Four Splendid Typologies of Christ - Mediator - Part I

A powerful example of Christ's mediation can be found in the words He spoke to Peter: "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." (Luke 22:31, 32). Note that Jesus did not say He would prevent such an act; rather, He prayed that Peter’s faith would not fail. The reference here to sifting wheat is significant. To do so, the stalk, along with its head, must first be cut off. Peter experienced a cut off from Christ in the garden of Gethsemane. This must have been a frightening and confusing event for him. He understood Christ to be the Messiah, (See Matthew 16:13–17) so why would Jesus allow these men to take Him captive? Why would the Son of God, with all of His power, allow such a thing? We can all relate to Peter in this matter. We, too, often ask ourselves similar questions. But we do not always realize that Christ is doing something. In Peter’s case, Jesus not only prayed that his faith would not fail, but also that he would serve as a source of strength to those who followed him.

In relation to wheat, chaff is made of dry bracts known as husks that enclose the mature grain. Before wheat is processed into eatable forms, the chaff must be separated from the grain through a process known as threshing. Here the stems and husks are vigorously beaten. No doubt, Peter felt the threshing of his soul as he denied Christ not once, but three times. One can only imagine the fear and utter confusion Peter felt as he was being threshed by Satan.

But the attack did not stop there. Remember, the devil had asked to sift Peter, the implication meaning to be ground down and screened into a fine power. In Jesus’ time, this involved grinding grain between stones. Once the grinding occurred, the ground wheat would then be set out to dry and later passed through a sieve, an instrument with a mesh or perforated bottom that further separated the coarse parts from the fine parts.

Satan's intent was to sift Peter into a finely ground powder, and God allowed it! In His infinite wisdom and power, God used this trial to refine Peter into what He desired him to be: a source of sustenance for the first century church to feast on! The same holds true for each one of us. God uses anything and everything to refine us. Nothing gets wasted. Right there in the middle of it all is Christ Jesus, our Mediator, interceding on our behalf, praying for us that our faith will not fail, so that one day, we, too, might turn and strengthen our brothers and sisters.

Learn more about Christ as Mediator in my new book, The Conditioned Mind.