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. – Luke 22:31-32

 Today's Scripture Reading (December 27, 2020): Luke 22

In sports, if the opposing team has a great player, you have to devise ways of neutralizing that team member to win. Negative politics is often just one method of taking away the good that a candidate has accomplished, focusing the voter's attention not on the good completed but on the damaging mistakes that the person has made. Of course, in politics, the negatives are often exaggerated or completely untrue. We know that to win, we have to take away from the good that our opponent can or has accomplished. I have to admit that I am still waiting to hear the campaign stump speech that says, "I think my opponent is good, and I love the things that their team has accomplished; I just think that we can do better." The comment would be so out of the ordinary that I think it would garner a lot of attention. But the truth seems to be that what is excellent or even good about our opponent requires special attention if we want to win.  

The same is true in the spiritual world. Peter was a natural leader; he had considerable influence among his peers, whether the apostle recognized that fact or not. So, if Satan were going to take down the apostles' effectiveness, the key would be the failure of Peter. Satan hoped that if Peter failed, then God's grand experiment on the earth would also fail.

Jesus acknowledges that Satan had already submitted the petition to God to give special attention to Peter. The language should make us remember back to the story of Job. According to Job, Satan repeatedly asked permission from God to remove God's blessing from Job. It is a reminder of the Hebrew belief that for Satan to do anything, he has to have God's permission to act. God is all-powerful; Satan is not. God has the power to stop any of Satan's schemes. God chooses not to stop Satan, not so that we would be condemned, but to allow us the privilege of choosing our own path and make our choices, and to strengthen our spiritual resolve.     

But Jesus also tells Peter that he has been praying for him. Jesus has asked God to strengthen the apostle's faith. Jesus indicates that Peter will fail, he would deny Jesus, but that he would also be able to move past that failure, and when he did, he would continue to lead the apostles. When the time came, he asks Peter to be the strength that the apostles were going to need.

We live in a world where we seem to believe that one mistake disqualifies us from future leadership. It is true in the political world, where we are willing to dredge up actions that are decades in the past, believing that somehow our past failures define our present and our future. But the story of Peter should argue against that understanding. Peter failed; he denied Christ during that awful night when Jesus was arrested and executed. But that was not the defining moment for Peter. His failure did not disqualify him from future leadership.

And our failure should not define our present and future. Christianity does not focus on what happened yesterday. It asks us to make a change and follow Jesus today and tomorrow. And know that Jesus is still praying for us.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: John 13