouragement, Peter’s faith would fail because Jesus’ prayer would not override Peter’s own freewill and preparation in this area. There was nothing lacking in Jesus’ prayer – the lack would instead be on Peter’s part. Latter on that night, Jesus would remind Peter and others what they needed to do to be ready for the trials of that night (Luke 22:46).

“When once you have turned again”

I find this very meaningful. Peter was not destined to fail – and even when he stumbled, he could still recover. It looks as if Satan wins – but only in the very, very short term. Satan might win for a moment or an hour, but soon Peter is back encouraging the other disciples, and in a couple of months he will be fearless preaching (Acts 2). Hopefully Peter remembered these very words after he denied Jesus and went out and wept bitterly (Luke 22:62). Even though Peter will fail, Jesus is still saying to him, “I believe in you”, and I believe that you can recover from such a disaster. It takes courage to resist temptation, yet what we often forget is that it takes just as much courage to correct yourself after you have failed – and even failed publicly as Peter did. The devil tries to keep us in a failed state. The devil says, “Hey, you blew it, no use trying again, you are not cut out for that type of life, you don’t have what it takes, you are weak and pitiful, so just stay here”.

“Strengthen your brothers”

Jesus definitely has a different perspective concerning those who fail. The world says something like, “If you fail (and you are a believer), you are forever prevented from helping others again”. Or, if you fail, your credibility is gone forever. Yet Jesus has Peter taking the lead in encouraging the disciples after he has sinned and repented. Instead of thinking that no one wants us around after we sin or that we have nothing to offer, we need to realize that we still have a very vital role to play in our families and congregations after such failures. We see this pattern in Scripture. Abraham is still used by God after he lied. Moses is still used after a failed attempt and striking the rock. Aaron is still used as High Priest after the fiasco of Exodus 32. Elijah is still used after the fear and discouragement exhibited in 1 Kings 19 and Job is still used after saying some unwise things about God’s governing of this world (Job 42). Obviously failure is not the end of my usefulness either. God can my turn failure into a great victory. Who better qualified to help people recover than those who have walked that path before? In one sense, every Christian is extremely qualified to help people out of sin, for we have all been there (Romans 3:23). “Who is better qualified to help his brothers than the one who has been through sifting and ‘returned’? I find it very comforting indeed that Christ’s expectation is that the sifted Christian of yesterday is the strengthener of brothers tomorrow” (Andree Seu).

“I am ready to go both to prison and to death!”

Barclay observes: “It is a thing to remember that if a man says, ‘That is one thing I will never do’, that is the very thing against which he must most carefully guard. Again and again castles have been captured because the attackers took the route which seemed unattackable and unscalable, because, at that very spot, the defenders were off their guard. Satan is subtle. He can attack at the point at which a man is too sure of himself, for there the man is likeliest to be unprepared” (pp. 281-282).

I think Peter was “ready” for either of these two options, for Peter did demonstrate a willingness to fight for and protect Jesus. He acted, and it was Jesus who prevented him from fighting any further (John 18:10-11). What Peter was not ready for, was to stand by and watch Jesus arrested and not be allowed to fight. It looks like he had not anticipated being alone, without Jesus, without the other disciples, and surrounded by unbelievers and not allowed to use physical force. In like manner, we may think that we are ready for all sorts of temptations or a certain kind of temptation, and not realize that temptation might actually show up in another form that we had never anticipated. Likewise, are we prepared to fight temptation completely on God’s terms, by His rules, rather by our own imagined defense? Peter might have thought, “I can handle anything as long as I have this sword, the company of Jesus and the other disciples.” Yet what if all those things were removed as options? Someone has noted that survival in the wilderness is based on the same principle. Be prepared but be prepared to survive if you lose all the handy conveniences, like your neat little stove, lighter, snacks or bottled water. Be prepared to fight temptation with the bare necessities, trust in God, remembering what you have read in Scripture and be vigilant in prayer.

Mark Dunagan/Beaverton church of Christ/503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net