SIMON SAYS...

"And the Lord said, Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren." - Luke 22:31-32

I introduce you to our final, and probably most important, individual in all of scripture concerning this discussion of the Potter's Process. There is quite possibly no human being in the Bible that exemplifies the nuts and bolts of God's transformative process like Simon Peter. Job is a good snapshot of the method and the reasoning behind the Potter's process. Jonah is a great example of what happens when we rebel against that process. Paul is a good example of what someone who submits to the Potter looks like. 

But of all of God's vessels of honor on display for us, the process that Simon Peter goes through is the most detailed. Quite frankly, there are few people in scripture whose entire palette of strengths and weaknesses are on full display like Peter's. But most importantly, there is no one in the Bible with as much detailed one-on-one access to God as Simon Peter.

It is Jesus Christ's real time reactions and instructions to one of His most challenging lumps of clay that puts Simon Peter on the top of my personal 'vessel of honor' list. The secrets to God's thought processes behind His methods are found in the Peter-centric conversations throughout the four gospels and it is those moments of divine intimacy that have become the most priceless to me.

Forgive me if I gush a bit here but I simply love this guy. Of all of the characters in scripture, I relate to Peter the most. Headstrong, opinionated, and fully armed with a act-first-ask-questions-later mentality, Simon Peter is the antithesis of what modern American Christianity views as a viable candidate for ministry, generally speaking.

Had Simon Peter been around today, there is little chance he'd be considered a viable candidate to pastor a church, much less hold the position of 'Apostle' in the Body of Christ. He was too carnal; too 'worldly' in his thinking. He had no tact or diplomatic skills and seemed to have no filtering system in place to help keep his foot out of his mouth. Yet Christ hand-picked this tactless, stubborn, uneducated fisherman to not only participate in his Earthly ministry and be a part of his circle of disciples, but to hold a very special position in Christ's Church and His Kingdom.

But that position did not come easy.

I take you to the verse of scripture quoted at the start of this blog entry. Luke 22:31-32 has become a very important passage of scripture for me. Encapsulated in these two verses is a wealth of information about the Potter's Process. In fact, it is in these two verses of scripture that my search for this process began. Consequently, it is where we're going to begin to dig deeper into this process. 

The scene of Luke 22 is the upper room; the place of Jesus Christ's final meal before His death. Not coincidentally, this final meal coincides with the Passover feast. It needs to be noted that God's incredible foresight is on full display here. The full purpose and meaning behind the Passover feast that God introduced back in Exodus 13 is about to be fulfilled by the Lamb of God. On this night of nights, Christ replaces the original Passover feast requirements with what we now call 'Communion' or "The Lord's Supper".

You have to understand the full weight of what Christ is enduring in this upper room. He is fully aware of what awaits Him as he breaks bread with His disciples. Only Christ understands the importance of this night. Only the Messiah understands the suffering He is about to endure for the sins of the world. Despite the collective experiences of the 12 men seated around the table with Him, only Jesus fully comprehends what is happening.

I can say with confidence that the twelve disciples were relatively clueless because of what the Bible records about them. If you back up to Luke 22:14 and read Jesus' heartfelt words to His disciples, you can't help but see the passion and the power behind every syllable that falls from Jesus' lips as he introduces the 'new covenant' to his followers. He goes into detail about how his body is about to be broken for them and how his blood is about to be drained from his broken body for them. He even explains to his feasting followers that one of them will betray him that very night.

We would expect the twelve men who has forsaken all and followed Jesus for three and a half years to take notice of their master's words and the obvious weight He was carrying during this meal. We would think that the men gathered around Him would have expressed themselves in a manner befitting men who had repeatedly witnessed and experienced the power of God on countless occasions throughout Christ's ministry.

But, the response of Christ's followers upon hearing His prophetic words of His suffering and death is to argue with one another about which of them would be considered 'the greatest' in the Kingdom of God.

Yep, you read that right. As Jesus pours His heart out to His men, their immediate response is to fight among themselves.

The contrast on display here is stark. The temptation to shake our righteously indignant heads at the disciples' collective narcissism in the face of the greatest act of selflessness known to man is high. But understand this level of selfish, pride-filled self-governance among God's followers did not die in this upper room. In my lifetime, I have witnessed countless examples of selfishness within the church setting that would make these twelve men look like members of God's angelic host. Even my own personal history is full of narcissistic activity that had rendered me all but useless to God in His Kingdom.

Can you see why God might want to transform us into something more usable?

Jesus addresses the group's immaturity with one last bit of instruction, including some pretty important prophecy about their role in God's Kingdom.  Then, without blinking an eye, Christ turns his full attention onto Simon Peter.

The first time I saw what Jesus was communicating to Peter here, my jaw hit the floor.

First, pay attention to the name Jesus uses to address Peter.  He calls him 'Simon'. Now, Simon was the name given to him by his father, Zebedee. In the Greek, the name 'Simon' means 'he who hears'; the connotation meaning 'one who listens and obeys'. In a culture that put great stock into the meaning behind names, 'Simon' is a PERFECT name for a child.  Wouldn't we all love to have children who listens and obeys us?

Simon's name is changed to 'Peter' by Jesus Christ during His ministry. The name 'Peter' means 'a rock or stone'. The connotation behind that name speaks to an unyielding soul. Now, I think we can all agree a listening and obedient soul is preferable to an unyielding one. Yet Jesus changed Simon's name to a meaning that would be the exact opposite of what we would want in a follower.

The name change is significant. God changed people's name all the time in scripture (Abraham, Jacob, Saul of Tarsus, etc) and those changes were never without purpose. In every name change was a prophetic message of what that person was to become, should they stay on God's path for them and submit to His maturation process.  In Peter's case, the name change signified the type of vessel of honor he would be in God's kingdom. While most of us would see a name that meant 'an unyielding soul' as a detriment, God understands that an unyielding soul can be as powerful and beneficial as the Nile River so long as it is channeled in the right direction.

But in Luke 22:31, God does not call his hard-headed disciple 'Peter'. He calls him 'Simon'...TWICE. When God repeats Himself, it means 'PAY ATTENTION!'. So, Jesus looks his hard-headed lump of clay in the eye and calls him 'he who hears' because Jesus needed Simon to be an obedient listener instead of an unyielding rock.

The reason Jesus needed Simon to give Him his full, obedient attention is because of the revelation Jesus is about to drop onto him. "Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat."

This is big. Jesus has just informed Simon that He and Satan have had a Job-like conversation with Simon Peter as the main subject. The statement "Satan has asked for you" means exactly what you think it does. That Simon Peter has gained Satan's attention shouldn't be all that shocking to us. That Jesus informs Simon of Satan's intentions to 'sift him as wheat' should be considered normal. Truth be told, Satan desires to sift all of us like wheat; especially if we're actively involved in significant spiritual growth and development.

However, what IS shocking to me is Jesus' response to Satan's request to sift Simon Peter like wheat...

To Be Continued...