Threshing and Winnowing

Matthew 3:7-12 Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

— and he will immerse you in the Ruach HaKodesh and in fire. ² He has with him his winnowing fork; and he will clear out his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn but burning up the straw with unquenchable fire!”

Threshing and Winnowing

Threshing means to beat the grain to loosen the husk which covers the wheat grain, and separate the stalks from the heads of the wheat. The husks are the chaff which blows away in the wind. The stalks are the straw.

Winnowing comes after threshing. To “winnow” is to blow a current of air through something; in this case, grain. A winnowing fork is used to throw the grain up in the air so that the wind can blow the light chaff away and let the grain fall back down to the ground.

So, the metaphor here is ‘human beings as grain’. I can’t help but remember at this point that one of the enduring symbols of immortality, resurrection, and the body of Christ is a sheaf of wheat.

I’m going to stay away from the familiar interpretation of the grain on the threshing floor as a collective metaphor for the human race— which would make the meaning out to be this:  that some humans are wheat grains to be kept, and some humans are chaff, and some other humans are straw which will get burnt up. I don’t think that’s it at all!

No, I’m going with the notion that the metaphor represents quintessential human nature. Each of us is like a sheaf of wheat; each of us is made up of stalk and grain and chaff. To be of benefit to God, and to each other, we must be harvested, dried, threshed, and winnowed.

Precursor John is describing the baptism with which Christ baptizes us— the Wind and the Fire of God. He uses the metaphor of the wheat on the threshing floor as a continuation of the poetic image of the Ruach HaKodesh— the Wind of the Holy One, and the Fire of God. 

He’s describing how it is between Human Beings and God.

To be jarred loose from our dried-up stalks;

To be thrown high into the air and blown away on the Wind;

To fall back down to the ground at the Winnowers feet;

To be gathered up into the barn and saved as Food for one another;

To be gathered up as fuel and burned in the Fire that never dies.