The Sifting Process...

“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.” New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Lk 22:31–32.

This fragment of the conversation at the supper-table is important, as showing us the view taken by Jesus of the crisis through which His disciples were about to pass. In form an address to Peter, it is really a word in season to all, and concerning all. This is evident from the use of the plural pronoun in addressing the disciple directly spoken to. 'Satan,' says Jesus, hath desired to have (not thee, but) you: thee, Simon, and also all thy brethren along with thee." The Training of the Twelve, A. B. Bruce, pp. 471.

The "brethren" here is not the disciples, but all who will believe. These disciples were not going to be excluded from the brotherhood who were to be benefited by Peter's experience, but would benefit from his experience in the future just as we will when the sifting process begins. 

Satan's desire was to create a sifting process in the heart of the disciples. He had already sifted one from the group (Judas) and was hoping to sift the rest so they would be exposed as "chaff." To sift them and make them unfruitful could kill the gospel in its infancy (at least in Satan's mind)! But even before this time, Satan had already began the sifting process in others who heard Jesus voice;

"As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore." John 6:66 (NASB)

In the beginning, minor crisis' brought on a separation of the wheat from the chaff. These were the fickle multitude. In a major crisis, Bruce says, "the separation is not between man to man, but to the good and the bad, the precious and the vile, in the same man (pp. 472). " 

In the hearts of men and women, the sifting process is occurring even today. Each one of us being sifted and what remains hopefully is the wheat, not the chaff. I often think about what sifting reveals our wheat or chaff; but the more I think about it the more I wonder how great is the event that determines the wheat or chaff! Is our real person (wheat or chaff) revealed in a minor crisis? When I say this I'm saying "does a minor event reveal chaff in our lives or wheat?" Sure we may withstand a small testing and look good. But what would a major event determine our fruit to look like? And then when it does is the result chaff?

You see, the disciples were getting ready to face some of the toughest times they had ever faced, Jesus was about to be taken from them; the One they depended upon for everything. Then what they were made of would truly be revealed. What will they do when it happens?

Tune in next week to see the results of their "sifting!"