Not About Burning Souls

His threshing fork is in his hand, and he is ready to separate the wheat from the husks. He will store the wheat in his barn and burn the husks with a fire that never goes out. In many different ways John preached the good news to the people. Luke 3:16-18

At first and second glance, these verses seem pretty non sequitur to the hellfire and brimstone mentality.  That’s good news?  But then there’s the third glance at what comes before and what comes after.  Context.  Wheat is that which has value, and the husks are absolutely worthless (unless, of course, for compost or tamping down the stench in a composting toilet, but I don’t think that’s what Luke had in mind).
  

This is an echo of John’s earlier message; I imagine he was pretty repetitive: What doesn’t produce good fruit (defined as fairness to neighbors, sensitivity and responsiveness to others' needs, and willingness to accept a simple standard of living) will be burned.  This isn’t about burning souls, this is about the systems in place that Jesus came to sift: the religious and social and worldly values that He came to illuminate as worthless with His truth.  Very clearly this is where John is at. 

 “So you think your family lineage is going to save you?  Pah.  That is nothing.  The only thing that is of value is that which produces good fruit.  And your religion and your traditions and your family lineage is only producing ringing alms bells and whitewashed tombs.  Because the first message that Jesus teaches in the synagogue is about the good news he came to tell the poor that The Lord's Spirit has come to me, because He has chosen me to announce freedom for prisoners, to give sight to the blind, and to free everyone who suffers.

This is the good news.  The good news indeed that he shortly delineates point by point in the Sermon on the Mount.  The good news is that we are free, free at last from the sin which so tightly binds us and the religions and systems that strangle.  This is the year that the LORD has chosen.