The Sifting

I have always been fascinated by the exchange between Peter and Jesus that happened in the upper room after the Last Supper. In the midst of Jesus teaching his disciples about his impending death; infusing the Passover with new meaning; and radically reinterpreting greatness for them; he pulls back the curtain so Peter can see the battle that was raging with the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. In Paul’s words in Ephesians 6:11, Jesus was revealing the “schemes of the devil” against which Peter and the disciples were to stand.

The exchange is found in Luke 22:31-33. "'Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, with you I am ready to go both to prison and to death.'"

There are a couple of things that we need to understand that will bring this passage to life.

First, the “you” of Satan’s demand is plural and therefore is applied to all the disciples who would turn their back on Jesus during the battle of the cross. I think Jesus addresses Peter specifically for three reasons:

1. He is the leader.
2. While they were all subject to the sifting, Peter would reject Jesus most publicly.
3. He was the most confident that he wouldn’t fall: “Lord with you I am ready to go both to prison and to death."

Second, there is more than meets the eye in the phrase “demanded permission.” Most translations interpret the Greek word "exaiteo" as ‘asked.’ The KJV renders Jesus revelation, “Satan desires to have you.” But I quoted the NASB because its interpretation gets at the heart of what's really being said.

When you read that “Satan has demanded permission,” the feeling is that Satan is operating with a sense of entitlement. A demand is generally based upon the perception of a legitimate claim and Satan certainly believes he has claim on us.

The word Jesus used, exaiteo, is a word that literally means to claim back for oneself. Satan knows that because of sin human beings are his. He is the Lord of the darkness into which we are born, and therefore we come into the world as children of darkness.

However, when we by faith are enlightened by the light of the world, we are transferred from darkness to light and become children of God by the will of God (John 1:4-12). This is a great loss for Satan and while he can’t take us back, he does work diligently to keep us mired in darkness. This is the sifting to which Jesus referred.

There are times that we endure sifting and while the battle is a spiritual one that transcends flesh and blood, it is waged in the flesh and we are sifted through the desires of our flesh.

Peter would be sifted by his fleshly desire for self-preservation. When he felt threatened physically by his relationship with Christ, he denied his spiritual reality. So Satan sifted him through the flesh because that is where Peter was most susceptible and where Satan could stake his claim most compellingly.

We are vulnerable in the flesh because we have been living in the flesh longer than we have been living in the Spirit. Our yearnings (our physical, psychological, and emotional cravings) find expression in the very flesh that Satan once controlled. He knows our weaknesses and he lays claim on our lives by exploiting them.

James 1:14-15 says, “Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”

We are tempted, or sifted, when Satan baits us into believing that our fleshly desires are our reality. When we fall victim to the lie, we are giving birth to the death of the abundant life we enjoy by faith.

But we don’t have to fall down or stay down. We have an advocate who has defeated our adversary. He has prayed for us in the same way that he prayed for Peter. His prayer is that by faith our spiritual reality would trump the deception of our flesh. When we fall, when we are mired in the darkness of the sifting, he asks us to repent and leverage our lessons for the good of others who are being sifted.

The sifting will come. But we have to remember that in our weakness we find his strength.