Sifting

"Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers" (Luke 22: 31-32).

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.

Another observation is that Satan asks permission to sift us. For His own reasons, God allows His favorites to undergo this abuse; indeed, He once sent His anointed Son into the wilderness for the express purpose of enduring everything Satan threw at him, that He might be battle-hardened for the ministry He was about to embark on.

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.

The demoniac at the tombs was a man fragmented by Satan. Jesus asked him his name and he said "Legion." The man's body had become little more than a trashed playground overrun by demons who amused themselves by having him cut himself and run around naked a screaming.

A wonderful observation from our verse is that Jesus prays for us while Satan sifts us. Speaking for myself, I can put up with the sifting of Satan only if I know that the praying of Jesus is going on simultaneously. As a matter of fact, I have been "sifted" lately, and it was during that time that this verse of which I write today came to mind.

It is very interesting to me that in the short run Satan seems to win. Simon is going down---for the moment. Jesus prays that Simon's "faith may not fail"---and it fails! It at least stumbles. What about me, am I dispirited when my prayers at first seem to go unanswered, to be of no avail? Should I not take the long view like Jesus did? (Just think how long Jesus impassioned prayer for the unity of all believers is taking [John 17:21-22]).

Who is better qualified to help his brothers than the one who has been through sifting and "returned" by the praying of Christ? I know several such people---former homosexuals, former drug addicts. I find it very comforting indeed that Christ's expectation is that the sifted Christian of yesterday is the strengthener of brothers tomorrow.

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