John continued his preaching a repentance for the forgiveness of sin with a warning about the consequences of choices when the Messiah comes. “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.” (Luke 3:17)
A farmer harvests his crop every fall and spring. Wheat and barley were the most common grain crops in the Middle East in the first century. After cutting down the dead stalks, they were gathered into bunches called sheafs. The sheafs were brought to a large flat rock called a threshing floor. The stalks were thrown up in the air, causing the grain to separate from the stalks. The emptied stalks were called chaff. The chaff was gathered and burned. The grain was swept into piles. The grain piles were put in storage pottery. The filled pottery was placed in his barn.
John the Baptist used this as a parable of the work of the Messiah. Jesus used similar farming parables. So now this is made clear, a choice is needed. Will the listener prepare and allow the Messiah to come into the heart and life? If not, the unquenchable fire is the next reality of those who reject Jesus, the Christ.
