Among the great cathedrals in Europe there are two that stand out for me. Not because of their architecture but for the stories behind them. The first is St. Mark’s in Venice. We have told the story before of John Mark, the young disciple who runs away naked from Gethsemane and then as a spoiled and privileged young man he loses his courage and deserts Paul and Barnabas and, eventually, is the cause of their splitting. Mark travels to Rome and is mentored by Peter who assigns him to be the first bishop of the Church in Egypt where he is martyred and part of his bones are taken later to Venice where he is adopted as the patron saint of that great city.  The image on the official flag of Venice is the Lion of St. Mark’s. He was no lion in his youth but he became one.

The second is St. Peter’s in Rome, the seat of the Roman Catholic Church. In the same way, Peter had his own experience with a failure of courage and desertion but later turned back and became, along with James, one of the leaders of the early Church. Like Mark, he was martyred and is remembered as the Rock upon which the Church is built.

It is that failure we are looking at this morning.

As always in Scripture there is a context. Let’s go back to the final supper. At the end, Jesus says, “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.”

We all know that Simon was the one who first declared Jesus as the Messiah.  He was also the one who said that even if everyone else deserted Jesus he would go to the death with him. “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away..Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you.” They would go down fighting together.

Do you remember the words of Thomas when Jesus said he was going to Bethany after the death of Lazarus? All the disciples were concerned about returning to Judea because Jewish leaders had wanted to stone Jesus and all but one hung back knowing they would be stoned as well. Who was that one who believed so strongly? It was Thomas who said, “Let us also go that we may die with him.” Brave words. But it is the same Thomas who says after the resurrection, “I don’t think so.” We are so like Peter and Thomas – full of both faith and doubt at the same time. That is part of why John wrote early in his Gospel, “But Jesus would not entrust himself to them for he knew all men. He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.”

And Peter, like each of us, is a complex person: full of heart and still fearful. So wanting to be a hero of the faith.

Remember the scene where Jesus is walking on the water toward the boat after the feeding of the five thousand? “It’s a ghost, they said and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them, “Take courage. It is I. Don’t be afraid.” And then Peter steps out of the boat full of courage and walks toward Jesus but then sees the wind, is afraid, and begins to sink. And Jesus says, “You of little faith why did you doubt.” 

That’s Peter throughout. Full of courage and then fear. Full of faith and then doubt. Full of himself and then failure. Immediately after declaring Jesus the Messiah he takes Jesus aside and rebukes him for talking about suffering and dying. “Never, Lord, this shall never happen to you” That’s not the purpose of the Messiah in Peter’s mind. Suffering and dying is not what he has in mind.  What is the answer of Jesus to Peter and the disciples? “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”  That is Peter’s fear. In his heart he does not want to lose his life. He does not want to take up a cross or suffer. He would rather have the triumph – not the trials.

Sometimes we all speak the loudest in denial about what we fear the most. Erik Erikson in his study of Martin Luther said, “Born leaders seem to fear only more consciously what in some form everybody fears in the depths of his inner life; and they convincingly have an answer.” That would be Peter. Great fear and great courage mixed together.

And it is this person in particular who Satan wants to sift. Why?

Sifting is a great image. In those times it was called winnowing. A person would shake the winnow back and forth, while allowing the wind to blow away the chaff. It was not just a gentle shaking but had to be jolting to make the two separate. What was left was the part that could be used. It was the wheat that was purified.  

God sifts us at times. There is nothing wrong with being sifted. It is not unlike being tested to find out what we have learned. A life that is not sifted remains littered. It is full of potential but is too mixed with chaff to be of any use. God’s sifting, while sometimes painful, is His way of getting rid of the litter in our lives and exposing the best. 

I read something by Rod Mattoon, a pastor in Springfield, Illinois:

“On the other hand, the sifting of Satan is just the opposite.  Satan, however, sifts a person to destroy them. His temptations are for the purpose of destroying us spiritually. This is what happened to Judas Iscariot and what he tried to do to Peter.

Sifting was for the purpose of exposing the chaff and getting rid of the wheat.

That is what Satan desires to do to us. He wants to expose our chaff, our faults, our sins, or our weaknesses, for the purpose of hurting our testimony for Christ and to lead others astray.

Sifting was done to separate the wheat from the chaff and the good from the bad

Satan sifts us to separate us from that which is good. He wants us to discard that which is good in our lives. When a Christian has been sifted by Satan, he discards the Bible, he stops hanging around Christians, and he gets out of church. He separates himself from that which is good.

You know you are being sifted by God when what remains is used for good and produces fruit in your life and in that of others. You know you are being sifted by Satan when what remains is the chaff of your life, the reminders of where you have failed or disappointed yourself, others and God. You are being sifted when you find yourself wanting to separate yourself from other believers or in despair about the Church. You are being sifted when what remains is only doubt, cynicism, and a sense of failure. Satan does not want wheat. He wants chaff and he wants us to focus on all the chaff in our lives and the lives of others. 

You may have read the passage from Oswald Chambers yesterday and how Jesus responded to the disciples when they had fallen asleep three times:

The sense of having done something irreversible tends to make us despair. We say, ‘Well, it’s all over and ruined now; what’s the point in trying anymore.’

If we think this kind of despair is an exception, we are mistaken. It is a very ordinary human experience. Whenever we realize we have not taken advantage of a magnificent opportunity, we are apt to sink into despair. But Jesus comes and lovingly says to us, in essence, ‘Sleep on now. That opportunity is lost forever and you can’t change that. But get up, and let’s go on to the next thing…’

There will be experiences like this in each of our lives. We will have times of despair caused by real events in our lives, and we will be unable to lift ourselves out of them. The disciples, in this instance, had done a downright unthinkable thing— they had gone to sleep instead of watching with Jesus. But our Lord came to them taking the spiritual initiative against their despair and said, in effect, ‘Get up, and do the next thing.’ If we are inspired by God, what is the next thing? It is to trust Him absolutely and to pray on the basis of His redemption.

Never let the sense of past failure defeat your next step.”

And what does Jesus say to Peter?

“I have prayed for you that your faith will not fail.” We sometimes forget that Jesus literally prays for us in the same way. The writer of Hebrews tells us that Christ has a permanent priesthood because he lives forever. “Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” We don’t think much about Jesus praying for us just as he prayed for Peter. When someone tells you they are praying for you and you know they are not being glib but seriously interceding for you it makes a difference, doesn’t it? It gives you hope and confidence and the assurance that you are being remembered. You are not alone. All of us have talked with friends who have gone through difficult experiences and time and again they talk about the knowledge that they were being prayed for and that made a difference. 

It was not magic or the guarantee that things would be better but the sense that someone else was alongside them carrying part of the burden.  Satan’s sifting separates and isolates us. God’s sifting purifies us. That is what Jesus was saying to Peter and to us as well. “I am praying that your faith will not fail. I am praying that you will not focus on the chaff but the wheat. I am praying that you will know I am here to share the burden of whatever it is in your life. I am interceding with the Father for you all the time and not just when you ask for it. I am your great High Priest and underneath are the everlasting arms.”

I don’t believe it was Peter’s faith that failed when he denied Jesus. I believe it was two things.  

First, I think his natural human courage failed.  All the talk about his standing with Jesus even to death was exposed for what it was. Yes, it was (according to John) Peter who took his sword and cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest but that’s not the same as going after one of the soldiers or the Temple Guard.  It’s a show but not really substantive. No, in the end he deserts Jesus because he is afraid not only of physical harm but of the humiliation he would share. Peter is a proud man and he knows what Jesus has said about suffering. Suffering is not just physical. It is being abused and shamed. It is being made a fool and despised – especially after sharing in all the success of Jesus up to that point. He had tasted spiritual success and this was not how he wanted it to end. After all, it was Jesus himself who said, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be bound in heaven.”  There is nothing in there about being despised or suffering, is there?

But, I think there was something else. Immediately after Jesus tells him about his being the rock on which he will build his church – whether it be him personally or on his recognition that Jesus is the Messiah – Jesus begins to explain to them that he must suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.  Peter takes him aside and rebukes him. “Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you!” In other words, like so many others, he cannot understand the place of suffering in the life of Jesus as Messiah and, I suspect, he cannot see it as part of his life either. After all, the church will not be built on great suffering but on the world’s recognition that Jesus is the Messiah – the anointed one, the Christ. The Church will reign.  The Church will govern. That deception is still around.

In a sense then when Peter says he does not know this man he is saying he does not want to know this man he thought was the triumphant Messiah. He does not know the suffering lamb of God. He does not know the man of sorrows who, even though he could call down legions of angels to protect him, would give himself up to this abuse and ridicule. “This is not the Messiah I thought was revealed to me. I am ashamed of him. Don’t mention him to me. He has disappointed all of us.”

And then the rooster crows and Peter wakes up to what he has said. He doesn’t run after Jesus or grab a sword and go after his captors. He realizes that what Jesus said earlier was true, “You will all fall away for it is written, “I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.” This is the way it was meant to be. The shepherd would be abandoned and left to suffer on his own. All of the sheep would be scattered. All of them would fall away – even Peter and John, the one Jesus loved. It was not so much an indictment of them as it was a confirmation of the Scripture. Some would flee like John Mark and some would follow from a distance like John while one would deny him like Peter. Their suffering would come later but it would come.

And then the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter..and he went outside and wept bitterly. But it was not a look of recrimination or rebuke – just a look that said I know you better than you know yourself. A look that said, “This is why I could not entrust myself to you or anyone else.” A look that said, “You have been sifted but remember what I said. I have been praying for you even while you have denied me and my prayer is the same. Weep and repent but when you are done you have work to do. You are still the Rock and you are to strengthen your brothers.

“Rise up and do the next thing.”

That was the theme of his life for the balance of his life. He was still subject to pressures and fears but he never failed to strengthen his brothers.  He never failed to feed the sheep and when he was an old man he embraced the suffering of Christ that he had once denied.  “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When they hurled their insults, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly..Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.”

And he says the same to you this morning if you think your failure is permanent. “Rise up and do the next thing.”