The Thing We Don't Want to Talk About

It came up again this morning during a Zoom meeting. It's one of those things we seem to want to avoid acknowledging.

"Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith will not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." —Luke 22:31, 32

We talked a lot about the frailty of faith, and the wonderful promise that Jesus intercedes for us during the testing of that faith, and the privilege we have to encourage our fellow travellers to trust God in the face of those challenges. But there was dead silence when I mentioned the first part of this conversation between Jesus and Peter. Satan asked to test Peter's resolve and was granted permission. This is reminiscent of the story of Job when Satan appears before the throne of God and asks for permission to test this saint. After all, the argument is made, it's easy to trust God when everything is going well. But the true proof of faith is what happens when our world blows up around us. God grants Satan's request to do some pretty awful things to Job, though He places limitations around what Satan can and cannot do. We don't like to think about this kind of interaction between God and Satan.

The disciples, including Peter, are about to be tested. Jesus is about to go to the cross. Will they stand up and be faithful, or will they fold and flee? We don't like to think that God grants Satan permission to test our resolve, our faith. But the Scripture seems to indicate that such is the case. God is sovereign even over the temptations that come into our lives. If God is not sovereign over even what Satan does or does not do, then what else might He not be sovereign over? How we answer that question will affect our trust in Him.

But all this to say that, like Peter, we are faced with choices all the time: Will we follow faithfully and walk, talk and think as the image-bearers of Christ, or will we choose a different path? In my job as an archivist, I run across documents that remind me of how frequent our failures are to walk, talk and think like Jesus. How easy it is for us to give in to the tests from God and the temptations from Satan and fail the One we claim to love.

For example, a church was faced with a challenge. Part of the congregation was in disagreement with decisions made by the denominational hierarchy and wanted to diassociate itself from that denomination. They felt it was a matter serious enough to necesitate that break. There were a few others who remained loyal to the denomination and wanted the church to maintain its association. In this example, the issues that caused the situation are not important. What is important is the test and the temptation. The test is how the opposing parties handle the situation.

According to the correspondence, the factions in this example failed the test. One faction worked tirelessly to undermine the pastor and the opposing members to the point of seeking to destroy their reputation in the community. They vowed to keep the church in the denomination or, if they could not accomplish that, destroy the church and turn the property and building into a gas station!

Each party had been faced with a decision. The situation was set up, not to test loyalty to a denomination, but to build Christlike character in the middle of a difference of opinion. The physical record shows the absolute absence of Christlike character.

In our Biblical example of Peter, we know the end of the story. Peter failed the test that God had allowed Satan to administer. But Jesus had prayed that ultimately that failure would not result in Peter's walking away from his faith. Instead, the experience, and the forgiveness and recommissioning that followed after the resurrection, strengthened Peter's faith, added to his Christlike character, and allowed him, as Jesus had said, to be able to strengthen his brothers and sisters in Christ.

In the more modern example I have given, I don't know what happened after the test was so badly failed. I don't know if reconciliation happened between the parties. But, I do know that the church was not destroyed and exists today to the glory of God, growing and flourishing. For me, this is the proof of what Jesus meant when He said that He would build His church and the gates of hell, unhappily often opened by a few of the church's own members, would ultimately not be able to destroy it.

Years ago the letters WWJD, or the phrase "What Would Jesus Do?" was very popular. That phase among believers passed into history. That's too bad. The question is something we need to constantly ask ourselves. However we label circumstances in our lives, test or temptation, the question remains: What does Jesus want me to do here, and how am I going to respond? Will I do as He would want me to do, or am I going to do things my way?