John the Baptist has made it clear to the open hearts of the people of Israel (contrasted by the very closed hearts of the Pharisees and Sadducees), as he baptizes them in the Jordan river, that the fruits of repentance are personal. He challenges each person to look into his heart and determine how to bear fruits of repentance pleasing to God.
He also makes it clear, with reference to the skeptical leaders, that those who do not repent of their sins in this way will be like trees axed down at their roots and thrown into a consuming fire. This is a fire for all who claim they do not need repentance because they are children of Abraham (or who today deny God altogether). Call this the bad fire of group judgment.
But those who are sincerely convicted of their need to repent begin to wonder:
“…all were questioning in their hearts concerning John whether he might be the Christ. John answered them all, saying, ‘I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire’” (Lk 3:15-16, ESV).
John confirms that he is not the Christ and that his baptism of water is preparatory to the real thing, by bringing sinners to repentance. He goes on to say that the real thing is baptism by the Holy Spirit of God – and fire.
What is this second reference to fire? John adds:
“His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (Lk 3:17).
Everyone listening to this recognizes immediately the analogy with grain harvesting. The whole purpose of the harvest is to gather and store wheat kernels for nourishing food, while the threshing fork is used to shake out the chaff, the remainder of the wheat plant, simply because it has no food value. So, it is burned.
But why the word “unquenchable” here? Surely a chaff fire would burn itself out.
This causes me to suggest something I have not heard mentioned before, and I could not find it in my commentary either. But surely someone else has seen this.
John is describing by metaphor Jesus shaking his winnowing fork to gather us into his “barn” of believers. So, what is the chaff shaken off of us by the Holy Spirit’s baptism?
Our sin!
But think now of the unquenchable fire continuously toasting our sins to a crisp forever. How powerful is this for describing the life of a believer in Jesus as Lord and Savior throughout our entire lives? Think of those maladies that you simply can’t get rid of; the ones that keep coming back to haunt you – an addiction, a physical ailment, temptation, disobedience, disunity, and so much more.
Think now of the unquenchable chaff fire as the good fire of personal restoration! It is the Holy Spirit that Jesus sends to us upon repentance that leads to restoration resulting from his never-ending love.
This is the ultimate achievement of the Cycle – not only an initial baptism of repentance, but the ongoing destruction of our sins based on continuous repentance, leading not to the bad fire of eternal judgment, but to the good fire of restoration and unity with God in eternal life.
The two references to unquenchable fire in this short passage frame the path for everything that follows as Jesus appears, ministers, and dies – for us.
Of course, those listening to John the Baptist cannot comprehend these implications yet. Hopefully some of them will over the three years of Jesus’ ministry on earth.
And isn’t this one of those moments when we can suggest that the good fire is something we have in common in perfect unity with each other?