Images of the Meek

The Gleaners, Jean-François Millet

Matthew 11:25-30

Backs bent in labor, heads bowed in social humility, brows filled with sweat of a hard life and arms outstretched to the mercy of others. These are the meek foreground figures "The Gleaners" by Jean-François Millet. These fieldworkers stand in a field of plenty, within sight of the bountiful harvest in the background of the painting, yet are relegated to literally "grasping at straws" by the cold hand of misfortune. Gleaning was the "act of collecting leftover crops from farmers' fields after they have been commercially harvested or on fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest." This social welfare practice was a carry over from the ancient Biblical days and was still practiced in nineteenth century France. Just like Ruth in the Old Testament, gleaners in the time of Millet occupied the porous border between laborers and beggars. Jean-François Millet was a member of the Realist school of painting and depictions of the meek and lowly abounded in their reaction to the idealistic and unrealistic paintings of their contemporaries. "The Realist movement began in the mid-19th century as a reaction to Romanticism and History painting. In favor of depictions of 'real' life, the Realist painters used common laborers, and ordinary people in ordinary surroundings engaged in real activities as subjects for their works... Realists used unprettified detail depicting the existence of ordinary contemporary life, coinciding in the contemporaneous naturalist literature of Émile Zola, Honoré de Balzac, and Gustave Flaubert." The realist were not just interested in the photograph-like imitation of life through illusionistic painting, they were also committed to correcting the narrative of the present world that painters were celebrating. The poor widow who was reduced to gleaning was now just as worthy to depict in paint as a queen born into aristocratic wealth or Bourgeoisie merchant who had worked to achieve their rank. Just as the Realists attempted to depict the beauty and ugliness in the everyday struggle of the lowly, Christ glorifies God in Matthew 11:25-30 for bringing beauty to the humble lives of the meek... bringing true rest to the weary laborer.    

The Stone Breakers (Les Casseurs de pierres), Gustave Courbet 

At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.

Gustave Courbet  was the most prominent of the Realist painters. He was not known to be a religious man and his paintings are void of traditional narrative religious imagery. In discussing this he once quoted "I have never seen either angels or goddesses, so I am not interested in painting them." His art was centered around the reality on the ground and those who scraped at the dust to make their living. However he did know beauty, saying “Beauty, like truth, is relative to the time when one lives and to the individual who can grasp it.” Courbet, like Jesus, saw the beauty of the meek. In " The Stone Breakers" Courbet depicts two generations of laborers toiling away at their labor. They are not panning for gold...no great fortune will come from their endeavor. They will just receive a pittance that is enough to feed them for the night and allow them to return to another day's labor of breaking rocks. This is the inheritance that the older worker leaves to the younger: that one day he will tire from his youthful strength of carrying the rocks and be brought low to kneeling and breaking them. Yet the beauty that Jesus saw was not just in these laborers but in all of the metaphorical laborers: the meek who struggle through life. To them he reveals a parallel truth in his relationship to his Father. Christ says that God has not revealed His truth to the great ("wise and prudent") but rather the lowly (babes). It is the lowly that Christ identifies with. Jesus shows us the image of the little ones/babes whom The Father chooses. In this image of children he combines the idea of the lowly and the offspring. A child is the most humble stage of human existence, yet it is the one most filled with promise. The promise, the inheritance, that God the Father has to give is only to His child. In referring to himself as the Son, Christ relates to the lowly estate of the meek. In doing so he becomes the conduit of the inheritance that God provides for them. This inheritance is the revelation of His Truth.

 

The Thankful Poor, Henry Ossawa Tanner

 

All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. 

Unlike many of the other artists categorized as Realist, Henry Ossawa Tanner was not a Frenchman. He was an American. Specifically, he was an African American... and being as one several of his paintings depict a positive and familiar depiction of Blacks. Besides his religious imagery, he is probably most famous for The Banjo Lesson, where a Black, grandfatherly figure passes down to his grandson his inheritance of music. Like the other Realist, Tanner is celebrating the beauty of regular people of meek means living their lives. In "The Thankful Poor" Tanner again depicts a scene in the lives of this pair. In this painting they bow their heads in prayer and give thanks for the humble meal that God has provided them. In this simple act of gratitude we are reminded of the prayer of praise that Jesus offered to his Father. A word of gratitude for the provisions that God had given the humble of this world. Like Tanner's painting, Jesus' prayer and subsequent speech also exposes the familial relationship between a Father and a Son. Like "The Banjo Lesson" Christ's speech depicts an inheritance that the Father has bestowed on the Son. The inheritance that God has for his offspring is the knowledge/revelation of the Father. That's why Jesus can confidently say "no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." The knowledge of God is hidden in an intimate, familial relationship with Him. God's inheritance, like Tanner's banjo playing grandfather, is a sweet song that he has only shared with his offspring. The song may start out the repetitive rifts of the Blues but it ends with the modulating crescendos of Gospel. The life of the meek may be filled with the sorrows of life but Jesus has promised to reveal to them the treasure of Heaven. Christ came as the lowly babe, The Son, the meek offspring, and has chosen to make the meek of this world to be the offspring of God. With these he has chosen to reveal God the Father. This is the inheritance of the righteous.

 

Hard Times, Hubert von Herkomer

 

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Like Henry Ossawa Tanner, Hubert von Herkomer was a foreigner who paited in the Realist tradition. It was not just that he wasn't a Frenchman, Herkomer had spent his whole life being "the other." Born into a poverty striken German family, his father would eventually spend periods of time finding work overseas. He once even found suitable labor in the United States and moved the family to Cleveland but they would later settle permanently in England. Herkomer had grown up knowing hunger and periods of being a pilgrim. He would later grow up to receive honor from the royalty of both Britain and Germany for his artwork...yet he would still know what it was to be "the other." The rising tension between Germany and Great Britain that would eventually culminate in World War I was the backdrop of Herkomer adult life. He was either not English enough and not German enough or too German and too English. He stood as a constant immigrant and emigrant. The pursuit of his livelihood made him conversant with two cultures that were increasingly at a stalemate. So when he painted "Hard Times" he did so with an understanding of the plight of the day laborers that he depicted. He had been raised by immigrant hired hands who stood alongside the road of life not knowing where the road might lead... only knowing the desperate hunger pains that lay within their bellies. Christ too knew of the pains of laborers who hungered. This was a hunger and thirst for righteousness that the Messiah proclaimed that he could fulfill. These laborers were those who had been burdened by the heavy requirements of the Law (as they understood it from the teaching of the Pharisees). They wore this brand of religion as a heavy yoke that kept them in bondage like beasts of burden. Now it was right for them to pursue the teachings of the Law but teachings that they received from the Pharisees was draining them of life while Jesus' teaching of the Law would give them life. Jesus' take on Scripture highlighted how God had intended to exalt the humble from their burdens. He desired to give them a rest from their work. He wanted to give them a Sabbath. Jesus not only promised the Sabbath as one day respite from respite from labor, he offered the Sabbath as a life. The Sabbath that he offered was himself. The yoke of religion that he offered in exchange from the burdensome Pharisaic one was one that was "easy." This word did not denote that the yoke was simple, but rather that it was smooth, ergonomic and fashioned by the Carpenter for the specific laborer. It was fashioned to make the  burdens of labor lighter. Christ's religion is one of love. A love that gives us a rest from our troubles of life and from the worries of the afterlife. A love that calls us in mission. This mission is our labor and it is especially crafted by Jesus the master carpenter for our individual lives. The mission is to tear down the walls that we construct making some "the other" and in its place erect the Kingdom of God where all humble pilgrims and lowly laborers are welcome.

The End of the Working Day (Fin du travail), Jules Breton

I conclude this blog entry with a Realist image about the conclusion from work. In Jules Breton's "End of the Working Day" we see tired field hands retire from their toils. You might have noticed that on this image (like a few others) I have included it's original name in French. This one is called "Fin du travail", which literally translates "End of Work." The English translator has given it a more jolly "working day" for the French "travail" that alludes to a Disney -like "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" gloss over. But isn't it interesting that we need no translation of "travail" in English. We know what it means perfectly without explanation. Google states that it's synonyms are ordeal, trial, tribulation, trial and tribulation, trouble, hardship, privation and stress. This was the true description of the humble French field hands of Nineteenth century France. It was also the accurate description of the meek multitudes whom Christ sought to free with the Liberty of faith in God. It may also be a description of you today. As believers in the God of Scripture we live in the same place as the Gleaners of Jean-François Millet; occupying the muddled territory of relying on God's Grace while making efforts to express our Faith through good deeds. We are the meek that pursue relief from the kind words of the Messiah. Jesus commands us today to arise from our labor and come into the rest that His Father has prepared for us. This Sabbath rest that has been bought with Christ's blood is our inheritance. God is ready to raise up those with a bowed down head. He is turning our travail into triumph and it all will glorify Him.

 

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