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Luk_22:31-32
I. What do we think is the meaning of Satan desiring to sift the Apostles?—Has it ever struck you that it is twice in the New Testament that this figure of sifting or winnowing is brought before us, and that, strange to say, the sifter or winnower in the one case is our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and in the second case is the wicked Tempter? John the Baptist, you know, when speaking of the coming Messiah, says, ‘Whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge His floor,’ etc. And here we have that very Messiah speaking of the Devil sifting even His Apostles. By ‘sifting’ is meant testing, shaking those to whom the process is applied in such a way that part will fall through and part will remain; either it is the good that will remain when Christ is the Sifter, or it is the good that will remain when the Devil is the sifter. And if we go on to ask how it is that the Tempter strives to sift even those who are the servants of Christ Himself, we shall, of course, find that it is done in very different ways. It is no doubt chiefly by laying snares for us, by taking us unawares, by tripping us up with our special besetting sins, whether it be of temper, or of want of truthfulness, or want of perfect honesty, or want of perfect purity, or by indulging in intemperance; even when we desire to shake off the chain of the old sin, that is the kind of way in which the Tempter again and again sifts those who are striving to be Christ’s servants.
II. But look on to those reassuring words of our common Master, in which, turning to the Apostle who was to be tempted even beyond all the others, He says to him, ‘I make supplication for thee that thy faith shall not fail.’ In the hours of temptation, the bad spirit seems to go out of our hearts, and to give us something of a respite, and then before we are aware, before, so far as we can charge our conscience, we have done anything definite to invite his return, he does return and springs upon us, and the furnace of temptation becomes, before we are aware, seven times hotter than it was before; then are the moments, the critical moments of the human soul, and I know of no source of strength greater in those dark moments than to have possessed our souls with the belief that we are not alone, but that Jesus Christ is making His supplication for us, that we shall not fall, but be the stronger for this temptation.
III. But then, when we have in some degree won this victory, what is the lesson we have still to learn?—‘When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren,’ or as the R.V. has it, ‘Do thou, when once thou hast turned again, stablish thy brethren.’ The meaning of our Lord to St. Peter is not ‘when thou hast undergone a conversion,’ for St. Peter was of course already a converted man, but’ when thou hast turned again from thy fall,’ when thou hast got out of the wrong road of denial and cowardice, and turned again into the right road of loyalty and fidelity, then what art thou to do? To live for thyself, to be thankful that thine own soul is safe, to be always thinking of the joys of heaven for thyself? No; that would not have been the kind of command that our Lord, of Whom it was said, ‘He saved others, Himself He cannot save,’ would have cared to impress chiefly on His repentant Apostle. It was to be an unselfish lustre that was to rest upon St. Peter; he was to think Jess and less of himself, even of his weakness and cowardice, and to think more and more of his brethren who needed his support. And that is the lesson which, with God’s help, we would leave with you as the chief lesson of these sacred words on which we have been dwelling.
Rev. Dr. H. M. Butler.
Illustration‘An officer in the army, who fought under Lord Wolseley at the battle of Tel-el-Kebir, has told a touching story of the campaign. He spoke of that strange, dark night-march which preceded that great battle; and how one young officer in particular was charged with the special duty of keeping them in the right direction, as they marched along in the dark, straight up to the earthworks of the enemy. They marched under the stars, they did not lose their way, they arrived opposite the guns of the enemy just as the light of morning began; and with one of the first discharges of the enemy’s artillery, this brave young officer, to whom they owed the precision of the march, was wounded to death. The general in command, Sir Garnet (afterwards Lord) Wolseley, saw him, spoke to him a few kindly words of thanks and sympathy. The young officer had just strength to say, “Didn’t I lead them straight?” and with that he died. Now, that is a parable to those of us who wish to be Christ’s servants and to strengthen our brethren.’