All fun and games until... (Matthew 3:12)

John the Baptist has more to say about Jesus' purpose on earth...

Matthew 3:12 ¹² His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

Luke 3:17-18 ¹⁷ His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."  ¹⁸ So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.

Good news?  This winnowing fork hardly sounds like good news.  At least not for the chaff.

A winnowing fork is what the farmer used to toss both the wheat's grain and its chaff (light-weight inedible plant matter) into the wind.  At that point the wheat had already been gathered and beaten to loosen the grain from the chaff.  Then using the the winnowing fork, the farmer tosses it into the air.  The wind blows the light chaff into a pile while the heavy grain falls directly back to the threshing floor.  Then the wheat would be gathered up while the chaff would be burned.  The wheat would be taken to a granary and eventually made into life sustaining bread.



John tells us that Jesus has a plan to remove what is his and is usable from that which is not his and not usable.  If the grain is not separated from the chaff, it can not go to the granary.  And can not be made into useful, nourishing bread.  Without the threshing process the grain remains as useless as the chaff.  Jesus came to separate what is not his from what he has redeemed. 

Harsh and painful words.  This is one of those scriptures that I spend a lot of time trying to soften.  Trying to find an angle where everything works out just fine for all of humanity in the end.  At first, I hoped the scripture was talking about - not separating people, but separating what is inside of us - the redeemed parts from the parts not redeemed.  The good from the bad.  I could live with that - preaching that Jesus came to remove the parts from me that weren't good. 

But the problem with this interpretation of the scripture is that these words are ancient words.  The prophets spoke them long before Jesus was born.  John is just repeating them here.  So to be true to this scripture, I have to go back to the old writings and in them it is very clear that the chaff and grain are people.  They all talk about God separating people who are redeemed from people who are not.  I find this very disturbing.  For instance, Psalms 1:4 draws this same picture identifying the wicked (not wickedness) as the chaff.  This is true when this picture is drawn in Job 21, Psalms 35, 83, Isaiah 17, 29, 33, 41, Jeremiah 13, Daniel 2, and Hosea 13, and Zephaniah 2.  I can't soften this and be true to scripture.

So I have to come to the conclusion that this image that John puts before us is not a picture of Jesus' love that I want to embrace.  It isn't a picture that is going to make me feel comfortable.  I want a picture of Jesus that is like Barney, the dinosaur, full of mushy love.  But John the Baptist teaches us that Jesus' love is tougher than one might imagine.  And if I am to follow Jesus, I need to accept it - not rewrite it.  That is difficult for me.  I want Jesus to look more like Barney!  But here John the Baptist draws a picture of God's tough love.  God doesn't desire to destroy any part of his creation - he loves it more deeply than we can even experience.  But the fact is, his creation continues on a useless path destined for self-destruction if the chaff is not removed from it.  So Jesus has set out to preserve those who will allow themselves to be redeemed from those who refuse. 

I don't like to ponder this. And I don't want to make the mistake of thinking our job is to separate the grain from the chaff.  It isn't!  Jesus is the only one who can do that.

But how does this image of Christ change the priorities and urgencies in our life this day?  How do we live in shalom with this image looming over us?