Art to Heart Communion

Vincent van Gogh: Enclosed Field with Reaper and The Sower

©2002 by Jeff Dugan

This painting’s title is “Enclosed Field with Reaper.”   Does the word “reaper” in the title cause a little glitch of discomfort in the back of your mind?  It’s only natural that it might…after all, most people associate the word with the “grim reaper.”  But we can comfort ourselves with the notion that in the 1800s the term was simply a common agricultural term, and van Gogh obviously intended to simply portray a farmer at harvest time.

Or can we?  In a letter to his brother, van Gogh said of this painting, “I see in this reaper … the image of death, in the sense that humanity might be the wheat he is reaping.”  So is van Gogh the originator of what we now know as slasher movies?

Not at all.  One of the most obvious features of this painting is the abundance of brilliant yellows.  Van Gogh was one of the founders of the notion that emotion could be expressed with color.  And yellow was his happiest, most joyful color.  And it’s no accident that this portrait of the reaper is so full of it.  The harvest portrayed here is the harvest of God at the end of time.  And the field is the kingdom of God, full of souls who feed on the nourishment of the Holy Spirit, seen here as the glowing lemon-yellow sky.  These souls respond to this nourishment by growing joyfully and abundantly, and fruitfully.  And when harvest comes, it is all the more joyful, because that is when the blue and gray of the earthly environment surrounding the field is all converted to God’s kingdom, and the painting becomes a solid wash of yellow joy.

Seeing van Gogh’s painting this way, then, it is natural to see a much more important meaning in another painting of his, called “The Sower.”  This image expresses the great joy with which heaven heralds the appearance of the sower in the fields of the kingdom, and hints at the exuberance with which the fields will rejoice with the seed that He sows.

Can you rejoice with van Gogh in the knowledge that the Sower is at work in His fields?  Can you look forward with joyous anticipation to the great banquet we will all celebrate after the harvest?  Let us give thanks to God, because He has ordained that, at this table, we can partake today of a small part of that eternal celebration.

(At this point, the worship leader may lead the congregation in a Communion ceremony appropriate to the specific congregation and service.)