I am beginning another round of reading through the Bible in the new year. I had planned on a slower pace this year, a chapter of the New Testament a day, to read only the New Testament in a year. I have been in a process of reading the Psalms monthly for a few years, so this seemed like a good start to 2026. But as I began in Matthew and finally got past the geneology of names in chapter 1, I read chapter 2 since I was going to be preaching on that on Sunday, and then read chapter 3.
And I was struck by a memory.
John told the crowds he was baptizing that Jesus was coming, and went on to say "His winnowing fork is in his hand, adn he will clear the threshing floor, gathering wheat into the barn and burning up chaff with an unquenchable fire" (Matthew 3:12)
Whew. That's quite an image of the Prince of Prince, the long awaited Messiah, the proclomation of the Good News in Logos, God in human flesh.
I know I heard that verses growing up in churches, even though I can't remember exactly when. But the image was clear, and so was the question from the preacher, "Are you wheat, or are you chaff?" Because that seems to be the point John is making, right? The wheat go into the barn. The chaff get burned up. The wheat go heaven. The chaff burn in hell. Forever.
I always wanted to be wheat, but it was always confusing to me.
Thankfully I became part of a denomination when I was in late 20's that encouraged questions, and I had teachers, preachers, mentors, commentators, writers, and an educational system that helped me along the way.
Now as I read that verse it's a comforting image, because I have some historical context to place the image in. It's not about a turn or burn warning. Even though John was big on his warnings and never missed an opportunity just in the few passages we have of him to say exactly what needed to be said. It's not a "If you die tonight where will you spend eternity? In the barn? Or in the burning hell?"
So, if you've ever struggled with a passage like this being part of the Good News of Jesus Christ and refelcting the agape love of God, let me offer another thought.
First, context. John was speaking to first century agriculturally dominant lower social class people overall. There were always some religious leaders (considered more upper class socially) and some soldiers who came to hear him, but overall the message was to the common person of the day, which was almost everyone. And being an agricultural community, they knew wheat.
Chaff and Wheat, in a spirutual sense, is not about two seperate groups of people, some going to heavenly barn and others going to the burning hell. It's about all of us. We all have wheat and chaff. We have the good wheat in us that is growing and maturing through our faith. And we all have chaff, those things, desires, sins, that need to be removed and taken away and burned up. And remember "burning fire" also meant purification in many stories of the Bible, not annihilation.
God did not divide the world into wheat people and chaff people. But through the realities of our human exostence we are wheat people who have been comvered in chaff. And maybe in some ways that chaff protected us at times in the past. But now, through faith in Christ, that chaff can be removed, discarded, and done away with. Every heart is a harvest for Jesus, and God's grace is committed to purify, save, and restore what God has given.
