[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.24.1″ _module_preset=”default” da_disable_devices=”off|off|off” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” da_is_popup=”off” da_exit_intent=”off” da_has_close=”on” da_alt_close=”off” da_dark_close=”off” da_not_modal=”on” da_is_singular=”off” da_with_loader=”off” da_has_shadow=”on”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.24.1″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.24.1″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.24.1″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size_tablet=”18px” text_font_size_phone=”16px” text_font_size_last_edited=”on|phone” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n
The wonderful news we celebrate here at the Lord\u2019s table, is that Jesus is our Saviour. Yet that news is so often misunderstood or ignored.<\/p>\n
Most of you will know the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh, from the late 19th<\/sup> century; his most famous work is sunflowers.\u00a0\u00a0Vincent was a favourite of the art establishment and of trendy people I\u2019ve known, because they thought he had rejected Christianity.\u00a0\u00a0That myth was deliberately maintained.\u00a0\u00a0Thirty years ago, his many paintings of bible stories in the Van Gogh museum were all hidden in the basement, away from public view.<\/p>\n \u00a0That has now changed.\u00a0\u00a0In a new film I recently saw about him, a curator from that museum acknowledged that Vincent\u2019s paintings were all about his strong Christian faith.<\/p>\n Vincent wanted to be a minister like his father.\u00a0\u00a0He studied theology, and served as a missionary to coal miners.\u00a0\u00a0Many miners and their families were sick and starving, without adequate food, water or clothing; and a mining explosion had left many injured.\u00a0\u00a0Vincent responded with God\u2019s sacrificial love.\u00a0\u00a0He gave away everything he owned, including most of his clothing; he ripped up his bed sheets for bandages, and slept on straw on the ground.\u00a0\u00a0This gained the respect of the miners, and some were converted.<\/p>\n \u00a0But the supervising church committee sacked him, for excessive zeal, and because he did not dress or preach in the approved style.\u00a0\u00a0So, he and the reformed church parted ways, but he continued to study the Bible, and he turned to painting as a way of telling people about God.<\/p>\n His approach to art was similar to established religion.\u00a0\u00a0Art teaching at that time had produced a dull and uninspiring, formula style of painting, with a restricted range of subjects.\u00a0\u00a0Impressionist painters like Monet had produced more lively paintings.\u00a0\u00a0Vincent took the Impressionist style to an entirely new level, as he filled it with meaning and bold colour.<\/p>\n \u00a0Although he did many paintings of bible stories, he mostly painted bible themes set in the everyday life of our own time.\u00a0\u00a0He tried to show the presence of God amongst ordinary people whose life is a hard struggle, and who in simple piety look to the eternity beyond this earthly life.\u00a0\u00a0His favourite theme was of Christ as the suffering servant from Isaiah, to show God\u2019s presence amongst the poor and humble.\u00a0\u00a0He presented Jesus as our Redeemer, who can comfort and strengthen people whose life is hard \u2013 because he is the man of sorrows who knows our pain.<\/p>\n \u00a0Vincent used light from the sun, the stars or a lamp, as a symbol of God\u2019s love and grace in the gospel.\u00a0\u00a0The warm glow of that light fills the dismal settings of peoples\u2019 lives with vibrant colour, unity and hope.<\/p>\n \u00a0His most famous paintings are of sunflowers, but they are not for decoration, they represent you and me.\u00a0\u00a0Vincent found broken sunflowers abandoned in a street gutter. He took them home and his painting shows how they were transformed through love into something beautiful, just as Christ has done for us.<\/p>\n \u00a0As we gather at our Lord\u2019s Table, let us take Vincent\u2019s message to heart.<\/p>\n That Jesus is our redeemer: on the cross he suffered death for our sin, to save us from death, and he was raised from the grave in victory over sin and death.<\/p>\n That changes everything in our lives.\u00a0\u00a0For we, who were lost to sin, like those cast-off sunflowers, have been saved by Jesus, and are being transformed into his beautiful new creation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n No matter what our struggle in life, or how dark and dismal things may seem, Jesus has already suffered our pain.\u00a0\u00a0He has walked our path to prepare the way before us, to a new and real life in communion with God, a life that will never end.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_button button_text=”In Sept 2025, this video about Van Gogh’s faith was put on YouTube – %22Van Gogh\u2019s Hidden Faith \u2013 The Bible Behind His Paintings%22″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content” button_url=”https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ILQ6oZN1PvA” url_new_window=”on” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_button][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The wonderful news we celebrate here at the Lord\u2019s table, is that Jesus is our Saviour. Yet that news is so often misunderstood or ignored. Most of you will know the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh, from the late 19th century; his most famous work is sunflowers.\u00a0\u00a0Vincent was a favourite of the art establishment and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26723"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28925,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26723\/revisions\/28925"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}