The Wheat and the Chaff

"The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them." (Luke 3:15-17)

This is always preached as Jesus separating people from other people as he separates the wheat from the chaff. I find that Protestants (myself included) seem to be very ready to separate people and judge between who are Christians and who are not and this is one of the passages I find used in this way more often than not.

The thing about this passage is that John is responding to people who desire the Messiah and who desire to repent. They are tax collectors and soldiers (the dregs of Jewish society) coming out to see John and inquire about him. There is no rebuke here, there is only the preaching of the good news.

What if this passage is not talking about the judgment of people as much as the ultimate separation from our fleshly, sinful selves from our holy sanctified selves on the last day. What if the winnowing fork is not separating the sheep from the goats, but rather the holy and redeemed us from the sinful and dark us once and for all.

As far as the analogy is concerned, it makes more sense, doesn't it? The wheat and the chaff are part of one plant, just as the good and the bad are part of one person. There are not Christians destined for glory walking around with sinners damned to hell hanging on them awaiting separation. Instead, there are people who desire God and who seek him out and they will find him because he wants to be found. On the last day there will be a judgment and there are plenty of passages to talk about that, but why not take this one to talk about the freedom that Christ brings to separate us from our darkness that destroys us?