This is the question asked by all three groups who question John the Baptist in our Gospel reading this Sunday. It is a question we probably ask ourselves. “What must we do too?” We all want to get to heaven and so we need to know what the rules are, what admission criteria must we comply with. Once we know this vital piece of information we can then set about doing what is necessary and so ensure our eternal salvation. There are three groups referred to in the text. First the ordinary people who are told to share from their surplus with others less fortunate.
Then come the tax collectors who are told not to cheat others. And lastly come the soldiers who are told not to intimidate the people and to be content with their pay. These requirements don’t seem very onerous and if all we had to do was to share with others, not cheat or intimidate people and be content with our pay then most of us would easily get into the Kingdom of God. Actually what John the Baptist is suggesting is nothing more than to live an ordinary decent life, something most of us would do anyway. His requirements are not very demanding even if this is on top of repenting of our sins, which is what he was telling people in the passage we were given last week.
In a way this is surprising since John the Baptist is considered to have a fierce reputation. He is a man who has lived a very severe life of fasting in the desert but, as we see here, he does not make following him into the desert a requirement for anyone else. Actually he seems to be quite content with everyone else carrying on as they did before as long as they are not openly exploiting others. One might have expected John to be a bit stricter, but this turns out not to be the case; he turns out to be quite lenient on the ordinary people. However, John goes on to tell the people that someone is coming after him, someone much more powerful, someone for whom even he is not even fit to undo the strap of his sandals.
And this Messiah is going to come to judge everyone. He tells them that this Messiah will have a winnowing fan in his hand and his task will be to divide the wheat from the chaff. The implication is that this Judge of the World is going to be much more severe than John the Baptist. Just going back to these three groups; we should note that this passage is unique to the Gospel of Luke. And some have suggested that Luke highlights their presence as a way of introducing them to the reader. This is especially relevant in the case of the tax collectors who are going to feature quite a lot in the Gospel story. Luke is telling us that these three groups are particularly open and receptive to the Word of God even though it might seem surprising in the case of tax collectors and soldiers. Elsewhere John is quite scathing about the scribes and Pharisees, calling them a brood of vipers.
In this he is quite consistent with Jesus who identifies with the ordinary people and with tax collectors as well as soldiers on occasion, but who has absolutely no time for Pharisees and people of their ilk. But what about this winnowing fan? Is Jesus really going to be more severe than John the Baptist? This is a worrying question. And the answer is both yes and no. The problem is actually the question the people ask: “What must we do?” It seems to me that they are not asking the right question because Jesus is not so concerned with doing as with being. Jesus is not over interested in what we do.
He is much more interested in how we are as persons. Jesus is not as concerned with our deeds as with our attitudes. He knows very well it is our underlying attitudes that are the most important thing in life because it is our internal attitudes that ultimately affect our behaviour. If you’ve got a bad attitude then you are much more likely to be a sinner, much more likely to be upsetting those who live around you, much more likely to offend God in some way or other. Jesus gets to the very heart of things and what he is concerned with is how you are in yourself. He wants people in his Kingdom who have the same attitudes that he has. He wants people who are friendly and open, people who are full of compassion and love. He wants people in his Kingdom who are honest and trustworthy. He wants people who are filled with faith and hope. He wants people who are committed and passionate. He doesn’t mind if you are damaged goods or if you are suffering from moral failings or some kind of handicap whatever it may be.
Actually he quite likes it if you have suffered or struggled with life. He is open to the poor and to the humble and those who are disadvantaged in any way. If you’ve got a physical or mental illness, or a condition of some kind, if you are needy and unloved or fall into any number of other categories which mean that you are looked down on by others; if you have any of these things then you are in with a chance as far as Jesus is concerned. Jesus, when he comes as Judge of the World, will be doing his judging on a completely different basis than any earthly judge. Yes, on that Last Day he will most certainly have his winnowing fan in his hand and he most definitely will sort the wheat from the chaff. But what to us looks like wheat he may consider to be chaff and what we consider to be chaff he may very well consider to be wheat.
This means that all bets are off. This means that we need to start looking at the world in a completely different way. This means stopping asking “What must we do?” and starting to ask “What kind of people are we.” This means stopping thinking about our external actions and starting to think about our internal attitudes. Changing those attitudes is what matters. It is what kind of person we are that counts. Once we have this sorted then we won’t need to worry about what we have done or left undone. Our deeds will look after themselves, what we have to do is to become a person who thinks the way Jesus thinks; all the rest is purely secondary.