Vincent's Hope

We started a new year with a new study - God's Word on Canvas. This study uses classic artwork about the Bible to inspire discussion and examination of the Bible. Our work this week is Vincent Van Gogh's Still Life With Bible, 1885 and the question is, is there any reason for hope?

The still life depicts a Bible open to Isaiah 53 with a well-used, unlit candle behind it. In front of the Bible, lying closed on the table, is a copy of Emile Zola's La Joie de Vivre. The light in the picture is quite interesting, being brightest on Zola's book, but the source of the light is undetermined. After considering the picture and some of Van Gogh's later works we discussed what the artist was trying to say, and what the picture says to us.

It helps me to know that this was an early painting, completed shortly after the death of Van Gogh's father. Vincent had tried several jobs, including clergy like his father, but his father considered him a failure. Van Gogh was very fond of the literature of his day and considered Zola's work to be a Bible for modern life. La Joie de Vivre - literally The Joy of Life - is a story about the Christ-like figure Pauline Quenu, an orphan who is mistreated and robbed of her inheritance by the family who takes her in. Throughout all her travails and loss she remains optimistic and a servant to the poor.

So the question asks us to consider, after reading Isaiah 53, if there is reason for hope in a servant-king. Why does Pauline continue to hope? Why do other Christ-like figures hope - Jean Valjean in Les Miserables, Vianne in Chocolat, Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia, John Coffey in The Green Mile, Gandlaf, Optimus Prime, Spock, Cool Hand Luke? Why do we continue to hope?

I think we settled on the idea that hope is an innate longing in all humans. We all believe that life, things, can be different (and by different we mean better) than they are right now. But we decided that there is a difference for Christians. As people we often pin our hopes on our own abilities, the abilities of others, our personal strength, wealth. But as Christians we can also put our hope in the servant-king foretold in Isaiah 53.

Our group agreed that there is always reason for hope, it just isn't always easy to feel that hope. Even though we believe that God will make up the difference for us between what we feel and what we need in order to get through difficult times and trials, it is sometimes really hard to feel that, deep in our souls, in the very pit of our stomachs. Do Christians have a corner on the hope market? I don't think so. And I don't think Vincent felt that either. The message of the still life for me is that the Bible is always there, unchanging, but the way it speaks to us needs to change, to be relevant to the times. For Vincent Van Gogh the hope of Isaiah 53 didn't have much meaning because it was colored and overshadowed by the poor relationship he had with his minister father. The candle is out, the words on the page are illegible, but the Bible is still there and open. La Joie de Vivre, although closed, basks in and also seems to reflect the light. Vincent was able to find hope in Zola's work, in the idea of a life of servant-hood, caring for others. As Christians, our hope in God is without limitation, if we can only feel and trust it.