Verse 31 Sifting, being performed by a rough and violent shaking, is a proper emblem of any malevolent injury. Luke 22:35,36. The first mission of the disciples was a peaceful one, and pursued through a region where they every where found friends, on whose hospitality they could safely rely. Now, however, Jesus teaches them, by this strong, figurative language, that the were about to enter upon a service full of difficulty and danger, in which they would have to put in requisition all their resources and means of self-protection, referring, however, under a figure taken from military life, undoubtedly to moral, measures alone; though his disciples seem to have understood him literally.