Threshing & Winnowing
Jean-François Millet - Le vanneur (“The Winnower”), 1846-47
Matthew 3:11-12: Wheat & Chaff
Growing up, the imagery of this passage never captured me.
Although a couple of my best teenage summers included baling hay on a friend’s farm, we didn’t use winnowing forks, and we certainly weren’t clearing a threshing floor.
Just a tractor, a baling machine, and an open trailer where we’d stack the bales as they came off the machine.
Once the trailer was full, we’d return to the barn. One of us threw the bales on the hay elevator while the other two stacked them in the loft.
There was nothing quite like the view of those Missouri wheat fields in the early-evening.
—
In the ancient world, the process of wheat farming was profoundly different.
Clearing a threshing floor involved pulverizing the harvested grain to break the hulls from the seeds.
The idea of Jesus threshing our hearts - to separate us from the chaff of the world - is arguably one of the most important, but under-considered metaphors in Scripture.
Being made separate - becoming holy, other, set apart - is extremely painful and humiliating.
As Christians, we too easily give superficial talk to “becoming saints” or “growing in holiness.”
We cower amidst the opportunities to do so when He sends them our way. Jesus was scourged, crowned with thorns, and crucified.
His suffering must be made uniquely present in our own lives if we are to enter into His glory.
This is why, once in prayer, St. Teresa of Avila told the Lord: “If this is how you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few!”
But He does this so we will draw closer to His sacred heart.
Why?
Because shared suffering is the greatest tie that binds one heart to another.
—
In the ancient world, the threshed grain was tossed into the air with a winnowing fork or fan. The lighter chaff was then blown away by the wind, leaving the heavier, valuable grain behind.
If we shy away from His threshing, we will be blown away by the wind of the world.
May we share abundantly in His sufferings, so through Him we may also share in His consolation (2 Cor 1:5).
Onward and upward,
Ted
A Book Worth Reading
What if the very comfort we’ve worked so hard to create is quietly destroying our health and happiness? In The Comfort Crisis, Michael Easter investigates how our temperature-controlled, overfed, and under-challenged lives may be fueling today’s most urgent physical and mental struggles. Easter uncovers a blueprint for reclaiming strength, meaning, and joy in a world that makes it too easy to stay soft. Ultimately, The Comfort Crisis challenges us to break free from ease and rediscover what it really means to be human.
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