READINGS

Luke 3:10-18 The Messiah’s Herald
Amos 9:9:10 Winnowing 2 Samuel 24:10-25 Threshing Floor Deuteronomy 25: 5-10 Levirate Marriage and Sandals

HOMILY

10 “What then should we do?” the crowds were asking him.

11 He replied to them, “The one who has two shirts must share with someone who has none, and the one who has food must do the same.”

12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?”

13 He told them, “Don’t collect any more than what you have been authorized.”

14 Some soldiers also questioned him, “What should we do?”

He said to them, “Don’t take money from anyone by force or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”

15 Now the people were waiting expectantly, and all of them were questioning in their hearts whether John might be the Messiah.

16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I am is coming. I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with[d] the Holy Spirit and fire.

17 His winnowing shovel is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with fire that never goes out.”

18 Then, along with many other exhortations, he proclaimed good news to the people.

19 But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the evil things he had done, 20 Herod added this to everything else—he locked up John in prison.

11 He replied to them, “The one who has two shirts must share with someone who has none, and the one who has food must do the same.”

Here John the Baptist interprets in pratical terms the passages of Isaiah (Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight! ... ).

All the geographical passages of Isaiah is in fact undestood as making things 'smooth' or 'leveling' things among ourselves.

The 'untying the strap of his sandals' could be that John is not worthy of being a servant to him.

Or could be also the following (Deuteronomy 25: 5-10): in the Levirate Marriage System, if one of the brothers refuses to marry the widow of his elder brother (if he hadn't had children), she had the right to undo her sandals and throw at him as a public sign of contempt, and he would be shunned by everybody.

So here John is occupying the place of the woman who is not thought worthy of marriage, because the one who is coming in is the bridegroom.

17 His winnowing shovel is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with fire that never goes out.”

'winnowing shovel': Amos 9:9:10.

9 for I am about to give the command, and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations, as one shakes a sieve, but not a pebble will fall to the ground.

10 All the sinners among my people who say, “Disaster will never overtake[b] or confront us,” will die by the sword.

'threshing floor': 2 Samuel 24:10-25

David’s Military Census / David’s Punishment / David’s Altar

15 So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the appointed time, and from Dan to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men died.

16 Then the angel extended his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, but the Lord relented concerning the destruction and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough, withdraw your hand now!” The angel of the Lord was then at the threshing floor of Araunah[e] the Jebusite.

24 The king answered Araunah, “No, I insist on buying it from you for a price, for I will not offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for twenty ounces[h] of silver.

25 He built an altar to the Lord there and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord was receptive to prayer for the land, and the plague on Israel ended.

David's 'threshing floor' was Jerusalem.

So John is saying that there will be a purge in Jerusalem and the rest of the country.

18 Then, along with many other exhortations, he proclaimed good news to the people.

'exhortations' is actually the same word used for 'encouragement' or 'consolation'.

So it is an announcement of consolation, but it doesn't yet sounds like good news.

John still has a vindictive vision of God, whose wrath he announces.

However, part of the good news has arrived, which led John himself later to be concerned that what was coming in is not the vindictive God, that there is no wrath in God, there is no cataclysm.