The Story of Two Brothers



Graves of Vincent and Theo van Gogh at the cemetery of Auvers-sur-Oise

Matthew 21:28-32

“But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?”
They said to Him, “The first.”
Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward repent and believe him."

If you are a repeat reader of this blog then you have probably gathered that I write in the traditional five paragraph essay format (which is the same as a three point sermon structure). Even when I have more than five paragraphs, I still have five "sections." I start with an introductory paragraph, followed by three body paragraphs that illustrate different "points" and then I finish with a concluding paragraph. This week's post will be different. I will still use the five paragraph format but I will begin with the conclusion. By "conclusion" I not only mean the denouement of my argument about the biblical text, but also the conclusion that we all must come to in our lives: The grave. Actually there are two graves that I will discuss... and two lives. It should be noted that tombstones and grave markers are a type of art.  Rightfully so, since they are illustrations for a story. Tombstones picture the lives of those that lay six feet below them. They give us a glimpse into the deceased's biography, the legend that the community constructed around them or maybe even the fantasy that the departed would like you to believe. With only a shape, a name, a date and a sentence, the corpse communicates with you from beyond the grave. It strives to share its story. Maybe it's a cross shaped grave marker that reads "Shirley Grant, 1967-1996, Here lies a soldier, wife and mother of two." Or maybe it's like the graves pictured above, with only a "ici repose" (meaning "here lies"), followed by the deceased's name and lifespan. Since there is no is no story listed on these two graves, I will share it. They were the two brothers of the House of Van Gogh. One was named Vincent and the other was named Theo. One of these brothers is world famous. The other brother is only known because of his relationship to his famous brother. One of these brothers is known to history as a madman. The other one was a mild mannered businessman. One of these brothers was known to have a tumultuous relationship with a prostitute as his live-in girlfriend. The other brother was a married family man. These two brothers lived divergent lives yet both ended up in this same burial plot within six months of each other. There were also two brothers in the house of Jesus' parable. They also had stark differences between them. One brother was repentant. The other brother was self-righteous. Yet the underlying and unstated truth of Jesus' parable is that just like the Van Gogh brothers in the end they share a commonality. If you consider Jesus' parable in the overall context of Matthew 21 then you will find that the house of the two brothers in Jesus' parable is really about the House of Israel. It is a stinging indictment of the current state of God's House in first century Palestine. There were two brothers in the House of Israel. One brother was a symbol for the tax collectors and harlots. The second brother was a representation of the chief priests and the elders of the people. The commonality that these two brothers shared was that they were both sinners. Jesus shares how two people with the same problem (disobeying the Father) create divergent paths by dealing with it in starkly different ways.



Self-Portrait, Vincent van Gogh

 The First Brother

"Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise."

I have written about Vincent Van Gogh before on this blog. Vincent was many things in his life. He was a preacher and a missionary long before he was a painter. He was a bit too extreme in his ministry methods and was ushered out of that vocation. At this point he entered into the profession of painting as a second career and a spiritual vocation. However, I am not sure if we can fully call his painting a profession. He never was financially successful at it. All of these parts of his life were punctuated with erratic episodes brought on by his mental instability.  Van Gogh is as famous for his mental struggles as he is for his painting. Vincent Van Gogh's "constant" in life was inconsistency. Or was this his strength? Vincent van Gogh was given to change. The reason that we value his paintings was that he helped birth the post-impressionist era of expressionistic painting. He changed painting. Vincent was able to learn from historic European art, contemporary European art and fuse its painterly expression with the vibrant flat tonality of the East Asian prints that had come into fashion in his time. Vincent van Gogh was given to change and development and in doing so he changed Western Art. There is a value to those who are given to change. The Old Testament is full of stories of God choosing the inconsistent, wild and undeserving ones. God chose Jacob the liar over his brother Esau. He chose Joseph the dreamer over his other brothers. God also chose David the humble shepherd over his warrior brothers. In the New Testament Jesus continues this tradition by choosing the tax collectors, harlots and various other ragtag scalawags to be his followers. Why does God do this? Not because they were sinless. On the contrary, Jesus literally chose professional sinners. God chose this assortment of characters because their inconsistency showed that they were given to change. They changed from following their sin to following the Savior. If you are willing to allow God to change you, your past of sin does not matter.


Portrait of Theo van Gogh

The Second Brother

"Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go." 

While Vincent Van Gogh was painting and starving in Arles, his brother Theo was running a successful business as an art dealer in Paris. Before this post he had previously worked in Brussels and London. All of this was accomplished before the age of thirty three. Theo excelled at business and family, while exercising prudent decision making at a young age. These are usually three factors that we praise an individual for. They are the criteria used to judge one as consistent. Yet, we don't celebrate Theo Van Gogh, do we? We celebrate the passion and ingenuity of his brother even though that greatness came with many a demon to wrestle with. It is very peculiar that the more stable brother is not the one that society champions. It is almost as if we punish him post-mortem because he was not given to change. Interestingly enough that is the same way that Jesus treats the second brother in the parable. The second brother showed no change... or as John the Baptist called it "repentance." The concept of repentance is simple as that: change. It is turning 180 degrees from sin and returning to God. The most important part of that last sentence was the "returning to God" part. God knows that we wrestle with sin...we are born into it. When one attempts to deal with sin outside of acknowledging their need for God they miss the big picture. Sin exists because we are absent from God's presence. The solution is to return to Him by following His Messiah that guides us back to Him. This missing element is the faith that the tax collectors and harlots possessed but the chief priests and the elders of the people lacked. The religious leadership of this time focused keenly on turning away from what they perceived as sin and uncleanness but failed to return to the God of mercy. Their turn was not 180 degrees but rather 360 degrees...which placed them right back at facing sin. Their greatest sin was a lack of mercy. Therefore they could not understand Jesus' ministry and message of mercy. Like the second brother, the chief priests and the elders of the people gave lip service to the Father (God) but did not do what he required. Entering the kingdom of heaven requires repentance. If you are not willing to allow God to change you, your past record of sacrifice and following the rules does not matter.


   Letter from Vincent van Gogh to his brother Theo, Etten, mid-September 1881

The Father's Will

"Which of the two did the will of his father?”

Heretofore I have left out a critical detail of the story of Vincent and Theo Van Gogh: their relationship was a good one. Theo Van Gogh was a loving brother to Vincent. He actually financially supported Vincent during his lean years. We have several letters of correspondence between the two, where Theo emotionally supports Vincent and encourages him in his painting. There are also other letters where Vincent takes opportunity to uplift Theo at points of loss and share his creative process. Some even say that Theo died so soon after the death of his older brother Vincent due to his grieving (that and the syphilis). These brothers were far from adversaries, rather they stood beside each other in life just as they lay next to each other in death. We know of their relationship because of their supportive communication to one another. We know of Theo's existence because of his love. There is no comparable support seen between the two brothers in Jesus' parable because the chief priests and the elders of the people gave no comparable support to the tax collectors and harlots. I am not sure if Theo served as Vincent's caretaker due to his father's request but I am certain that God the Father called the chief priests and the elders to be the spiritual caretakers of His people. Christ said that people will know his followers (God's children) by their love. The type of love that we see in the life of Theo van Gogh. The chief priests and the elders were supposed to care for the tax collectors and harlots and call them out of sin through acts of love. They were God's children too and therefore the chief priests and the elders' brothers and sisters. What was the will of the father in the parable? The will that He calls both brothers to? It was to work in his vineyard. It was to care for his creation. It was to tend to his flock. It was to love his people. The religious leadership of Jesus' day was called to be the caretakers of all of God's people, but Jesus' shows that their leadership is lacking. The chief priests and the elders would not repent for their lack of love as John the Baptist had demanded. Therefore they only gave lip service to the Father's commands. You cannot fulfill God's commands or abstain from sin if you do not practice love. The fullness of God's commandments is that we love one another.


Red Vineyards near Arles, Vincent van Gogh

Working the Vineyard Together

"For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward repent and believe him"

It is said that Red Vineyards near Arles was the only painting that Vincent van Gogh sold during his lifetime. The only financial success that this great painter met was while painting workers doing the same activity that the Father in Jesus' parable calls his sons to do. The Father has a vision of the beauty of cooperative labor for his sons. It is a beauty that the master Dutch painter captures and crystalizes two millennia later. The Father in this story (who happens to be our heavenly Father) has two sons that are both sinners. The difference between them is that one of them is honest and repentant and the other is self-righteous and repugnant. Only one of the brothers cooperated with the Father. The brothers' kinship in being sinners also reveals a common salvation to be had in Jesus and a common belief that they are called to possess in the preaching of John the Baptist. John the Baptist and Jesus Christ both shared a central theme to their message: the kingdom of God. John foretold of the coming kingdom of God and it's Messiah. Jesus is the Messiah and established the kingdom of God on earth. This coordination between their messages is not a coincidence but a precept of the kingdom of God. It is the call to cooperation. It is the call that the chief priests and the elders failed to exercise in their relationship with the tax collectors and harlots. They could not fulfill the call because there was no relationship between them. Herein lies the scandal that Jesus was to the religious leaders of his time: he ate and shared friendship with publicans and sinners. Jesus partnered with these sinners to change them. In the end that is what repentance is. We turn from sin and turn to God and form a partnership with Him. We cooperate with God for the changing of our lives and the changing of other lives. God calls us to create beauty with Him. It is a picture of Vincent Van Gogh and Theo Van Gogh. One brother was an artist. The other brother was an art dealer. They worked together to support each other. A partnership to create and distribute the art that changed the Western Art history forever. These two brothers created beauty. This beauty occurred because of the cooperation between change and love. That is the cooperation that God calls us to make with others. That is the partnership that God is making with Mankind. That is the story that God is telling. It is not a story chiseled on a tombstone but the story that creates everlasting life.