The
Sifter and the Supplicator
The twenty-four hours before the
crucifixion of Jesus represent arguably the most impactful day in
human history. No single library could contain the many volumes biblical scholars have written concerning the
history-changing events that took place on that day. Among the
many story lines are: (1) What God the Father was doing with his Son for our redemption,
(2) The prophetic fulfillments that would transpire, and (3) The work
of Satan both to destroy Jesus of Nazareth and to shakedown and render
useless the leader of his apostolic band.
In his Gospel, Chapters 14-16, John
recorded for us much of the teaching Jesus shared with the entire group
of disciples in preparation for awaited THEM after his death,
resurrection, ascension and the coming of the Spirit on the Day of
Pentecost. In another Gospel, Chapter 22, Luke recorded a brief,
one-on-one dialog between Jesus and Peter in preparation for what
awaited HIM during these critical hours. Here's the text:
“And the Lord said, Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art
converted, strengthen thy brethren” (Luke 22:31-32).
Let's consider the two verbs Jesus
used in describing the spiritual dynamic at work with respect to Peter
on the eve of his crucifixion. Jesus told him: “Satan hath desired to have you.”
The verb desired
is 'exaiteō', “to ask out.” The prefix 'ex'
intensifies a mere asking to the point of strong desire. Satan
wanted
SO BADLY to get his hands on Peter! Jesus used the middle voice,
indicating that Satan had a PERSONAL interest in his request.
Make no
mistake! When our adversary the devil desires to get his hands on a
believer to shake him down and to render him useless, it is ALWAYS
personal!
Jesus tells Peter he has made a
request of his own to the Father: “But
I have prayed for thee.” The
verb prayed
is 'deomai', “to beg, make supplication.” It's from the
root 'deo', which means “to bind.” The verb is passive voice,
indicating Jesus was MADE to pray: that is, the stakes were so
high in
terms of Peter's future role in the Kingdom that Jesus felt compelled,
duty bound, to offset the request of Satan with a request of his own.
Jesus essentially was saying to Peter: “Satan has spoken to me
concerning you; I have spoken to the Father concerning you. I'm going
to give Satan what he wants; my Father is going to give me what I want.
And what I want is for your faith to remain solid on the other side of
the
sifting that awaits you!” Jesus knew it was better for Peter to undergo
a pre-Pentecostal shakedown than to experience a post-Pentecostal
meltdown!
In my mind, it's important to
distinguish the actual request of Satan
from what Jesus told Peter. Satan NEVER has sifting in mind when he
desires to get his hands on a believer! His single objective is
destruction. As Peter later wrote, likely based on this experience: “Be
sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring
lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may DEVOUR” (1 Peter
5:8). Again,
Satan has no desire to sift us. Sifting separates chaff from wheat. The
goal of sifting is elimination of chaff so only the wheat remains.
After sifting, the wheat is suitable for further processing,
consumption and nutrition. This is what Jesus had in mind for Peter,
what he knew this 'sifting' experience would produce. But what Jesus
envisioned as a sifting, Satan intended as a total smackdown with no
hope of recovery!
Satan, the accuser of the brethren,
saw Peter as nothing but CHAFF. If
given the opportunity, he thought he'd be able to expose Peter for the
fraud he was, shake him loose from his profession. But Jesus knew what
he had in Peter—a grain of WHEAT in need of sifting, to shake him loose
from his cocky self-confidence. In 22:33, Peter said: “Lord, I am ready
to go with thee, both into prison, and to death.” Jesus
rejoined: “I
tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou
shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me” (22:34). In short:
“Peter, your
ego is writing checks your body can't cash!” When Peter disavowed three
times to a damsel that he even knew Jesus, Satan must have thought he
had succeeded in his mission. While Peter may have stumbled for a
season regarding his PROFESSION, he ultimately remained solid in his
PERSUSION! Jesus had given Satan what he requested. But more
importantly, the Father had given Jesus what he requested!
Scripture teaches us Satan is a
master of miscalculation. He NEVER
envisioned Jesus rising from the dead to become the forerunner into the
holiest on behalf of those who believe. As Paul told the Corinthians:
“Which none of the
princes of this world knew: for had they known it,
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1
Corinthians 2:8).
Satan is often too smart by half. When he succeeded in using Judas, the
Jews and Romans to kill Jesus, he unknowingly sealed his own eternal
doom in the Lake of Fire. When Satan succeeded in stripping Peter
temporarily of his profession, he NEVER envisioned that his intended
destruction of Peter would result in a sifted, persuaded apostle
preaching in power with the result that three thousand souls on the Day
of Pentecost would find personal salvation!
Jesus added: “When thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren”
(22:32). The verb converted
is 'epistrephō', “to turn upon, return.”
The verb is an aorist (past) participle, active voice and
intransitive use. Literal translation: “Once you are one having turned
himself around.” If Jesus had used passive voice and transitive use,
the sense would have been: “one having been turned around.” This is
instructive. It demonstrates that sifting in itself and the forces
involved do not turn a disciple around as if he had been turned by
them. The sifting is rather a means to an end, the bringing of
a
disciple to a state of awareness whereby he turns himself in the right
direction. And in Peter's case, it meant coming to realize what Paul
described as: “no
confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3). It's what
Luke said of the Prodigal: “he
came to himself” (Luke 15:17).
The goal of sifting is the
strengthening of the believer. The
strengthened believer is then equipped to strengthen others. The verb
strengthen
is 'stērizō', “to set fast, make stable.” Luke previously
used the verb twice. In 9:51, he said Jesus had “STEDFASTLY SET” his
face toward Jerusalem. In 16:26, he quotes Abraham telling the rich man
there was a great gulf “FIXED” between them. After Peter had denied
Jesus three times and “wept
bitterly” (22:62) as a result, the ideas of
'conversion' and 'strength' were no doubt the last things on his mind.
In those two words is the potential for us to imagine Peter thinking
the worst: “Jesus will NEVER trust me again! I'm useless, all washed up
as a disciple!”
The words of Jesus, however, had a
prophetic element. He predicted a
'conversion' and a 'strengthening' were IN HIS FUTURE! We don't know at
what point Peter might have connected these prophetic dots with his
despair to get himself over the hump. But later, when Jesus
met him on
the shores of Galilee and twice told him “feed my sheep”
(John
21:16-17), the message became clear: “Peter, I WANT to use
you. I have a
FUTURE in mind for you. My sheep need feeding, and YOU'RE THE MAN I
want to USE to feed them!” There's nothing like a loving, reassuring
word from Jesus to transform a DEFEATED, DISCOURAGED man into one
DETERMINED to
pick up where left off and march triumphantly into his future with a
sense of his Lord's approval!
If you are a believer in Jesus, this
dynamic of the Sifter and the
Supplicator is going to play itself out at some point in your life,
perhaps many times. Satan will have designs on you to discourage you,
destroy you. But what he determines for evil God will have determined
for your good. So whenever you find yourself in what seems to be the
sifter, ask the Lord what bit (or bits) of chaff he desires to shake
loose from your life. Do NOT allow yourself to get discouraged! Always
remember, as the example of Peter teaches us, that oftentimes a BITTER
experience can serve as the gateway to a BETTER and more profitable
future!
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