Everything about harvesting, threshing, and winnowing wheat has challenged my perspective when it comes to cleanliness and food preparation.
You can’t wash wheat.
I knew this logically. But practically it has been challenging to let go of my firmly held perspective of: “Anything related to food and food preparation must be clean!”
To start out, the wheat berries are encased in heads of grain, at the top of tall stalks. The stalks must be chopped off out in the field. This isn’t exactly a dirt-free “clean” place or process. Furthermore, our wheat had recently been rained on, so that added a degree of dirt to the process as well.
Then the heads of grain must be separated from the stalks. Since we only had a small amount of wheat, hubby just used scissors to cut the heads off, as you can see here.
The whole process was a messy one. Wheat stalks and chaff debris were all over the workshop floor. Furthermore, the Home Depot bucket we were using was our “car washing” bucket. I guess that makes it somewhat “clean” … but still.
Here you can see the heads of wheat in the bucket, now needing somehow to be smashed or “agitated” in order to remove the wheat berries inside. We attempted smashing and rolling the heads on the work surface where hubby does his wood-working projects. Ummm … not exactly a “clean” surface.
In the end, hubby attached something to the end of his drill and “went at it!” in the bucket with his drill.
All along the way, wheat berries would pop out and roll across the workshop floor. The workshop floor is definitely not clean! But we just picked up the wheat berries, popped them back in the bucket, and kept right on going. After all, a little dirt never hurt anyone. Right??
Then of course a few wheat berries inevitably danced out onto the workshop floor as we were dropping, pouring, & tossing the wheat in front of the box fan to separate the chaff. Once again, we just picked them up off the floor, tossed them back in, and kept right on going. (while deep inside I couldn’t help thinking: “Ewwww! That floor is not clean!”)
What else could we do?? We couldn’t exactly wash the wheat to get the dirt off. And we couldn’t exactly throw out any wheat berries which landed on a dirty surface.
It gave me an entirely new perspective on food preparation during Biblical times. In ancient times, this was how people harvested their food. There was no way for the entire process to be completely, perfectly “clean.”
This morning, I sat down at the dining room table to sort through the wheat and pick out any leftover remaining chaff pieces, tiny straw remnants, and bits of dirt.
As I sorted through the wheat berries, I turned on an online sermon … and would you believe the passage “just so happened” to be Matthew 15:1-20 …
“Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, ‘Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!'”
Speaking of ‘unclean’ hands! And dirt getting on wheat berries! And ‘unclean’ work surfaces! And ‘unclean’ buckets for holding the wheat! And an ‘unclean’ workshop floor!
I found the parallel between the passage, and my concerns over “cleanliness” to be ironic!
Jesus silenced his critics by making the point that “cleanliness” on the outside is not what really matters. What matters most is “cleanliness” on the inside. A “clean” mind. A “clean” heart.
Jesus stated: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.” – Matthew 15:8-9
Many people (especially religious people) appear “perfect” on the outside, but their minds and their hearts are definitely not clean!
Jesus further continued: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man ‘unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ‘unclean.'”
So here’s my latest lesson learned from wheat on a sheet pan … It’s totally ok if the wheat on the sheet pan isn’t “perfectly clean.” What matters most is my heart. Is my heart clean? Is my mind clean?
Am I harboring bitterness deep down in my heart?
Am I harboring jealousy deep down in my heart?
Am I allowing things into my mind which are polluting my thoughts?
A little bit of dirt on wheat, on a sheet pan, is nothing compared to dirtiness in the heart and in the mind.
