Becoming Wheat

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Therefore, every tree that does not bear good fruit, will be cut down and thrown into the fire...He will clear the threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. (Matt. 3:10,12)

Why did John the Baptist have to be so harsh towards the Pharisees and Sadducees? Perhaps he saw through them. He could see their self-righteous pious attitudes. He could see that their words did not reflect their actions and that they were knee deep in their own sin.

John the Baptist speaks these same harsh words to us. If we don't bear good fruit, we too will be thrown into the fire. If we live our lives as chaff, as the inedible casing of wheat, then we will "burn with the unquenchable fire." Why don't we, why don't I, take take this warning seriously?


It seems as though we don't take hell, the unquenchable fire, seriously anymore. We've watered down Christ's message so much that we now believe that everyone is going to heaven. If you profess Christ as your Savior you've been saved, and you're going to heaven, right? And that's all you need to do, to profess Christ as your Savior. If only it were that easy.


The fact of the matter is that, come the end of the world, God will separate the good fruit from the bad fruit. He will separate the wheat from the chaff. That means that some of us--you and I--are going to be wheat and some of us are going to be chaff. 


Am I going to God's barn, or am I going to burn with the unquenchable fire? Well, that depends on more than professing my belief in Christ. The Pharisees and Sadducees professed belief in God. Yet, John the Baptist warned them that they might go to hell if they don't start bearing good fruit. Making it to heaven involves much more than saying you believe in God or professing that Christ is your Savior. You need to bear good fruit in this life.


How does one bear good fruit? By action. What do your actions say about your belief in Christ? Are your actions, all of them, Christ-like? I can honestly say that I fail miserably when it comes to living a Christ-like life. Does my life bear good fruit? In some respects, yes, but in others no. I'm a youth minister. I spend every week with a group of teens teaching them how to live their faith. I hope--I pray--that what I do bears good fruit. Then I go home. My youth group teens only see me a couple of hours a week. My family sees the real me: impatient, irritable, selfish. Do my actions at home bear good fruit? Sometimes, yes. Sometimes, I'm a wonderful father and husband. Other times...not so much. I fall. We all do.


It's a good thing that God is so merciful! When we do fall, when we do fail to bear good fruit, God is there for us. He is there to pick us up and show us how to bear good fruit. He is there in the Sacrament of Reconciliation to forgive us of our sins. So, when I fall, I seek out God's mercy. I beg for His forgiveness. I ask Him how to keep from falling again. And He forgives. He teaches. He loves. He helps us to be wheat for the world.