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THEME: FOUNDATIONS FOR SPIRITUAL RENEWAL
By Rt. Rev Emmanuel Egbunu
Topic 3. Trusting His Grace Readings: Psalm 119: 73-88; Luke 22:24-53
As we continue to explore the foundations for spiritual renewal through this holy season of Lent, let us take a closer look at Luke 22:31-32: "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."
The number of Christians who have felt puzzled by these two verses is by no means small. While we rejoice in the intercessory ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ for us, we have in these verses an insight into His priorities as He intercedes for us in accordance with God’s will.
Only a couple of verses earlier, the Lord had commended the disciples with these encouraging words in Luke 22:28-30: “You are those who have stood by me in my trials. And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Surely, anyone hearing these words of commendation from the Master Himself, and such incredible promises about their future status (remember their disputes over greatness in verse 24, and the request of James and John much later?) will be elated.
Then Jesus moves on to disclose to Simon Peter a confidential spiritual strategy of satan against the disciples: "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift [all of] you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." This is reminiscent of Job 1 and satan’s dialogue with God over Job’s integrity. He had wanted to sift him too like wheat to bring out the chaff in his life which he felt God was oblivious of.
What exactly did satan want to do as he sought to sift the disciples like wheat? The idea was to shake them by some kind of inward agitation with the aim of destabilizing, or even destroying, their faith in the Lord. He wanted to reveal that they were not much use to the Lord and that they were only good enough to be blown away by the winds as chaff. He wanted to do the same thing he did when he accused Joshua the High Priest (see Zechariah 3:1-5). But this only reveals that we are called and sustained by the grace of God, not by any merit of our own except as produced by the Spirit as we abide in Christ. The Lord already saw it coming. That has been the objective of satan in using fierce persecution against Christians. But the encouragement for God’s children is, “Be faithful even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Rev. 2:10).
Human logic would desire that satan’s evil plan be aborted. Like we would if asked about whether or not the three Hebrew youth in Babylon – Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, should be allowed to face the ordeal of the fiery furnace; or Daniel going into the Lion’s den; or the disciples of Christ struggling through the storm on the sea – all of these before divine intervention. We would never entertain for a moment the necessity of Paul the apostle being allowed to suffer imprisonment and martyrdom, or John the Beloved disciple being consigned to the penal colony of Patmos. And yet immortal Scriptures have been born from these experiences.
At the time of writing this, a clergyman and his wife who were returning from an enriching retreat were attacked by armed robbers who dispatched bullets into their bodies, and went away with whatever they pleased. But they are spared and their faith is still strong, praising the Lord! What then is the value of Christ’s intercession for us if we are still not spared these ordeals, we wonder? It is because there is a higher priority from heaven’s perspective: that your faith may not fail (Lk 22:32). “Oh for a faith that will not shrink/ Though pressed by many a foe;/ That will not tremble on the brink/ Of poverty or woe. A faith that shines more bright and clear/ When tempests rage without;/ That when in danger knows no fear,/ In darkness feels no doubt…” [W.H. Bathurst].
God has the power to shield us from temptation, but He chooses to allow our faith to be tried through temptation. Then when we pass through the crucible, by the enabling power of Him who raises the dead, we are better able to strengthen our fellow weak pilgrims. How wise indeed it is to listen to the Lord’s warning and assurance than mouth our foolish boasts like Peter, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death”. How well the Lord knows our frailty as He tells Peter, “I tell you, Peter, before the cock crows today, you will deny three times that you know me” (v34).
From the pain of denial and sometimes even betrayal of our Lord, and the boisterous waves of that make our faith fail, we must still fix our gaze and anchor our hope on the Saviour whose strong hands are stretched forth to save us from sinking irretrievably.
With all his trials, hardships and temptations, Paul’s closing words of triumph in his final epistle were: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith (2 Tim 4:7). Our faith depends more on God’s commitment to us than on our pious resolve.
As the Lord painted a horrifying picture of the last days in Matthew 24, He also said in verses 12-13, Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. The priority of heaven, and of Christ’s unceasing intercession, is that whatever happens to us, our faith should not fail. As the Psalmist says in the Psalm above, “They almost wiped me from the earth, but I have not forsaken your precepts” (Psalm 119:87).
The author of Hebrews also encouraged the Jewish Christians of his day to persevere. He had these important words to say to them just before launching out on the great treatise on faith in chapter 11: “So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, "He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him." But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved (Heb 10:35-39).
William Cowper, the English hymn writer must know something about this when he wrote in his famous hymn, God moves in a mysterious way:
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense
But trust Him for His grace
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face
His purposes will ripen fast
Unfolding every hour
The bud may have a bitter taste
But sweet will be the flour.
Collect for Lent II
Eternal God,
Whose glory it is always to have mercy!
Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways,
and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to
embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word.
Jesus Christ your Son, who with you and the Holy Spirit,
lives and reigns, one God for ever and ever. Amen.