Today's Gospel in Art - Let them both grow till the harvest

Wheatfield with a Reaper, by Vincent van Gogh © Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

Source: Christian Art

Gospel of 24th July 2021 - Matthew 13:24-30

Jesus put another parable before the crowds: 'The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everybody was asleep his enemy came, sowed darnel all among the wheat, and made off. When the new wheat sprouted and ripened, the darnel appeared as well. The owner's servants went to him and said, "Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in your field? If so, where does the darnel come from?" "Some enemy has done this" he answered. And the servants said, "Do you want us to go and weed it out?" But he said, "No, because when you weed out the darnel you might pull up the wheat with it. Let them both grow till the harvest; and at harvest time I shall say to the reapers: First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to be burnt, then gather the wheat into my barn."'

Reflection on the Painting

Van Gogh painted this canvas whilst he was in hospital. This was the view he had from his room. In the wake of several mental crises, Vincent committed himself to hospital at the end of April 1889 and stayed there for several months. We see a sun-drenched wheat-field, with a reaper working his way through the field. After he painted this painting, he wrote this: "A reaper, the study is all yellow, terribly thickly impasted, but the subject was beautiful and simple. I then saw in this reaper - a vague figure struggling like a devil in the full heat of the day to reach the end of his toil - I then saw the image of death in it, in this sense that humanity would be the wheat being reaped. (...) But in this death nothing is sad; it takes place in broad daylight with a sun that floods everything with a light of fine gold."

Vincent wrote about his own paintings when he was in the mental hospital as he had no-one to discuss his art with. Painting was a lonely experience. He painted various versions of these beautiful wheat fields surrounding the asylum. Nearly all the paintings feature a large glowing orb of the sun, which he had come to think of as filled with religious symbolism and a sign of hope.

The reaper in our painting is not just harvesting but also separates the wheat from the weeds, and will subsequently burn the weeds. Patience is needed when farming. And therein lies the essence of today's reading: the patience of the Lord. He does not want us to gather the weeds prematurely, for fear of also rooting up the good seed and young growth.

LINKS

Today's story - https://christian.art/en/daily-gospel-reading/877
Christian Art - www.christian.art