“His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." – Matthew 3: 12

These are the words John the Baptist says of Jesus. To the modern reader, they may fall flat on their face. But to the first century farmer, there could be no better analogy to describe how, and by what means, Jesus has come to save:

It all comes down to the act of threshing and winnowing. Wheat when gathered from the field goes through a process of separating the pure grain from the excess chaff. Much like wine goes through the process of the grapes being sorted and then pressed, wheat too must go through much sorting and gathering before it can be turned into bread for the world.

The first process is what is called, threshing. In Jesus’s time, farmers would clear a large circular area of land. Uprooting any grass or weeds, they would pat down the soil flat into a floor. Sheaves of wheat gathered from the field would then be layered onto this threshing floor. Both the chaff and grain would be in the sheaves. The first step would be to break them apart from each other. To do so, the farmer would either pummel the wheat with a stick; drive an ox through the floor letting its feet break up the wheat; or drive an ox or mule around the floor with a wood board behind them, allowing the board with its jagged edges to break up the wheat. The process was called, threshing.

Once threshed and broken up, both the chaff and grain still laid on the floor together. The next process, winnowing, would then separate the chaff and the grains of wheat from each other. To do so, a winnowing fork, similar to a pitchfork, was used. During the late evening wind, the farmer with the fork would dig into the pile of chaff and grain and proceed to throw the chaff up into the air. The chaff, being lighter than the pure grain, would catch the wind and blow away to the outer edges of the threshing floor. The grain, heavier than the chaff, would fall back down onto the center of the floor.

Once all the chaff had been winnowed and blown to the side, the grain would be gathered. Usually, it was the job of the women to sift out the finer detailed particles on the grains blowing off the bits a leftover chaff before sending the pure grain to the granary. From there, the grain would be ground into flour and the chaff would be gathered from the outer edges of the threshing floor and burned away.

As mentioned, women were the ones in charge of sorting out the finer details of the chaff still left on the grain. Man’s job was to sort out the larger details. He couldn’t winnow on his own. As an Adam he needed an Eve to sort out the pure grain. He needed someone alongside him to breathe life into the grain and remove away the finer excess.

What if the grain was a man’s heart? What can we learn about a woman’s role in it? We learn a woman can’t make a man out of him. If she tries to, the chaff will be too much to winnow away. However, she can make a husband and a father out of a good man. That is the finer details entrusted to her domain. She is the one who grants a man access to her interior garden. The one who gives birth to their children. She is the one who shows him the wonder and goodness and beauty of life. The one whose eyes to him show stars uncharted. Therefore, women should be wary of boys and trusting of good men. The kind of men who have gone through a threshing and come out more able. The men who know their hearts, and their God. The men who are not idolized in fables.

This is the image, threshing and winnowing, that John the Baptist presents to us about Jesus, God become man. What’s he trying to get at? Let me propose one perspective: The threshing floor is humanity, seen more specifically in the chosen people. Since the fall of man, they have been unplanted, pressed down, molded, and prepared time and again by the LORD. Suffering after suffering, fall after fall, redemption after redemption; from Abraham, Isaac, Moses, David, and the prophets onwards; the LORD has been working to uproot his people from the brokenness of the fallen world. All to prepare a place where the threshing for the world can begin. Over time, the pure grain has been mixed with chaff. In the heart of every man and woman is the beauty of God’s design, yes, but also the darkness of sin’s grime.

After the fall of a kingdom, after the exile, after the return to the promised land; the LORD enters his threshing floor as man. He then goes about the process of threshing. He makes himself a beast of burden, dragging his cross through the floor. As the King of the Jews, he threshes through the sufferings of Israel. For those like me or you, through our hearts he threshes, sacrificing and offering so as to divide. He wants our hearts, pure as they were intently created. The grind and harrowing work of threshing he goes through with us. All so as to bring about the goodness of our hearts and their detachment from the world. Here’s the question then: Have we prepared our hearts to be like threshing floors?

Threshing sounds like going through a lot of suffering, and indeed it is, but here’s the thing about threshing floors. If the wheat is threshed too much it harms the grain. Instead, the farmer must carefully know how much threshing is needed. Do we trust that Jesus will not ask more suffering of us than necessary? It will hurt to be threshed but that is the cost of our fall. Ultimately, do we trust he cares for our hearts in and through it all?

What about winnowing? How does Jesus want to winnow me? When my heart has been threshed and I’ve accepted the work of the cross of our Lord, there still is the mess on the floor. Both chaff and grain still reside. Will I allow Jesus to winnow my heart, setting me apart, making me holy, bringing about new life? Will I let him winnow and throw the chaff and my worldly desires up into the air, up to the heavens and light? Will I let the Holy Spirit blow away the chaff from my grain, taking away the excess to be burned for my gain?

Am I willing to fall down into the sight of the Divine Bridegroom? Am I willing to let his Word by his Church breathe over me and remain in me, letting him make me pure? Am I willing to let myself be gathered up by the Divine Bridegroom, into the arms of the Lord of the Harvest? Will I let him take me to his granary and home to abide with him now set apart? Am I willing to be stored, ground, and made into food for the world, becoming more like him, the Eucharist, who is food for the Church?

“Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, then comes the harvest'? I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest. He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.’” – John 4: 34-38

Jesus went through a threshing by his cross. He was winnowed for us in his death and resurrection. Under the semblance of wheat, he gives us himself to eat so we may be made more like him, becoming “food” for him for the world.