My eyes, like most readers’, I’m sure, bulge a bit at the imagery used by John the Baptist in this passage. (In his gospel account, at 3:18, Luke feels the need to remind us that John is, in fact, proclaiming “good news.”) It makes one worry, “Am I but chaff? Am I leading a life of insufficient wheatiness?”
But in worrying so, we forget that none of us is entirely without chaff; that each of us is nurturing a pure kernel given of God beneath our distractions, our insecurities, our biases, and our distancing selfishness. It will take an awfully long time to find one among us fit to start casting stones (John 8:7). Later in Matthew’s gospel account (11:28-30), Jesus begs us cast off our burdens and take on his easy yoke. In both instances, we see that it is God who calls us to disregard what interferes with our life and with each other. It is God who has the capacity to deal with those burdens finally.
Lord, burn away our chaff, that we may come before you unburdened and undistracted. Amen. —