Gospel in Art - Listen! Imagine a sower going out to sow

The Sower in the Rain, by Vincent van Gogh, © Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

Source: Christian Art

Gospel of 26th Jan 2022 - Mark 4:1-20

Jesus began to teach by the lakeside, but such a huge crowd gathered round him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there. The people were all along the shore, at the water's edge. He taught them many things in parables, and in the course of his teaching he said to them, 'Listen! Imagine a sower going out to sow. Now it happened that, as he sowed, some of the seed fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some seed fell on rocky ground where it found little soil and sprang up straightaway, because there was no depth of earth; and when the sun came up it was scorched and, not having any roots, it withered away. Some seed fell into thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it produced no crop. And some seeds fell into rich soil and, growing tall and strong, produced crop; and yielded thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold.' And he said, 'Listen, anyone who has ears to hear!'

When he was alone, the Twelve, together with the others who formed his company, asked what the parables meant. He told them, 'The secret of the kingdom of God is given to you, but to those who are outside everything comes in parables, so that they may see and see again, but not perceive; may hear and hear again, but not understand; otherwise they might be converted and be forgiven.'

He said to them, 'Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables? What the sower is sowing is the word. Those on the edge of the path where the word is sown are people who have no sooner heard it than Satan comes and carries away the word that was sown in them. Similarly, those who receive the seed on patches of rock are people who, when first they hear the word, welcome it at once with joy. But they have no root in them, they do not last; should some trial come, or some persecution on account of the word, they fall away at once. Then there are others who receive the seed in thorns. These have heard the word, but the worries of this world, the lure of riches and all the other passions come in to choke the word, and so it produces nothing. And there are those who have received the seed in rich soil: they hear the word and accept it and yield a harvest, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.'

Reflection on the Drawing on Paper

Today's drawing is by Vincent Van Gogh, executed in March-April 1890. It shows a sower in the rain. The stark diagonal lines convey the rain pouring onto the fields and onto the farmer, with his house in the distance. This drawing was done in the year Van Gogh died. In the 13 years before his death Vincent drew over 1,000 drawings. He often refers in his letters to the fact that he liked to draw as it helped him cope with his depression. In 1880, aged 27, he wrote the following to his brother, Theo:
"Well, and yet it was in these depths of misery that I felt my energy revive and I said to myself, I shall get over it somehow, I shall set to work again with my pencil, which I had cast aside in my deep dejection, and I shall draw again, and from that moment I have had the feeling that everything has changed for me, and now I am in my stride and my pencil has become slightly more willing and seems to be getting more so by the day. My over-long and over-intense misery had discouraged me so much that I was unable to do anything."

I personally do like Vincent's drawings a lot, as they somehow make us relate better to Van Gogh the person, rather than the artist. His paintings, bursting with colour, can somewhat distract the eye and merely let us appreciate his work as a joyful, colourful, decorative canvas. His drawings are more 'real'. In our drawing we see the farmer stooped, bent over. There is a weight on his shoulders that goes beyond the mere hard work of sowing the seeds onto the field.

Our parable of the sower tells us about where the seed is falling, but it also focusses our mind on the sower himself. The sower represents God and the seed is His message. Just as the sown seed, the word of God takes root and grows within us as a person, if we decide to welcome the seed and nurture it. The sowing by God is a pure act of love. Whilst the parable focusses on the soil, it also tells us about the sower. Times haven't really changed from when Jesus told this parable. God's word is still being proclaimed, but we still can be indifferent to His message… yet God keeps sowing… through any storms, winds, and rain as so beautifully illustrated in our drawing.

LINKS

Today's story - https://christian.art/en/daily-gospel-reading/1065
Christian Art - www.christian.art